John Nesbitt

This MGM Passing Parade series short presents how separate events led to the creation of three provisions - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and prohibition of the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments - in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short, narrator John Nesbitt tells the story of Scandinavian immigrant Annie Swenson, who worked as cook and housekeeper in his family's home while he was growing up.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, we learn the story of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, the man who discovered hypnotism.

Open details →

This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short tells the story of how a Mauser pistol used on the battlefield by Germans during WWII makes its way into the hands of an American gangster.

Open details →

Narrator John Nesbitt reminisces about his hometown and childhood in this Passing Parade series short.

Open details →

Narrator John Nesbitt laments the disappearance of the rural one-room schoolhouse in America. He reminisces about his own days as a student in such a school and how his teacher, Miss Turlock, influenced so many students. Many of them reunite at the school on Miss Turlock's last day, when the school was closed in 1940.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the gentlemanly life and masterful counterfeiting exploits of Everett Nordill, one of the cleverest counterfeiters who ever baffled the agents of the U.S. Treasury department.

Open details →

A "Passing Parade" MGM short featuring tennis star Alice Marble

Open details →

A policeman's son searches for a suitable subject for an essay about an important person.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man traces his history by the succession of cars his father owned. [This short appears in its entirety during MGM's short feature "The Great Morgan".]

Open details →

This MGM Passing Parade series short recounts how English chemist John Walker invented the wooden friction match during the 1820s.

Open details →

A film recreating a broadcast of the Westinghouse Radio Program starring John Charles Thomas and John Nesbitt. Program narrator was Gayne Whitman and musical director was Victor Young. The Ken Darby Chorus backed up the great American baritone.

Open details →

Americans are preoccupied with the news, but need an escape from many of the events reported in the news. These escapes in the past have included dime store novels. The most accessible of these escapes is what are known as the funny papers, the set of serialized comic strips that are included within many newspapers. They appeal to all socio-economic classes, and all ages. Some of the earliest known from the late 19th century include the Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, Happy Hooligan, the Katzenjammer Kids, Mutt & Jeff, and Bringing Up Father. Many cartoonists are seen in action. Some originated their characters, while others have taken over following the passing of the originator. The joy of many comic strips are the absurd and the fantastical, which are limited only by the imagination of the cartoonist. Others are grounded in reality, which add to their poignancy within the public mindset.

Open details →

This entry in John Nesbitt's "Passing Parade" series is about the great moments in the lives of famous men who found found an answer or made a great discovery in the flash of a golden hunch.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of 18th Century French physician Dr. Philippe Pinel, who initiated enlightened, humane treatment of the mentally ill.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the typical American barbershop throughout the years.

Open details →

This short shows how two objects led to important discoveries. Children playing with a seesaw inspire French physician Rene Laennec to invent the stethoscope, and a pair of shoes made of caoutchouc lead Charles Goodyear to discover the process for vulcanizing rubber.

Open details →

Short documentary film about the Dumbarton Oaks plan and the proposed formation of the United Nations.

Open details →

This short film takes a look at the tools and methods used to forecast the weather.

Open details →

Frank Morgan is hired to put together a movie using odds and ends from the MGM vaults. He does so by splicing together a string of completely unrelated short subjects and musical numbers, interspersed with a repeated loop of a scene from some melodrama. (Contains in their entirety the shorts, "Musical Masterpieces," "Our Old Car," and "Badminton," as well as clips from other projects)

Open details →

The saga of the Normandie is recounted from her life as a luxury liner, the horrific fire that nearly destroyed her, and her resuscitation to join in the war effort. A John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man recovers his lost memories when he is forced to relive events in his dreams.

Open details →

This MGM Passing Parade series short takes a look at changing definitions of art in the United States.

Open details →

This Passing Parade short tells the true story of Vermont blacksmith and inventor Tom Davenport, who lived the first half of the 19th century.

Open details →

This patriotic short film promotes America's war effort at home. The story looks at a fictional small town's main street, seeing where additional workforce, for increased production of materials needed by the military, might come from.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the evolution of the American city, from the initially small farming village, to the eventually hectic, congested metropolis, to the future planned suburban community.

Open details →

A Yugoslav man, dying after being shot while attempting to help defend his village, writes a letter of encouragement and hope to his unborn child, explaining what he was fighting for in resisting the Nazi invasion of his homeland. A John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short.

Open details →

A look at how the weather bureau tries to warn farmers and businessmen about approaching large storms. Although some precautions can be taken to lessen their impact, storms have to run their course, and there is really not much we can do about them.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short highlights the film preservation efforts of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Several scenes from early newsreels are shown.

Open details →

Narrator John Nesbitt reminisces about his hometown and childhood in this Passing Parade series short.

Open details →

Narrator John Nesbitt laments the disappearance of the rural one-room schoolhouse in America. He reminisces about his own days as a student in such a school and how his teacher, Miss Turlock, influenced so many students. Many of them reunite at the school on Miss Turlock's last day, when the school was closed in 1940.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the gentlemanly life and masterful counterfeiting exploits of Everett Nordill, one of the cleverest counterfeiters who ever baffled the agents of the U.S. Treasury department.

Open details →

A policeman's son searches for a suitable subject for an essay about an important person.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man traces his history by the succession of cars his father owned. [This short appears in its entirety during MGM's short feature "The Great Morgan".]

Open details →

This MGM Passing Parade series short recounts how English chemist John Walker invented the wooden friction match during the 1820s.

Open details →

Americans are preoccupied with the news, but need an escape from many of the events reported in the news. These escapes in the past have included dime store novels. The most accessible of these escapes is what are known as the funny papers, the set of serialized comic strips that are included within many newspapers. They appeal to all socio-economic classes, and all ages. Some of the earliest known from the late 19th century include the Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, Happy Hooligan, the Katzenjammer Kids, Mutt & Jeff, and Bringing Up Father. Many cartoonists are seen in action. Some originated their characters, while others have taken over following the passing of the originator. The joy of many comic strips are the absurd and the fantastical, which are limited only by the imagination of the cartoonist. Others are grounded in reality, which add to their poignancy within the public mindset.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of 18th Century French physician Dr. Philippe Pinel, who initiated enlightened, humane treatment of the mentally ill.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the typical American barbershop throughout the years.

Open details →

This short film takes a look at the tools and methods used to forecast the weather.

Open details →

The saga of the Normandie is recounted from her life as a luxury liner, the horrific fire that nearly destroyed her, and her resuscitation to join in the war effort. A John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man recovers his lost memories when he is forced to relive events in his dreams.

Open details →

This MGM Passing Parade series short takes a look at changing definitions of art in the United States.

Open details →

This Passing Parade short tells the true story of Vermont blacksmith and inventor Tom Davenport, who lived the first half of the 19th century.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the evolution of the American city, from the initially small farming village, to the eventually hectic, congested metropolis, to the future planned suburban community.

Open details →

A Yugoslav man, dying after being shot while attempting to help defend his village, writes a letter of encouragement and hope to his unborn child, explaining what he was fighting for in resisting the Nazi invasion of his homeland. A John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short.

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short looks at how a few specific inventions made a major contribution to the U.S. war effort.

Open details →

This Passing Parade series short examines the origins of three popular Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Open details →

This Passing Parade entry looks at several historical "truths" that just aren't so: Steve Brodie never jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge; Mrs. O'Leary's cow did not start the great Chicago fire; Nero didn't fiddle while Rome burned; and Lady Godiva never rode naked through the streets of Coventry.

Open details →

Young couple Joe and Mary Thompson love each other and their children despite the struggles that they have that are typical of most young couples early on in their married life, such as the basics of trying to make ends meet. But after Joe leaves Mary and their inner city life, she finds an unpostmarked envelope under their apartment door with her name written in Joe's handwriting. It contains a letter explaining why he left. It has primarily to do with his feeling that another part of his life was being left behind for his married life, that other life which consists of a want to travel, especially sail the south seas. The actual impetus to leave was inadvertently fostered by Mary through the birthday present she bought for him. So what actually did happen to Joe and will he ever return to his loving wife?

Open details →

This short film examines the origins of several superstitions including crossing your fingers, knocking on wood, rabbit's feet, and breaking champagne bottles to christen ships, plus the role of superstitions in the Flying Dutchman tale.

Open details →

This Passing Parade series short chronicles the political life of Francisco Madero, who tried to bring democracy and land reform to Mexico.

Open details →

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a look is taken at the problems of film preservation efforts in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Open details →

This Passing Parade series entry looks at three instances of people who either caused or were the victims of errors.

Open details →

This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short dramatizes how the work of Dutch physician Christiaan Eijkman, who searched for a cure for beri-beri on the island of Java in the 1890s, led to the discovery of vitamins.

Open details →

In December 1892, a silent mysterious and very private man, for whom a new house has just been built, arrives in the small town of Bridgewood to keep a promise.

Open details →

This short looks at the illness anthropophobia, the fear of people. In 1901, young Catherine Starr, who lives in a small English coastal town, has an argument with her fiancé. He leaves her house, goes off to serve in the Boer War, and dies of malaria. Catherine blames herself for his death and fears others will also blame her. She does not leave her house for forty years. Groceries are delivered to the house, but no one sees who retrieves them. When the Nazis bomb her house in September 1941, she is forced to cope with the outside world.

Open details →

The 1939 dramatic short "Angel of Mercy," about Red Cross founder Clara Barton, is reedited to relate the story to America's involvement in World War II. Edited from Angel of Mercy (1939)

Open details →

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short explores the origins of various customs such as shaking hands, kissing, and why ships are christened.

Open details →

This Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Nazi occupation of the Benelux countries, and ends immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It chronicles how the people of "Main Street America", the country's military forces, and its industrial base were completely transformed when the decision was made to gear up for war. Original footage is interspersed with contemporary newsreels and stock footage.

Open details →