Born in Freedom: The Story of Colonel Drake

This short subject produced by the American Petroleum Industry shows just how the oil industry got started in the small northwest Pennsylvania town of Titusville. A number of name Hollywood players participated in this short subject chief among them Vincent Price who played Edwin L. Drake who drilled the first oil well there.

The possibilities of petroleum were known and suspected for years, it was a question of getting it out of the ground. Previous to this the stuff would occasionally ooze to the surface, usually in some land that someone was trying to farm and ruin things. We know about that, most recently in the Gulf Of Mexico.

America was going on wheels during the Eisenhower Fifties in fact Ike's main domestic program was the creation of the US Highway system, influenced by what he saw with autobahn in Germany. We started to need gasoline in huge quantities. The appetite has gone unabated since.

This short was the oil industry doing a slick piece of public relations and it is a well produced film. Why not, they could afford it.

As a resident of the town depicted in this movie, I can vouch for its accuracy. For some reason, you only list Vincent Price in the cast. There were several well known character actors of the period who made appearances: Alan Hale Jr.,Andy Clyde, Will Wright and a couple of others whose names don't come to mind. The movie is shown daily in the Drake Well Museum.

There isn't much to commend this corporate video apart from the fact that Vincent Price is in it, and the only reason that it has stood the test of time internationally is for the same reason. The story is of very little interest to those who live outside of the place that this is set, and has no real international appeal. Vincent Price's appearance in the film adds nothing to the value of the story, but his name on the credit sheet means that the corporate video will be handed down for posterity because of Vincent Price's appearance. Corporate videos are not known for their storytelling values because they are meant to be informative for those within the corporation. Vincent Price fans would do well to stay away from this corporate video as it does not come anywhere near the quality of Science Fiction Theatre.

The film has a copyright date of 1954 and it was produced for the American Petroleum Council and was distributed free of charge to schools and community groups. I acquired a retired print in 1974 and occasionally one pops up on ebay.

The character of Uncle Billy was played by Andy Clyde. Alan Hale, Jr. played one of the hired hands hired by Drake, and is almost drowned as water escapes into a hole that the diggers were excavating to find the oil.

In as much the film is accurate to the story, it was filmed, I am told, in California and not in Pennsylvania. The film was an incentive for me to visit the Drake Museum site a number of years ago.

The film was a true Hollywood production with no expense spared. Using an original musical score, Technicolor, the film still holds an audience's attention and is an outstanding production in the industrial film genre.