The City of Little Men

OBVIOUSLY MADE AS both a companion piece and at the same time a promotional tool designed to create interest in that year's feature film BOYS TOWN (MGM,1938); which of course stars Spencer Tracy.

IN MANY RESPECTS this 11 minute one reeler makes good use of what Walt Disney would exploit a decade and a half later with his DISNEYLAND Television show. In short, both historical background and behind the scenes glimpses of what led up to making the real Boys Town a subject for not one, but two films, MEN OF BOYS TOWN (MGM,1941), the sequel.

PERHAPS THERE WAS indeed yet another reason for choosing to make this CITY OF LITTLE MEN (MGM, 1938). As our late Father, Clement J. Ryan, had told us; there was a mistaken notion about that following the picture BOYS TOWN hit the movie houses. Some believed that Fr. Flanagan's Boys Town was rolling in the $$$$.

WELL OF COURSE, Schultz, that was no truer then than now.

This eleven minute short was produced by MGM as a promotional piece for the famous movie "Boys Town" which starred Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. Apparently, studios made these promotional pieces to encourage audiences to see the movie whenever it arrived in their home town, but there is no apparent tie-in to the movie itself. This was very subtle marketing indeed, but apparently movie audiences in 1938 did not need their marketing messages shoved down their throats like the viewing public of 2006. The short is extremely well-done and it affords the viewer an opportunity to see the founder of Boys Town, Edward Joseph Flanagan, himself. A concise history of Boys Town is presented, starting with the renting of a home using a borrowed $90 on December 12th, 1917, subsequent relocation into larger quarters over the years, and illustrations of the various activities of the children within the home during the years until the production of this little film in 1938. The short is aptly titled because it is eerie to watch the many adult activities which the children perform in the film. You will see them setting type on a Linotype machine, a comparatively sophisticated machine for the era. The film emphasizes the many activities done by the boys to insure successful operation of the facility. For those of us who are not accustomed to seeing youthful citizens performing adult jobs, thoughts creep into our minds about child-labor laws, but due to the excellent reputation of the Boys Town organization over the years, we are certain the denizens of Boys Town were not abused in any way. All in all, this is an excellent historical piece about a significant part of American history and about a remarkable man who created an organization which has created remarkable opportunities for thousands of young children who would have had little to look forward to if Father Flanagan had not followed his vision for their future.

City of Little Men, The (1938)

*** (out of 4)

This MGM short was without question a promo piece for their film BOYS TOWN, which would get Spencer Tracy an Oscar for playing Father Flanagan. In this short the Father plays himself as we learn about Boys Town and hear how the Father had to borrow $90 in order to get lodgings and start the place up. We learn that all races of boys are allowed into Boys Town as long as they believe in God. We also get to see the type of chores they do ranging from working in fields to running their own post office. There's no question that the BOYS TOWN film is much better but this is a pleasant short simply because we get to see Father Flanagan as well as see many of the kids who were really staying at Boys Town. There are some other child actors being used to tell a story here but this is the least entertaining thing as the actual footage is a lot more interesting. It's also interesting to see that some of the "story" here made it's way into the actual film but Mickey Rooney was certainly the better of the two actors.

This looks like a promotional short for the MGM production of BOY'S TOWN.. Yet the feature was released on September 9, 1938, while this short subject came out ten weeks later on 20 November. What gives?

First off, movies rolled out a lot slower back then. Today a move s released almost simultaneously on many screens, thousands of them r a blockbuster. Back then, fewer than fifty copies were made for release; these would play at theaters like Radio City or Loew's State in Manhattan, then down to neighborhood theaters, and then down a long release trail, which might take four or five years. A copy would wear out. So this short was released very early in the process It was intended to whet the appetites of second-run theaters, the 'nabes'.

Besides, it's a fine little short that allows people to see and hear the real Father Flanagan.

Seeing Father Flanagan for real was interesting, as was seeing actual Boys Town.

My 2024 sensibilities were disturbed, however, by seeing these boys working at machines that could seriously injure, maim, or even kill them.

The labor, sports, and belief in a supreme being got plenty of depiction, but what shocked me was that the notion of education was given about two seconds of screen time, and only by inference.

I couldn't see how the boys could have time for academic education when work as carpenters, field workers, laundrymen, etc. Would seem to consume all their time.

I must guess that in 1938, having learned a vocation or trade was considered most valuable at a time when graduating high school then was almost like finishing college now.

This is the great thing about old movies. They're almost like visiting a place you can never go.