Bizarro Treasures from the Texas Archive Of The Moving Image Online Video Collection

Here’s a silent (and therefore deeply mysterious) reel consisting of bikini clad women whose bodies are painted with schematic diagrams and such phrases as “Components & Basic Function” and “Minor Degradations” (that one sounds like a D.C. area hardcore band from the early ’80s). It’s very odd. It is evidently a teaching tool for radar operators but the narrative strategy is inscrutable today.

Here’s a prime cut of the stock footage genre known as “assembly line porn.” We see the selection of meat, the grinding of the meat and the machine-assisted formation of the hamburger patties. We could stand more of it, but the process is surprisingly photogenic.

Here’s a 1968 TV commercial from Dallas featuring Dick Clark trying to sell the world on hot Dr. Pepper. The experiment was a colossal failure and has been suppressed from all official Dr. Pepper histories.

Here’s a brief, silent bit of intro footage filmed for an Austin-based kids show called THE UNCLE JAY SHOW. It depicts a bearded man swinging slowly across the screen clasping a rope. The show was likely a jolly thing, but the clip tends to disturb and disorient today, especially when he seems to just disappear.