Carl Urbano

A Is for Atom is a 1953 animated educational short directed by Carl Urbano for John Sutherland Productions, sponsored by General Electric. The film explains what an atom is, how nuclear energy is released from certain kinds of atoms, the peacetime uses of nuclear power, and the by-products of nuclear fission. The periodic table is represented as "Element Town," with each element depicted in a distinctive shape. The short ends with a majestic atomic giant straddling the earth as the narrator declares that our future "depends on man's wisdom, on his firmness in the use of that power." The film won the Second Grand Award for science films at the Venice Film Festival in 1954 and was seen by more than twelve million people in its first three years. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Educational

A 1956 animated industrial short directed by Carl Urbano for John Sutherland Productions, made on commission for the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Finchly has just received a sixty-dollar raise and wants to know the best way to invest it, prompting a brisk lesson in how everyday Americans can buy shares and put their money to work. One of the many glossy sponsored cartoons Sutherland's studio produced for corporate clients in the 1950s, it is a charming artifact of postwar consumer-capitalist optimism — and, like the rest of the studio's industrial output, it is in the public domain.

Animation · Documentary