Laurence Hyde

Author and activist Jane Jacobs talks about the problems and virtues of North American cities.

This short film from 1946 presents an outline of the fur trade's history and the commercial use of fur in Canada. A thirst for fur by the kings and courts of the Old World positioned the fur trade as part of the country's industrial economy. Fur farming and conservation became increasingly important, although the lonely life of the trapper remained the same. This film offers a view of both.

A boy is making the difficult bicycle ride up a steep hill for the goal of being able to dive off the top of the cliff into the water below. The water looks even more enticing as he views it at that long distance from the top. As he jumps indiscriminately toward the water without surveying his surroundings, he may find that the water below is a little less enticing the closer and closer he gets to it, which may be, by that time, too late. The moral: look before you leap.

This animated film shows what happens to two picnickers who had never heard the warning 'Leaflets three--let it be.' Colour photographs of the various types of poison ivy will help others avoid their plight.

An animated illustration of the safety rule: "Never touch plumbing and electrical fixtures at the same time." In the film we see a young woman commit the fatal error of switching on an electric light while in her bath. After a fleeting glimpse of a gravestone with the inscription R.I.P., we see her in the next world where in her celestial tub she is about to repeat her mistake but remembers the consequences just in time.