Rating: 
Summary: Thanks, Ken. It was the kind of swell fun I really like.
Review: I bought it for me. I irritated everyone at work by reading funny parts aloud. Now I'm going to buy another for my older brother and one for his only child so she will understand why her dad and aunt are the way we are. Hope you sell lots of copies and can move into a quieter place.
Rating: 
Summary: text informative, gross out pics gratuitous
Review: I enjoyed reading about the different small film studios that produced these films (I loved watching them getting riffed on MST3K). I find Ken Smith's writing more informative than humorous. I also liked all the stills from the "acted" productions--some really goofy expressions.
However, I had a huge problem with the disgusting photos of mangled accident victims, close ups of eye surgery, etc. This is light reading--including those pictures is just exploitative. The accident safety films could've been discussed without photos so graphic.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, but also a good ancedotal social history of the 50's
Review: I have to confess: I did not read this book because I'm interested in the social mores of the late 40's-50's. I read it because of these shorts being shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Oh yeah, I also suffered through some of these as a tail-end baby boomer.) The author matches the history of "Mental Hygiene" films and studios with the ongoing social concerns of the time. As you might guess this would be the 50's; the golden age of educational shorts. The underlying emphases on conformity and consumption are well illustrated, but the counterculture influence in the shorts of the late 60's/70's is criticized as well. The book also has "plot" summaries for many of the films mentioned as examples in the narrative. The downside for me was none of the educational films done by Dr Frank Baxter are in the book. His monotonal "Roll Five Bill" and anthropomorphic manifestations of FUSION and "Hemo" still haunt any kid from Utah in the early 70's...
Rating:
Summary: Funny, but also a good ancedotal social history of the 50's
Review: I have to confess: I did not read this book because I'm interested in the social mores of the late 40's-50's. I read it because of these shorts being shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Oh yeah, I also suffered through some of these as a tail-end baby boomer.) The author matches the history of "Mental Hygiene" films and studios with the ongoing social concerns of the time. As you might guess this would be the 50's; the golden age of educational shorts. The underlying emphases on conformity and consumption are well illustrated, but the counterculture influence in the shorts of the late 60's/70's is criticized as well. The book also has "plot" summaries for many of the films mentioned as examples in the narrative. The downside for me was none of the educational films done by Dr Frank Baxter are in the book. His monotonal "Roll Five Bill" and anthropomorphic manifestations of FUSION and "Hemo" still haunt any kid from Utah in the early 70's...
Rating:
Summary: Reading Dos and Don'ts
Review: I loved this book! Ken brought back all the humor and horror of high school health class. I found it interesting that, if you believed these films, running with scissors could kill you, but you could survive a nuclear attack by putting a newspaper over your head. It gave me insight into why our generation turned out the way it did. I also enjoyed the stories behind the stories. A FUN READ.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely hilarious
Review: I loved this book. I had seen some of these films, either parodied on MST3K or in my driver's ed. classes in high school. What's nice is that in the first half of the book, Smith takes an informative, rather scholarly approach to the subject, discussing why the films were made, etc.But it's in the second half, in his reviews of the films, that he really has fun with the somber earnestness the films gave to topics like hygiene, madness, and juvenile delinquency. All in all, an interesting, fun book. Worth every penny!
Rating:
Summary: Return to the gory days of youth...
Review: I read this book because I had to watch some of these films in school when I was a kid. I always wondered about how they had come to be made. This book answers that question, and provides lots more information about the history of hygiene films. The second half of the book, with the synopses of the films themselves is outrageously funny, especially if you don't think too hard about the kids who had to watch this stuff as serious classroom activities. The first half of the book is extremely detailed and non-judgemental, sort of a "this is what they did and why" exposition of the history of these films. I mostly bought the book to be amused, but I learned a lot about the social history of the immediate post-war period, and about the extent to which these movies were created and shown in classrooms.
Rating:
Summary: Return to the gory days of youth...
Review: I read this book because I had to watch some of these films in school when I was a kid. I always wondered about how they had come to be made. This book answers that question, and provides lots more information about the history of hygiene films. The second half of the book, with the synopses of the films themselves is outrageously funny, especially if you don't think too hard about the kids who had to watch this stuff as serious classroom activities. The first half of the book is extremely detailed and non-judgemental, sort of a "this is what they did and why" exposition of the history of these films. I mostly bought the book to be amused, but I learned a lot about the social history of the immediate post-war period, and about the extent to which these movies were created and shown in classrooms.
Rating: 
Summary: Mental Hygiene
Review: I thought this was a smart, funny, often disturbing book, very worth reading. A word of caution for gift-buyers, however: Smith illustrates with plenty of stills, some from the "barf-bag realism" school of cautionary driver ed films made by sickos who rode along with the highway patrol to film the dying and the dead. I ordered this sight unseen for a friend who has a very good sense of humor but a weak stomach. No way I can give it to her, and with a small child in my house, I don't want to keep it, either. Oh boy...
Rating:
Summary: Mental Hygiene Films is the most enjoyable book in ages
Review: I, too, am boring everyone around me with yet another passage that is too funny/scary. I am 50 years of age and am especially enjoying sharing with my under-30 colleagues. They are incredulous. "It explains a lot," they say while slowly shaking their heads.
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