Film, Motion Picture

Miracle at Your Doorstep, the Detroit News' Hold for Editing, WWJ News Film

16mm film reel containing "Miracle at Your Doorstep," a color promotional film about the Detroit News, produced by Rippey, Henderson, Bucknum and Company of Denver. The film describes operations of several departments of the Detroit News, including WWJ radio and WWJ-TV, while using footage of places and events in Detroit and the surrounding metro area to connect the paper's contents to daily life in the region.

The film opens with a montage composed of shots of newspaper presses and of traffic downtown and on expressways (including the vicinity of the interchange between the Walter P. Reuther Expressway and the John C. Lodge Expressway). As the narrator describes the breadth of the city and its activity, shots roll featuring the both the exterior and interior of the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, workers at machinery, Detroit Edison's Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station, a steel mill, crank shafts getting stamped on a press, automotive assembly line workers, packages of adrenaline chloride solution on the factory conveyor belts of Parke Davis and Company, freighters on the Detroit river, the AQUARAMA passing a row of boats docked beside the Detroit Harbor Terminal Building, Detroit Metropolitan Airport's Smith Terminal, an American Airlines plane approaching a gate at Metro Airport, pedestrians crossing Jefferson Avenue along the west side of Woodward Avenue, the reflecting pool beside Wayne State University's McGregor Memorial Conference Center, a rocket launch, pedestrians downtown, and paper carriers delivering the Detroit News to doorsteps.

The film then focuses on the Detroit News itself. This section includes shots of its building on Third Avenue and West Lafayette Boulevard, a Detroit News delivery truck, and the exterior of the WWJ studios across the street from the Detroit News Building.

The next section of the film focuses on the WWJ radio and television stations. This portion includes shots of Sonny Eliot and Dwayne X. Riley in the studio, as well as Carol Duvall (on the right) interviewing another woman for a television show, and Dick Westerkamp anchoring the television news. This section also includes footage of a WWJ-TV mobile broadcast bus in the field and of the station's Alfred P. Sloane Radio-TV Award.

The film then returns to the topic of the newspaper. This section begins with the paper's reporters, one of which is introduced through a series of aerial shots zooming in on him as he crosses Woodward Avenue at State Street and Gratiot Avenue. He is shown phoning in a story from a telephone booth on the south side of Michigan Avenue, west of Shelby Street. His call is received by the paper's City Room, where "re-write men" are shown developing such calls into stories. The following shot shows editors at work at their desks. The film continues to note that the paper has bureaus in both Lansing and Washington D.C. Footage follows of workers using the paper's Teletype machines. Animated maps are used to illustrate both the out-of-town bureaus, and the influx of news from around the work via Teletype.

The photographer is the focus of the next scene. A Detroit News photographer is shown shooting a man lighting a torch from atop a three-level podium. The job of the picture editor, and the role of the Telephoto machine are featured next.

The portion of the film centered on the paper's coverage of entertainment and the arts begins with a montage showing the marquees of the Michigan Theatre, the Grand Circus Theatre, the United Artists Theatre, and the Madison Theatre. Each promotes a 1962 film release--"The Music Man," "The Interns," "The Spiral Road," and "West Side Story" (in it's post-Academy Awards re-release). The city's cultural institutions are depicted with shots of the exterior of the Detroit Historical Society, the Cranbrook Art Museum's Triton Pool, the sculpture Nymph and Eros outside the Detroit Institute of Arts, and a gallery containing a mix of paintings and sculpture.

Aerial, and street levels shots of suburban neighborhoods provide a segue into the portion of the film about the paper's Home Section. Following several shots of headlines in this section, a cook is shown at work in the paper's test kitchen, a couple leaving a church after a wedding, and a small fashion show in a clothing store.

The section of the film on the paper's sports coverage includes footage of the Detroit Tigers playing against the Baltimore Orioles, golfers, a University of Michigan football game, and sailboat racing. Using the paper's Outdoors section as a springboard, there is then a shot of a man fishing in a stream.

Several close-ups follow of the paper's television and radio listings, as well a shot of a spread of several issues of it's Sunday TV Magazine.

The next section of the film deals with the paper's financial news and is accompanied by shots of the National Bank of Detroit Building, the Bank of the Commonwealth with Old City Hall Park in the foreground, as well as shot of the paper.

A section about the paper's advertisements is paired with shots representing shopping in Downtown Detroit and suburban malls. The downtown shopping shots include an aerial shot of the intersection of Michigan Avenue, Griswold Street, and West Lafayette Boulevard beside the Security Trust Building; a street-level view of pedestrians crossing Griswold Street at State Street with Capitol Park in the background; the exterior of the downtown Crowley's; pedestrians walking along the sidewalk past a window display promoting Hudson's College Shop; and a woman and a child looking at a Hudson's window display. The suburban scenes include Wonderland Mall in Livonia, Northland Center's parking lot with the Hudson's sign atop the mall in the background, a view of a Sears Roebuck and Company location (likely on Woodward Avenue in Highland Park) from it's rear parking lot, an aerial shot of Eastland Center, a ground-level shot of a section of Eastland with a Meyer Jewelry location, the entrances to the Van Horn's and Thom McAn locations in Eastland Center's Building F, and the interior of a grocery store. Several shots follow of advertisements in the paper for groceries, clothing, appliances and automobiles, as well as several want ads.

Next are several scenes of activity in the paper's main business office.

The film then turns to the paper's foundation with a shot of a bust of James E. Scripps, and a passage from his first editorial. This sets up a section focusing on the Detroit News' news policy. This is accompanied by shots of the office's entrance, several men gathered in a wood paneled office, and shots of the editorial pages. An editorial cartoonist is also shown at work, as are the editorial writers in their office adjacent to the paper's library.

The film then moves to the newsroom near deadline for a sequence showing how the paper is made. Stories are sent by pneumatic tube to the composing room where type setting machine operators cast slugs of type. The text then goes to proofreaders. The engraving department is also shown creating printing plates from photos. Workers in the composing room then are shown assembling the type into pages, when are then made into curved stereo plates. Paper is then threaded into the rollers, and the presses are started. The film then takes a step back to show rolls of paper delivered from the holds of ships. A quick explanation of color printing is also included. The papers are shown being assembled and bundled by machine. And then the papers' fleet of trucks, and paper carriers are show delivering the finished papers.

The next section focuses on the civic engagement of the paper. It begins with a pair of aerial shots of downtown. The first of the paper's community-minded activities is its support of the annual Senior Citizens' Arts and Crafts Exhibit held at the Detroit Historical Museum. Seniors are filmed making crafts, and several finished goods are shown in close-up. Next, film mentions the paper's medical school scholarships for students of Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. This section is support by shots of a man visiting a doctor's office, a pair of exterior shots of Wayne State's College of Medicine building, and the University of Michigan's Medical Science I complex. Next, the Detroit News Day Camp section features shots of children on porch, campers lined up for a Downtown YMCA bus, and activities at camp--swimming, baseball, feeding a deer, and archery. The miniature Detroit Zoological Park Railroad is featured next with shots of the trains, children enjoying the park, and of the zoo's giraffes, hippopotamus, and elephants. Next, the Metropolitan Detroit Science Fair at Cobo Hall is noted, and several of the fair's displays are shown. The annual televised Quiz 'Em show is also mentioned. The New Haven High School team is shown in close-up in the studio. An outdoor ceremony for schools with Perfect Safety Records is also shown. Students from various St. Clair Shores schools are shown lined up on a school's lawn, holding banners which identify their schools. For the paper's annual scholastic writing award, students are filmed in a classroom, and on stage for an awards ceremony. The paper's annual awarding of college scholarships to its carrier salesmen is also shown. Next, Patrolman Lawrence E. McDonald of the Southfield Police Department is shown receving a Detroit News Policeman of the Month Award. In addition to the ceremony this portion of the film also includes a shot of the plaque, and of McDonald's Policeman of the Month article in the paper. The Detroit Soap Box Derby, co-sponsored by the paper, is then shown, followed by the paper's annual Hole-In-One Contest. The papers' support for boating is shown through shots of the Annual Civic Center Regatta, and the International 50-Mile Outboard Marathon.

The penultimate portion of the film highlights several sites
The paper's involvement in Isle Royale's National Park status is then recalled over shots of the island, and the Albert Stoll, Jr. Memorial Trail plaque. The story of the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon is then summarized. The film also notes the involvement of the paper in campaigning for the new Civic Center. Finally, the film credits the paper for first proposing the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is accompanied by footage of ships docked along the city's riverfront.

The film ends with a brief conclusion where in the narrator states that the paper is more than the sum of its parts, and stresses its impact on readers.

The film is housed in an olive mailing box.