The Big City (1956)

Sponsor: City of St. Louis. Production Co.: Charles Guggenheim & Associates. Director/Writer: Charles Guggenheim. Producer: Richard Hefferon. Camera: Victor Duncan. Music: St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 24 minutes.

St. Louis’s annual report to taxpayers. The Big City visually illustrated how tax dollars were put to good use and was considered a “graphic, fluent and compact documentary” by Howard Thompson.

Note: Sixteen prints were made for exhibition by schools, civic organizations, and church groups. For more on the filmmaker, see Shelby Coffey III, “Politics as an Art Form: Guggenheim and the Movies,” Washington Post, Feb. 9, 1969, 262.

Resources

“St. Louis Taxpayers Get Film Report,” American City 71 (June 1956): 16–18; Howard Thompson, “New Arrivals in the 16mm Field,” New York Times, June 9, 1957, 125.