Centron Corporation was a leading industrial and

educational film An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods. History Determining which videos should count as the first educational fil ...

production company, specializing in classroom and corporate

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

s and VHS videocassettes. Although a slightly smaller company than its contemporaries ( Encyclopædia Britannica Films,

Coronet Films Coronet Films (also known as Coronet Instructional Media Inc.) was a leading producer and distributor of many American documentary shorts shown in public schools, mostly in the 16mm format, from the 1940s through the 1980s (when the videocasse ...

and Learning Corporation of America), it was nonetheless very successful from the late 1940s through the early 1990s, gaining added fame with the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated '' Leo Beuerman'' in 1969.

Overview

Founded in 1947 in Lawrence, Kansas by boyhood friends Arthur H. Wolf (a veteran of another Kansas film company, Calvin Films) and Russell A. Mosser (of Boeing-Wichita), the name was chosen to incorporate the key words "central" (being that the company was located in the center of the United States) and "electronic" in honor of the "electronic age of the future". Centron successfully competed with large companies on both coasts and was widely known for its high quality films, coming in on time and under budget. Although the company kept afloat for decades making many technical instructions, cooking and sewing demonstrations, teacher aides and safety prevention reels, it also added some social guidance films in the 1950s to compete with Coronet Films, along with zoological and geographic topics that held stronger interest among school students. Harold "Herk" Harvey was a principal director at Centron. His 1962 feature ''

Carnival of Souls ''Carnival of Souls'' is a 1962 American independent horror film produced and directed by Herk Harvey and written by John Clifford from a story by Clifford and Harvey, and starring Candace Hilligoss. Its plot follows Mary Henry, a young wo ...

'' was produced with several people associated with Centron. John Clifford, a Centron screenwriter, wrote the script for ''Carnival of Souls''. One of his most popular educational series covered the land and people "south of the border" (as the ''Middle America Regional Geography'' and ''La América del Sur'' series). Scripted by Peter Schnitzler and shot in many locations by cameraman Bob Rose, these were made under some (for that time) political difficulties. At one point, the series almost had to exclude

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when government officials initially prevented film stock from leaving the country. It was also during this period that the company expanded its distribution of outside productions, including a number of

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

titles. The 1970s was a particularly golden age for nature documentaries, especially the ''Elementary Natural Science'' series of the team of Karl and Stephen Maslowski. In 1981, Wolf and Mosser sold Centron to the

Coronet A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. A coronet differs from other kinds of crowns in that a coronet never has arches, and from a tiara in that a coronet completely encircles the head, while a tiara doe ...

division of Esquire, Inc. Production carried on, mostly in Illinois, under the Coronet banner for a few years with Bob Kohl as primary head. In 1984, the

Gulf and Western Industries Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an American conglomerate. Originally, the company focused on manufacturing and resource extraction. Beginning in 1966, and continuing throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the company ...

conglomerate took over the mother company and, in a swift move, Kohl successfully purchased Centron from Gulf and moved production back to Lawrence, Kansas. After continuing through the end of the decade (including a series of instructional films for Encyclopædia Britannica), Kohl then sold the company facilities to the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

in 1991, with the library of films added to their archive by the time the company officially folded in 1994. Today, The Phoenix Learning Group currently has distribution rights to the Coronet library, including many of Centron.

Legacy

Although Centron won many awards for its films, it is most famous for the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

nominated '' Leo Beuerman''. This simple profile of a short handicapped man with his tractor in downtown Lawrence was produced on a budget of $12,000 and eventually became one of the most popular classroom films of all time, selling an impressive 2300 prints. Some of their films were satirized on the cult TV series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'', including ''Cheating'', ''Why Study Industrial Arts?'' and ''What About Juvenile Delinquency?'' (each directed by Herk Harvey).(Not So) Famous Firsts: Halloween Edition —— Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls" – Popdose
/ref>

List of films

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Notes

References

* * ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 24, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips'' 1970 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 25, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips'' 1971 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 27, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures'' 1973 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 28, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures'' 1974 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 29, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures'' 1975 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 30, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures'' 1976 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 31, Parts 12-13, Number 1: Motion Pictures'' 1977 Library of Congres

* ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Fourth Series Volume 31, Part 4: Motion Pictures & Filmstrips'' 1980 Library of Congres

* ''Educational Film Guide 1959 Annual Supplement'' 1959 H. W. Wilson Compan

* ''Motion Pictures 1940-1949 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1953 Library of Congres

* ''Motion Pictures 1950-1959 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1960 Library of Congres

* ''Motion Pictures 1960-1969 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1971 Library of Congres

External links