Detroit: Today and Tomorrow - Mardigian Corporation and the Connecting Channels Project (1957)

detroithistoric...
2016.086.001
Color 16mm film containing an installment of the Detroit Tomorrow Committee's series "Detroit: Today and Tomorrow," focusing on a dredging project for the Detroit River, and tool and die manufacturer Mardigian Corporation.
The film's first half focuses on the Great Lakes Connecting Channels Project--and undertaking to allow deeper draft vessels to pass through the Detroit River. The segment begins in the office of the U.S. Army Engineer District Detroit Corps of Engineers, where engineers are shown overlooking charts. The narrator explains that the goal of the project's first phase is to dredge the river out to 29 feet deep. The film then moves to cover the role of the Corps of Engineers, Detroit District's Resident Engineer in Amherstburg, Ontario. The narrator explains the Resident Engineer's partnership with the contractors who will do the dredging.
The film then details ships form the fleet that will carry out the Detroit River's dredging. The film features the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company drill boat that will drill the holes for the dynamite, the use of range markers, the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company dipper dredge MOGUL, the McQueen Marine, Limited tugboat ATOMIC and its barges of debris, and the HORNET IV drill boat. The Construction Materials Corporation freighter ALGONAC is also shown passing.
The film then recounts the events of the Great Lakes Connecting Channels Inauguration on May 28, 1957. The Detroit Police Band is shown playing at downtown Boblo dock, and people are filmed boarding the Boblo boat STE. CLAIRE. On board, the camera films the boat's whistle blowing, and captures shots of the city's skyline, the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit Fire Department fire tug JOHN KENDALL spraying its hoses in a display, a Hutchinson and Company freighter, and the Pringle Barge Line Company, Incorporated tugboat S.M. DEAN with its self-unloading barge CONSTITUTION. The camera also gets brief shots of the Amherstburg dock, and Boblo Island dock. At Boblo the passengers disembark, and the Royal Mounted Police lead the Detroit Police Band in a parade. A parade of small craft on the river is also shown. The ceremony then begins. In addition to several shots of the crowd, the film also spotlights the speakers: Monsignor Edward J. Hickey, Chairman Walker L. Cisler, Robert Biggers of the Executive Committee. Canadian Minister of Health and Welfare Paul J.J. Martin, U.S. Army Chief of Engineers Major General Emerson C. Itschner, Dutch ambassador to the U.S. J.H. van Roijen, Rev. M.C. Davies of Canada, and Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker. The ceremony ends with the first dynamite blast of the project.
The transition segment features footage of Washington Boulevard, north of Michigan Avenue, and a Ford Country Sedan station wagon at the interchange between the John C. Lodge freeway and the Edsel Ford Freeway, while the narrator discusses manufacturing.
The second half of the film focuses on the operations of the Mardigian Corporation. After a brief segment on the company's founder Edward Mardigian, the film takes the viewer into the officers of the draftsmen, where they draw dies. Next the pattern and mold shop is shown, where workers build wooden models of the dies, and prepare plastic castings of skins from parts. The foundry where the parts are cast is then shown. The film then spends some time covering the planing, milling, shaping, and kellering processes which refine the castings. The young men taking part in the company's apprentice program are also shown. Next, the assembly, finishing, and testing stages are covered. Finally a finished die is shown being moved for shipping.
During the film's conclusion, the station wagon is again shown on the ramp between the Lodge and Ford freeways.
The film is on a metal 12.25-inch reel housed within a grey metal canister. A Carson Company label is on the can's lid.