The Best Made Plans (1956)

Summary: Experience the magic of plastic wrap!

A car drives up. A 1950’s family piles out of the car for a picnic. It is Dad’s first day of vacation and they discover that amidst all the confusion of the previous day, they’ve forgotten to pack something to cover the picnic table. (Ahhh…the big issues of simpler times.)

The reason for the previous day’s confusion? Let’s take a look.

As Papa works on the garage, we cut to the kitchen where Mama is making a birthday cake for little Kathy’s sixth birthday. "Everything is under control," says the Narrator. (There is always this bizarre theme of ‘control’ in these news reels.)

The phone rings.

Alas, it turns out that "the food demonstration for the new freezer" is taking place on that very day. Oh darn. And today is Kathy’s birthday! Oh dear! You see, Mary and Jack have saved and saved for a new freezing, and today is the day when the "home service representive from the local utilitiy company" is going to stop by their house and show them how to best use their new freezer! Just try getting someone to do that today. I dare you.

Well, Mama has to buy a bunch of food for the demonstration, so she asks her husband, Jack, if he could finish the cake while she’s at the store. Well, you should know that a man of the 1950’s wouldn’t be caught dead baking a cake, but Jack relents and goes inside to put the icing on the cake. Mama even puts an apron on him before she leaves. Har-Dee-Har!

Mama, and the viewer, learns a great trick for storing hamburger patties: Stack them with a piece of plastic wrap between them. (Quick! Write that down!) Then wrap the whole stack together in one big piece of plastic wrap. Cool!

As The Home Service Representative shows Mama how to wrap "any type of roast, or a whole chicken or turkey", Jack struggles to make party favors in the living room for Kathy’s birthday.

Fascinating!

Oh yeah, here’s how you can wrap a chicken:

"After wrapping the giblets separately [Important point!], place all the pieces of chicken, including the wrapped giblets, in the center of the square of film. Try to arrange the pieces so they fit together snugly…giving you a nice compact grouping. Wrap the package as tightly as you can, sealing out as much air as possible. With a little care, you can get a neat, firm package."

Now we move to the living room, where we learn to make party favors using plastic wrap.

I can’t take anymore.

Oh yeah. Cut to the following day. Guess what they end up covering the picnic table with?

Conclusion: Boy, the things I actually sit and watch for this web site…