US Firefighters; Father Divine's Deal

This two issue story pairs a concise and witty look at fire prevention with one of the odder episodes in the March of Time annals. Father Divine had already been featured in a 1936 issue: in 1938 the sale of the Crum Elbow estate - which made Divine a neighbour of President Roosevelt - provided further opportunity to explore the religious leader’s activities, which were based on a mixture of socialism, financial shrewdness, showmanship and support for the black community.

Father Divine’s eccentric style made him a perfect subject for the camera. The shots of him speaking through a system of loudspeakers in his Harlem HQ, and footage of his followers painting his new estate’s buildings, while their singing drifts across the Hudson River to the Roosevelts’ residence, are just two examples which give a hint of the issue’s surreal flavour. Yet beneath the strangeness lies a progressive film which shows a black leader running a successful organisation based on cooperative principles. And although Divine was coy about his tax arrangements he was an appealingly self-deprecating character: the shot of him tripping up as he boards a river boat was left in at his own insistence.