Short history of long film strips

Not long ago at a class reunion, several of us got to talking about “film strips.” If you attended elementary school during the 1950s through 1970s, you may remember these visual learning tools.

Because there were so many of us, states quickly constructed schools to contain us. Educators developed scholarly “film strips” to help instructors explain complicated concepts.

Film strips were like slide shows. Each film strip had an audio record that came with it. The record was put on a record player, which sat next to the film projector. (If you do not know what a record player is, please consult a history book.)