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. A crowd of men representing vari-ous industries stood to one side while banking and insurance representativesstood on the other.As Uncle Sam gleefully ushered them on, the captionread,  Thar s gold in them thar hills! 8 The FHA also produced radio spots andmovie shorts.Most of the radio programs,  Master Builder or  Mrs.Home-maker were fifteen minutes long and included orchestral interludes of patri-otic or sentimental music played at soothing tempos.They dramatized thestories of young couples improving and purchasing homes to boost theirphysical and spiritual health. Visomatic slide shows with a separate audiorecording were also available for showings within the community or even atthe local hardware or lumber store.Better Housing News Flashes, producedfor the federal government in 1935 by Pathé News were screened in movietheaters to over 35 million people.9 The films dramatically depicted a cam-paign already underway, stimulating industry and putting men to work.Rousing trumpet fanfares and urgent narration accompanied footage of pro-duction lines, trains and automobiles mobilizing the country and distributingproducts.Home-buying couples entered charming sunlit model homes, andthe camera panned back on a world where home ownership could lead to a more happy and contented family life as the official insignia of  BetterHomes Campaign was emblazoned on the screen (figure 3.3.2).10The Federal Home Loan Bank Board also sponsored a homes campaignin which it solicited designs for exemplary small houses from architectsaround the country.Each design was submitted on one page containing athree-dimensional rendering and a plan of the scheme.The designs werecoded according to number of rooms and their appropriateness to climaticand regional considerations and complied in a Home Selector Portfolio.Apotential home buyer could visit a lending institution and review a portfoliothat contained designs suitable to the area.The FHLBB also provided lendinginstitutions with sample brochures and actual boilerplates for ads and other|3.31793.3.2 Cartoon with caption,  Thar s Gold in Them There Hills, by Harold Talburt.U.S.F.H.A.bulletinfor manufacturers advertising agencies and publishers (Washington, D.C.: U.S.Government PrintingOffice, 1934).RG 195 File  FHA.promotional literature with which the lending institution could begin a Bet-ter Homes Campaign.These ads and pamphlets explained  how to own yourown home the  safe and  insured way (figure 3.3.3).11FHA Technical BulletinsAn FHA loan was contingent on design inspection, and FHA underwriter smanuals and technical bulletins, which were distributed to a broad circula-tion of developers and builders, created the impression that there was a pre-ferred arrangement of suburban fabric that was likely to receive mortgageinsurance.The same graphic guidelines were reproduced widely in trade jour-nals and other industry publications, and any developer seeking approval forFHA mortgage insurance was likely to follow them.Though the FHA guide-lines initially did a great deal to improve housing standards, by World War IIthe agency was less interested in promoting good design and more interestedin avoiding mortgage risk with formulaic standards for houses and neighbor-hoods.Two of these FHA technical bulletins, Planning Neighborhoods forSmall Houses (no.5, 1936) and Planning Profitable Neighborhoods (no.7,1938) provided subdivision guidelines by way of simple texts and pairs ofdrawings labeled  good and  bad. In many cases, these simple cartoon|Summation: Subdivision Merchandising3.3.3 3MI15-Minimum House Architect, Hyde and Williams.FHLBB-Home Selector Portfolios:6McC1-Chosen as McCall s  Home of the Month ; National Archives, and Records AdministrationPickett Branch, RG 195.181graphics outlined the design parameters of a postwar suburban landscapethat would appear senseless and incomprehensible to ensuing generations.They explained why the roads swelled, the houses shrank from the edge of thestreet, and the entire organization was left blinking in the sun (figure 3.3.4).Technical bulletin number 5 assumed the tone of a practical manual,selectively exhibiting some of the expertise of the progressive planningmovement together with suggestions for what might be shared standards,but just two years later technical bulletin number 7 prioritized the developer sfinancial security and the government s mortgage risk.12 The contrast be-tween the two documents continued.Bulletin number 5 warned against|Summation: Subdivision Merchandisingc3.3.4 Technical Bulletin No.5 Planning Neighborhoods for Small Houses.(a) The FHA s quota-tion of Radburn as a possible model of subdivision design; (b) street hierarchies: (top) typicalcourt or cul-de-sac, (middle) minor residential street with planting strips, (bottom) minor resi-dential street with sidewalks and curbs combined and street trees; (c) plan diagram showingtypical neighborhood in relation to the city.Technical Bulletin No [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]