The Larson to Sputnik Years:
1940-1957

The year was 1940. Hitler had invaded Poland, and World War II was raging across Europe. Back in the United States, the field of Educational Technology had just started to form, and Ole Larson was hired at Indiana University.

Larson arrived at I.U. in June of 1940 as a half-time consultant in the Bureau of Visual Aids, and a half-time instructor teaching Visual Education in the School of Education. In 1941, the audio library was formed, prompting a name change from the Bureau of Visual Aids to the Bureau of Audio-Visual Aids. In addition to teaching, Ole was in charge of the collection of films and slides for the Bureau of Audio-Visual Aids.

Ole was not the only faculty member to hold a half time appointment. At this time the AV department was modeled after medical schools, and all faculty members were half time instructors and half time practical workers in the Audio-Visual (AV) Department.

In 1942, Ole Larson was chosen over Don Williams to be the head of the Audio Visual Department. As soon as Larson was hired, he in turn hired Don Williams. This is important, because Larson always hired people to fill specific needs within the department. For instance, Carolyn Guss was hired to teach "Selection" and Harvey Fry taught "Graphics." Larson was very sensitive to changes going on in the field, and he hired people to compensate for these changes.

The major societal issue of the 1940's was of course World War II. As it did to the rest of society, WWII affected the A-V department dramatically. The military emphasized the development of visual materials for training of troops. Many army training films were produced by Indiana University.

Larson needed production people, so he hired Denny Pett to produce films. Larson had enough power that when he chose a new faculty member, he could send a note to the dean recommending that person for automatic tenure, and it was never refused. This is how Denny Pett was hired and subsequently given tenure.

Although Larson had a monopoly on control, he was not malicious about it. Denny Pett described Larson as a benevolent dictator. Larson was a man who would tell you if he liked you or not with no hesitation. He maintained tight control over the faculty and the students. He was benevolent in the sense that faculty and students would be rewarded for their work, with good salaries, assistantships, and prestige. There was generally little bitterness about this relationship, but rather, more acceptance. In order to maintain a disposition such as Larson's, he had to be successful, and he was.

After the war was over, education began to use the same materials for instruction in classrooms (motion pictures, film strips) as had been used in military training. Larson realized that public education would be picking up on this, so in 1946 he applied to Wells, the president of the college, for a grant of $100,000 to develop AV materials. He was granted the money in four annual installments of $25,000 from 1946 through 1949. He took the initial $25,000 and made a down payment towards $100,000 worth of 16mm films from Encyclopedia Britannica and other sources and redistributed them to schools for a profit. By doing so, Larson was able to recover his initial investment, plus $25,000 more. In 1948, he used that $50,000 to buy more films, and again made a profit. Before long, his investment had turned into a quarter of a million dollars a year in rental revenue.

This is one of many examples of how Larson was an entrepreneur and an opportunist. The money he earned from film rentals was used to support the AV program and AV courses. The School of Education did not fund the program or courses because, as Ledford Carter put it bluntly, "The School of Ed. [Education] was always broke." Because Larson controlled the money, he also gained greater control over the department.

The fifties saw an increase in the use of AV materials in education. By 1950, the AV department had grown considerably. The following decade was marked by an even greater rate of growth than the previous one.

New faculty members were hired in the early fifties to keep up with the growth of the department. Ledford Carter was hired in 1952 to assist in film production and to teach in the film library. He eventually directed over 72 films, films trips, and slide sets before he retired in 1972. He worked for three years strictly on production, working part time on his masters, until 1954 when he earned his master's degree. He then became a faculty member, splitting his time between teaching motion picture production and actually producing films. Carter described the time period between 1946 and 1956 as "The Golden Age of Film."

Some of the productions that he was involved in included the halftime promotional shows for Indiana University home basketball games. In 1952, Bloomington was the smallest city in the U.S. with a TV broadcasting station, WTTV. Indiana University was given seven minutes at halftime for promotional use. Because at one time someone had said something live on camera that they were not supposed to, the university president declared that all halftime shows must be pre-produced and pre-recorded. Since the AV center was the only department on campus with the proper resources to do this, they were given the job.

Ledford Carter was in charge of these early half time broadcasts, and he directed nine halftime programs. These programs were often rebroadcast, and they were seen throughout the 1950s.

In 1953, I.U. was given a grant to train international students. They were so successful that in 1956, they were given a $1.5 million project to set up AV programs in Nigeria.

Although the American educational system had been considered to be successful in the fifties, it came as a huge shock to the public when the Russians announced that they had put the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. The U.S. government, in a desperate attempt to surpass the Russians, quickly pushed the National Defense Education Act through Congress into law. It has been said that Larson was with the President when the act was signed.

Larson had much to gain by the signing of this act. When it was finally signed, there began a clamor for the U.S. to make progress in math and science. Budgets were increased for use of 16mm instructional films. This took Indiana University into another stage of strong growth and development in the sixties.