White Rhapsody is a 1945 short film directed by Jack Eaton, with Ted Husing narrating. The film explores the popular sport of skiing. It was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Short Subject, One-Reel. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2013.
This might as well be a tourist board video designed to encourage you to visit the snow-covered slopes of New England by using some decent photography to illustrate the trickiness of the conditions for the skier and the beauty of the snowscapes and the fir trees amongst these pristine conditions. The commentary, on the other hand, is downright banal. “Skiing isn’t foreign…it was introduced by Swiss and Austrian instructors”; “It’s like golf, you need some training before you become used to what you are riding on” - I thought golf when you were riding on something was called polo? “The top of the hill is the best place to start a downhill run”. Well who’d have thought? Maybe they ought to have got Pete Smith in to do something a little less descriptive and more fun? Hmmm!
May 4, 1945
This might as well be a tourist board video designed to encourage you to visit the snow-covered slopes of New England by using some decent photography to illustrate the trickiness of the conditions for the skier and the beauty of the snowscapes and the fir trees amongst these pristine conditions. The commentary, on the other hand, is downright banal. “Skiing isn’t foreign…it was introduced by Swiss and Austrian instructors”; “It’s like golf, you need some training before you become used to what you are riding on” - I thought golf when you were riding on something was called polo? “The top of the hill is the best place to start a downhill run”. Well who’d have thought? Maybe they ought to have got Pete Smith in to do something a little less descriptive and more fun? Hmmm!
