John Nesbitt
Birthday: 1910-08-23
Place of Birth: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Biography: John Nesbitt was an actor, announcer, narrator, producer, and screenwriter. He is best remembered as having been the producer/narrator of MGM's "John Nesbitt's Passing Parade" short films series.
Movies
Willie and the Mouse
John Nesbitt's "Passing Parade" purports to show how the behavior of mice can be studied in relation...
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Passing Parade
Three specific and separate stories of life's passing parade are presented....
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The Golden Hunch
This entry in John Nesbitt's "Passing Parade" series is about the great moments in the lives of famo...
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Your Last Act
This short looks at the odd bequests that people have made in their wills over the years. They inclu...
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Mr. Blabbermouth!
Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, America was rife with rumors about the size of Japan's arm...
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A Lady Fights Back
The saga of the Normandie is recounted from her life as a luxury liner, the horrific fire that nearl...
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The Fabulous Fraud
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, we learn the story of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, the man w...
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Storm
A look at how the weather bureau tries to warn farmers and businessmen about approaching large storm...
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The Amazing Mr. Nordill
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the gentlemanly life and masterful counterf...
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The Face Behind the Mask
This dramatized short film describes the historical mystery of France's "man in the iron mask". King...
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A Really Important Person
A policeman's son searches for a suitable subject for an essay about an important person....
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Of Pups and Puzzles
This short film shows how the war department utilizes a Ph.D., a chimp, and three dogs to help desig...
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Out of Darkness
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells of the Nazis' efforts to shut down an underground res...
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Trifles of Importance
Part of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series, this short shows how three seemingly unimportant thing...
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The Ship That Died
This MGM An Historical Mystery short traces the final voyage of the Mary Celeste, a ship discovered ...
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That Mothers Might Live
That Mothers Might Live is a 1938 American short drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann. The short is...
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Kentucky
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby...
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Good Wrinkles
Sunny-sweet the prune shows us how prunes are made from certain kinds of plums, why they're so good ...
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That's Why I Left You
Young couple Joe and Mary Thompson love each other and their children despite the struggles that the...
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The Woman in the House
This short looks at the illness anthropophobia, the fear of people. In 1901, young Catherine Starr, ...
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Don't You Believe It
This Passing Parade entry looks at several historical "truths" that just aren't so: Steve Brodie nev...
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Unseen Guardians
The "unseen guardians" of the title are the Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail order...
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Who's Superstitious?
This short film examines the origins of several superstitions including crossing your fingers, knock...
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Main Street on the March!
This Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Naz...
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Angel of Mercy
This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross....
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This Is the Bowery
In this somewhat whitewashed documentary on Manhattan's Bowery a newcomer to the area takes his firs...
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The Forgotten Step
An American art collector, living in France in the 1870s, who loses his fortune in a stock market cr...
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Clues to Adventure
This MGM Passing Parade series short presents how separate events led to the creation of three provi...
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Goodbye, Miss Turlock
Narrator John Nesbitt laments the disappearance of the rural one-room schoolhouse in America. He rem...
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Mr. Whitney Had a Notion
Historical short showing how Eli Whitney (best known for the invention of the cotton gin) played a s...
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To My Unborn Son
A Yugoslav man, dying after being shot while attempting to help defend his village, writes a letter ...
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The Incredible Stranger
In December 1892, a silent mysterious and very private man, for whom a new house has just been built...
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My Old Town
Narrator John Nesbitt reminisces about his hometown and childhood in this Passing Parade series shor...
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The Little Match Girl
Adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of a destitute little girl who sells matches, a...
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The Film That Was Lost
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a look is taken at the problems of film preservation ef...
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Watchtower Over Tomorrow
Short documentary film about the Dumbarton Oaks plan and the proposed formation of the United Nation...
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The Great American Mug
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the typical American barbershop throughout ...
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The Story That Couldn't Be Printed
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of John Peter Zenger, who in Colonial New Y...
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This Is Tomorrow
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the evolution of the American city, from th...
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Forgotten Treasure
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short highlights the film preservation efforts of the Muse...
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Our Old Car
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man traces his history by the succession of cars his ...
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The Story of Alfred Nobel
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite, and...
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The Great Morgan
Frank Morgan is hired to put together a movie using odds and ends from the MGM vaults. He does so by...
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Whispers
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short we see how gossip can be used to spread propaganda or to...
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American Spoken Here
This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short takes a look at the origins of North American sl...
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The Giant of Norway
This short tells the story of Norwegian explorer and diplomat Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). After a l...
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New Roadways
The "new roadways" of the title refer to various projects, carried out in the USA's research laborat...
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Return from Nowhere
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man recovers his lost memories when he is forced to r...
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We Do It Because
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short explores the origins of various customs such as shaking han...
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Trifles That Win Wars
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short looks at how a few specific inventions made a major contrib...
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Annie Was a Wonder
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short, narrator John Nesbitt tells the story of Scandin...
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Main Street Today
This patriotic short film promotes America's war effort at home. The story looks at a fictional smal...
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Stairway to Light
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of 18th Century French physician Dr. Philip...
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City of Children
This final John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short looks at a community, Mooseheart, in Illinois ...
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It Looks Like Rain
This short film takes a look at the tools and methods used to forecast the weather....
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The Story of Dr. Jenner
This short focuses on the story of Dr. Edward Jenner, who developed vaccination....
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Famous Boners
This Passing Parade series entry looks at three instances of people who either caused or were the vi...
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Screen Actors
This short film takes a look at the off-screen personas of screen actors. Preserved by the Academy ...
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Yankee Doodle Goes to Town
Made just before America would be forced into the Second World War, this short subject is a brief dr...
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Souvenirs of Death
This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short tells the story of how a Mauser pistol used on t...
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Flag of Mercy
The 1939 dramatic short "Angel of Mercy," about Red Cross founder Clara Barton, is reedited to relat...
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Grandpa Called It Art
This MGM Passing Parade series short takes a look at changing definitions of art in the United State...
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Music in the Sky
A film recreating a broadcast of the Westinghouse Radio Program starring John Charles Thomas and Joh...
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Madero of Mexico
This Passing Parade series short chronicles the political life of Francisco Madero, who tried to bri...
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Nursery Rhyme Mysteries
This Passing Parade series short examines the origins of three popular Mother Goose nursery rhymes....
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People on Paper
Americans are preoccupied with the news, but need an escape from many of the events reported in the ...
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The Magic Alphabet
This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short dramatizes how the work of Dutch physician Chris...
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Forgotten Victory
This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short tells the story of Mark Carleton, a worker for t...
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Strange Testament
This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Julian Poydras, whose encounter with a girl ...
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Magic on a Stick
This MGM Passing Parade series short recounts how English chemist John Walker invented the wooden fr...
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Utopia of Death
This short film focuses on the mysterious and legendary Seri Indians who live in a utopian colony of...
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One Against the World
This short film presents the story of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, who came under scrutiny for his pioneeri...
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A Way in the Wilderness
This Passing Parade entry tells the story of Dr. Joseph Goldberger (1874-1929), a Hungarian immigran...
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The Seesaw and the Shoes
This short shows how two objects led to important discoveries. Children playing with a seesaw inspir...
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Dreams
This entry in MGM's Passing Parade series looks at the meaning of dreams, including one by Abraham L...
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XXX Medico
Highlights a new system that will enable doctors to operate over long distances....
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The Immortal Blacksmith
This Passing Parade short tells the true story of Vermont blacksmith and inventor Tom Davenport, who...
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