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Made in 1948 by the Monroe Auto Equipment Company, “Revolution in Pleasantville”, showcases the Monroe Hydraulic Implement Lift, which could turn a Willys “Universal Jeep” into a farm tractor. Barry Thomas, who also rescued this film and worked with Periscope Film to preserve it, researched the story behind it. The film was an outgrowth of two developments. First, the Willys company that emerged from WWII was threatened by the fact that surplus military jeeps were plentiful. It hoped to persuade farmers to buy a new product, a “Universal Jeep” that was much better suited to farming. (At the time only one in five American farmers owned a tractor or a pickup truck, so the opportunity seemed quite real.)  Second, the Monroe company (makers of the famous shock absorbers) had purchased the Newgren farm implement company. Monroe saw an opportunity to sell both hydraulic lifts and farm implements, and created a “Revolution in Farming” ad campaign to promote them. The film was produced by Wilding, features a script written by Harry Grabow and was directed by Lou Kramer.  
The film begins with images of the Jeep in WWII and shows how a young man named Don fell in love with the military version and decided to buy a surplus one for use on his family farm (1:30). He’s met with frustration (2:15) as it won’t properly pull a plow. He visits a Willys-Overland dealer (2:18), who shows him a brand-new Universal four wheel drive Jeep.  At (2:51) the Monroe Hydraulic Lift is shown, as well as its design and operation. At (4:38) the Lift’s crucial ability to create down-pressure on a plow is shown. At (5:59) the Willys-Overland plant in Toledo, Ohio is shown with Universal Jeeps emerging from the assembly line, all with the NHL factory installed.  At 7:20, an instructor shows the control aspects of the MHL and sees various implements including plows, mowers, and post-hole diggers as well as a buzz-saw, road breaker, and earth mover.  The implements are then demonstrated. At 9:40, farmer Don becomes a new Willys dealer to bring the “revolution” to his home town. At 10:49, he stages a demonstration for local townspeople. A series of filmed demonstrations follow, with a Universal Jeep laying down a furrow for planting, leveling equipment, cultivating corn, using a scoop to do earth moving and ditch digging, road building and more. At 19:23 the Jeep is used to dig a post hole and at 21:06 the saw is attached to make a mill. The film concludes with Don wrapping up his demonstration, and a sales pitch for the products that were shown. 

The Jeeps shown in the film are military Jeeps, the MB or GPW, shown in the wartime footage and in Don’s early farming attempts. The film also features the first civilian model, the CJ-2A. The CJ-3A model appeared in 1949, with minor changes retaining the same engine as the MB and CJ-2A, and CJ-3B “high hood” was introduced in 1953 to accommodate the overhead valve engines. Early CJ-5s (1954-65) could still be equipped with the hydraulic implement lifts and PTOs. All of those were marketed as the Farm Jeep. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the 1946 CJ-2A was $1,241 ($16,011 today). A competitor, the Ford 8N tractor, could be purchased for just a bit more money -- $1504.5 (in 1952). 

In the end, the Farm Jeep concept failed to catch on and was discontinued

The complete story of the importance of this movie to Farm Jeep history and how the film was rescued by Barry Thomas is available at https://www.farmjeep.com/revolution-in-farming-and-in-pleasentville/

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com