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This 1960s color film produced by Northwestern Incorporated uses the occasion of a staged “Lift Truck Derby” called “Operation Big Lift,” put on by the Industrial Warehouse Company and the Hyster Company to present an educational series of forklift driving do’s and don’ts, culminating in an unusual parking lot obstacle course contest (TRT: 14:26). It was shot by Fred Miller and Richard Blakeslee and edited by Alfredo Montalvo, and directed by Fred Miller with script by MacDonald MacPherson.

Opening titles: “Another CSP Customer Service Program, Produced by Northwestern Incorporated, Portland, Oregon” Credits: Photography; Fred Miller, Richard Blakeslee. Written by MacDonald MacPherson, Directed by Fred Miller (0:09). A sign: “Lift Truck Derby Saturday.” Men in white coats gather around a Hyster pallet lift truck (0:27). A crowd of women in 1960s attire applaud, clapping their hands (0:36). Host Al Johnson of the Industrial Warehouse Company introduces himself (0:50). Boxes and bags of Sunkist Oranges and California potatoes. A diesel train (1:01). A montage of Hyster lifts in action, carrying heavy payloads of wood, paper, kegs (1:25). A view from above a train car. A sign: “Impaired Clearance.” Busy lift trucks at the railroad yard. A forklift driver is distracted by a woman in heels and veers to the left. A foreman winces at the crashed lift and spilled flour (2:09). Lift trucks sit idle in a warehouse. A truck lifts a pallet of boxes from a high shelf. Training diagrams (3:01). A training classroom and a montage of corresponding lift forks sliding into place and securely transporting heavy cargo (3:12). A see-saw diagram of load, counterweight, and pivot-point fulcrum. Diagrams of 3-point suspension and centers of gravity when loaded and unloaded (3:49). An overloaded lift’s center of gravity becomes too high and the truck tips. Another speeds into an obstacle. A coworker complains (5:20). Hyster lift trucks race about a busy work site (5:50). Proper stacking technique is demonstrated, keeping the load low while in motion, and hoisting from the middle of a pallet (6:18). A lift truck approaches a sloppily stacked and unstable pile of goods, followed by a fixed pile and safe stacking. Al Johnson interrupts a worker about to stack a sloppily organized pallet. Steering and navigating into position between warehouse aisles (7:22). Driving a Hyster truck down an incline and ear to the edge of a railroad platform. Driving over a bridge plate and wood with dry rot (8:30). Boxes narrowly avoid pipes on an overhead ceiling. The woman in heels distracts Wilbur the lift truck driver again (9:18). Wilbur now has a black eye and wears bandages (9:49). Honking a steering wheel horn to warn passing traffic in a warehouse intersection. Approaching a corner with reduced speed. Stopping with care (10:08). Checking a Hyster 520A Lift Truck “Space Saver” nameplate. Opening up the hood to reveal the engine underneath. Checking oil before taking a seat and starting the motor (10:45). Driving into the back of a warehouse (11:20). Back at the forklift derby, a driver navigates an obstacle course in a parking lot, squeezing a lift truck through narrow passageways, and balancing uneven loads of wooden boards (11:30). Tight cornering is demonstrated. An oil slick is avoided, and a lifting obstacle game tests stacking ability (12:37). The contest winner is presented with a package wrapped with a bow (13:54). Our host sums up “Operation Big Lift.” The Hyster Logo (14:07).

Hyster was founded in 1929 as the Williamette-Ersted Company in Portland, Oregon. It was purchased by NACCO Industries in 1989. The name allegedly comes from the logger’s call of “hoist ‘er.”


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