.png) Handy in 1966 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Henry Jamison Handy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Jam" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1886-03-06)March 6, 1886 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | November 13, 1983(1983-11-13) (aged 97) Detroit, Michigan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Breaststroke,freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Chicago Central YMCA Chicago Athletic Association | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Henry Jamison "Jam"Handy (March 6, 1886 – November 13, 1983) was an American Olympicbreaststroke swimmer,water polo player, and founder of the Jam Handy Organization (JHO), a producer of commercially sponsored motion pictures, slidefilms (later known asfilmstrips), trade shows, industrial theater and multimedia training aids.[1] Credited as the first person to imaginedistance learning,[2] Handy made his first film in 1910 and presided over a company that produced an estimated 7,000 motion pictures and perhaps as many as 100,000 slidefilms before it was dissolved in 1983.[3]
As a swimmer, Handy introduced a number of new swimming strokes to Americans, such as theAustralian crawl. He would often wake up early and devise new strokes to give him an edge over other swimmers. Swimming led to him getting a bronze in the1904 Olympics atSt. Louis, Missouri. Twenty years later he was part of the Illinois Athletic Club water polo team at the1924 Olympics in Paris, France, again winning a bronze medal. With his participation, he established a new record for the longest period of time between first and last Olympic competitions. Handy swam almost every day until the last few months of his life.
Handy appeared swimming in a commercial from 1978 asking for the public to support American athletes training for the 1980 Olympic games before theboycott. At the time of his filming, he was the oldest living United States Olympic medalist.
In 1965, Handy was inducted into theInternational Swimming Hall of Fame.[4] In 1977, he was inducted into theUSA Water Polo Hall of Fame.[5][6]
Handy attended North Division High School (nowLincoln Park High School) in Chicago, and then theUniversity of Michigan during the 1902–03 academic year. During that time he was working as a campus correspondent for theChicago Tribune when on May 8 he wrote an article about a lecture in the Elocution 2 class given byProf. Thomas C. Trueblood as a "course in lovemaking." Handy went on to describe how Trueblood had dropped to a bended knee in order to demonstrate how to make an effective marriage proposal.John T. McCutcheon, aChicago Record Herald cartoonist, followed the next day with a cartoon about a "Professor Foxy Truesport" showing his class how to best make love.
Neither Trueblood nor university PresidentJames B. Angell were amused. Ten days after the initial article was published, Handy was suspended for a year for "publishing false and injurious statements affecting the character of the work of one of the Professors."[7] Handy was told he could re-apply one year later. Instead, Handy decided to apply to a different school, but he was unable to gain acceptance to other schools because of what had happened at the University of Michigan. Handy was accepted to theUniversity of Pennsylvania but was told to leave after two weeks of classes.
Tribune editorMedill McCormick tried to intervene on Handy's behalf, but Angell refused to change the suspension. At that point, McCormick offered Handy a job. Handy worked in a number of departments at theTribune. It was during his time working on the advertising staff that Handy observed that informing and building up salespeople's enthusiasm for the products they were selling helped to move more merchandise. He also began researching exactly what made people buy a particular product.
Handy left theTribune to do further work on corporate communications. He worked withJohn H. Patterson ofNational Cash Register, who had used slides to help train workers. With help from another associate, Handy began making and distributing films that showed consumers how to operate everyday products. After World War I broke out, Handy began making films to show how to operate military equipment. During this time the Jam Handy Organization was formed.
Handy was married to Helen Hoag Rogers and had five children.[8] One of his daughter Chaille's children is the printmakerGarner Tullis.[9][10] Another of his daughter Chaille's children is the inventor Barclay J. Tullis.[11]
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After World War I, Handy was the Chicago-Detroit industrial representative forBray Productions, creating films for the auto industry, Bray's largest private client.
General Motors selected Handy's organization to produce short training films as well as other training and promotional materials. One such film was 1940'sHired! – a training film for sales managers atChevrolet dealerships; which is also featured in theMystery Science Theater 3000 episodesBride of the Monster andManos: The Hands of Fate. Many films produced by the Jam Handy Organization were collected byPrelinger Archives and may be seen and downloaded at theInternet Archive.
Master Hands, the legendary 1936 documentarysponsored film (or as was called a "capitalist realist drama"), was selected by theNational Film Registry for preservation in 1999.[12]
Between 1936 and 1938, the Jam Handy Organization made a series of six animated fantasy sales films for Chevrolet featuring a gnome named Nicky Nome, which showed new Chevrolet automobiles saving the day from villains, often in retellings of classic tales such asCinderella, the subject of two of those films,A Coach for Cinderella andA Ride for Cinderella. The other films wereNicky Rides Again,Peg-Leg Pedro,The Princess and the Pauper, andOne Bad Knight.
The Jam Handy Organization produced the first animated version of the new Christmas storyRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer[13] (1948), sponsored by retailer Montgomery Ward and directed byMax Fleischer.
Handy also produced films for other companies and for schools. He's estimated to have produced over 7,000 films for the armed services duringWorld War II. Handy was noted for taking only a one-percent profit on the films, while he could have taken as much as seven percent. He was noted for never having a desk at work, instead using any available workspace. Handy's suits did not have pockets, as he thought they were a waste of time.
Despite Handy's troubles with the University of Michigan, his son-in-law Max Mallon, granddaughter Susan Webb, and great-granddaughter Kathryn Tullis received degrees from the school. Handy would receive an honorary doctorate fromEastern Michigan University.
Handy died inDetroit on November 13, 1983, at the age of 97.[14] He swam on a regular basis until just a few days before his death.
The Jam Handy advertising and marketing firm was displaced byCampbell Ewald as General Motors' principal advertising agency. The loss of those funds was responsible, during the year of his death, for the demise of Handy's agency, which had been located on East Grand Blvd in Detroit.
Handy's personal papers and the surviving Jam Handy Organization records are housed at the Burton Historical Collection[15] at theDetroit Public Library. His family and ancestry are featured in a historical collection[16] held at theWilliam L. Clements Library[17] at theUniversity of Michigan. The Clements Library also published a book titledAnnals and Memorials of the Handys and Their Kindred by Isaac W.K. Handy, edited by Mildred Handy Ritchie and Sarah Rozelle Handy Mallon (Ann Arbor, 1992).[18] An hour-long interview with Jamison Handy[19] (published December 26, 1961) is available at Internet Archive.
