Fiftieth Full-Length Film Now Available on the Florida Memory Web Site

The State Library and Archives of Florida has added its 50^th full-length film to the Florida Memory site (http://floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/video/).  The film, titled When You’ve Got it Bad We’ve Got it Good, was produced in the 1970s by the Florida Development Commission, later the Florida Department of Commerce.  It follows a long promotional tradition of contrasting Florida’s temperate climate with the harsh winter climes of northern cities and states. 

The film begins with a narrated montage of early photographs showing famous visitors and residents such as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, and Thomas Edison, all of whom, according to the narrator, “needed Florida.”  The film continues with stock footage of northern snow scenes and quickly cuts to sunny, action packed clips of beaches, boating, hang gliding, and nearly every other leisure activity known to Florida.  All of the clips are accompanied by the now infamously catchy jingle “When You’ve Got it Bad We’ve Got it Good,” which is guaranteed to stick with the listener.

The State Archives of Florida houses more than 7,500 movies and videotapes created by state agencies, filmmakers, and individual donors.  The films date from 1914 to the 1980s, and cover a variety of topics including education, the environment, tourism, industry, integration, and politics.  In recent months, the State Library and Archives has increased online access to its extensive and diverse moving image collection.  In addition to the new full-length films on the Florida Memory site, high resolution clips from selected films are also available for viewing on The Commons on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/floridamemory.

Today, the Florida Memory Web site provides online access to over 550,000 photographs, textual records, sound recordings, and moving images from the State Library and Archives of Florida’s collections.  The program is funded by a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Florida Department of State, State Library and Archives of Florida.  For more information, visit http://www.floridamemory.com.