524S - DESIGN FOR DREAMING
(copyrighted April 1, 1956; 10m)

Shown with Movie: 524-12 to the Moon

Short Type: Industrial

Plot: A woman of the future wants her hubbie to buy every car she sees.

Prod: MPO Productions
(A Touch of Magic)
For: General Motors Productions
(A Touch of Magic; Frigidaire Finale)
Prod: Victor Solow
(dir/cin/A Touch of Magic; cin/Sweet Love, Bitter)

woman / Thelma "Tad" Tadlock*
man / Marc Breaux (chor/Mary Poppins; The Sound of Music)

Classic Line: "Girls don't go to Motoramas dressed in a pair of pink pajamas."

Trivia: Attendance for the 1956 Motorama in New York City was over two million people.

Here's what Business Screen magazine wrote about this short film in 1957: "Because of the widespread interest in Motorama, General Motors makes an annual film which, although not an exact factual record of the show, does capture its flavor, style, and theme. Design For Dreaming, this year's Motorama film, is a dancing and singing fantasy that introduces the beautiful cars through the eyes of cute Thelma Tadlock, a ballerina whose twinkling toes carry the audience from Chevrolet to Cadillacland, and to the far out reaches of the highways of tomorrow."

The "Kitchen of Tomorrow" by Frigidaire, a division of General Motors, was built in 1954. It was also featured in 1957's Frigidaire Finale and 1958's American Look.

THELMA "TAD" TADLOCK appeared in another General Motors short, 1961's A Touch of Magic which had the futuristic couple hosting a dinner party. Tadlock appeared on Broadway in Pal Joey (1952) and Me and Juliet (1953), but apparently did not appear in feature films.

Last Updated: 3/28/1999