Jenny is a Good Thing

1969 Documentary 18 minutes Directed by Joan Horvath

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About Jenny is a Good Thing

Joan Horvath's short follows children in Project Head Start as they cook, eat, and work in the classroom. Meals are part of the day, not a break from it: children serve Jell-O, make a salad, look at peas, and water a garden. Burt Lancaster's narration argues that the food program is also how the centers teach children they are not worth less than anyone else. The film was shot in centers in Jacksonville, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Cast & crew

More about Jenny is a Good Thing

Joan Horvath directed, wrote, and produced the short for Project Head Start in 1969. Burt Lancaster narrates. The National Archives files it under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Record Group 235, in the series of moving images relating to health, education, and welfare programs. Noel Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul and Mary, shares the song and score with James Mason, Gary Shearston, Paul Prestopino, and Cameron Kotter.

Themes

  • Meals inside the school day
  • Children cooking as well as eating
  • Poverty and the idea of being worth less
  • Head Start
  • nutrition
  • nursery school
  • Burt Lancaster
  • Cochiti Pueblo
  • Jacksonville
  • Paul Stookey

Background

Head Start began in 1965 under the Economic Opportunity Act, first as a summer program, then across the school year. The film was made four years later to explain the place of meals in that program.

Making

Horvath shot inside working centers rather than on a set. The four locations are named in the National Archives description: two in New Mexico, one in Florida, and one in Indiana.

Music

Noel Paul Stookey wrote the title song and shares the score with James Mason, Gary Shearston, Paul Prestopino, and Cameron Kotter. Burt Lancaster narrates.

Preservation

The National Archives holds the film in Record Group 235 and has put a copy online. A file is also on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970. It did not win.
  • A companion discussion guide says the nutrition program was meant to feed children, fill the rest of the day, and bring parents in.
  • The National Archives upload runs 18 minutes.
  • President Lyndon Johnson announced Project Head Start on 18 May 1965.

Scenes

  • Children serve Jell-O, make a salad, and inspect a bowl of peas.
  • A child waters the center's garden.
  • Lancaster's narration plays over children lying down for a nap.

Also available

  • National Archives (Record Group 235, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare)
  • Wikimedia Commons (Jenny is a Good Thing (1969).webm)

Quotes

These children must learn that they are good because they exist.