Preceded byshorts: Hellbent for Election (Charles T. Jones,1944) and Muscle Beach (Joseph Strick, Irving Lerner, 1948). Avery early campaign ad and animated at that, Hellbent... was funded byorganized labor to re-elect FDR. Earl Robinson's contribution is anempowering get-out-the-vote ditty. (15 mins, Color, 16mm, PFACollection) Another rarity finds Joseph Strick directing a limber moodpiece about SoCal's Muscle Beach. Robinson's equally off-the-cuff songextolls the mixed virtues of health. (9 mins, B&W, 16mm) Every social movement has its songs and songsters. WoodyGuthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and Country Joe McDonald's"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" immediately come to mind.But few composers have inspired political activism with the commitment,talent and longevity of Earl Robinson, best known for his 1936 tributeto an executed I.W.W. organizer in "The Ballad of Joe Hill."Thirty years later, Joan Baez introduced a new generation to Joe Hillwhen she sang the ballad at Woodstock. Bette Jean Bullert's Ballad of anAmerican goes beyond Robinson's personal story to tell America's own,running from the Depression to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.Robinson acts as a wry narrator, recounting a fifty-year history ofstruggle through vivid memory and songs such as "The House I LiveIn," "Ballad for Americans," "Black and White,"and "Hurry Sundown." Archival footage, radio excerpts, andinterviews with many of Robinson's friends are complemented byperformance clips featuring Joan Baez, Paul Robeson, Josh White, FrankSinatra, Burl Ives and others.-Steve Seid