Encyclopædia Britannica Films
U.S. producer and distributor of educational films
Encyclopædia Britannica Films (also named EB Films for short) was an American Film distributor of educational 16 mm films and later VHS videocassettes for schools and libraries from 1943 until 1995. Prior to 1943, the company operated under the name of Electrical Research Products Inc. (ERPI) Classroom Films.
History
Early years as ERPI Classroom Films
In November 1928, John Otterson of Electrical Research Products Inc. decided to make use of the latest sound technology in 35mm motion pictures and apply it to the 16mm format that was gradually being adopted by colleges and schools with easier-to-use projectors. The company had already been involved with many Hollywood studios including Warner Bros. and boasted an operating business of $20 million leasing equipment to theaters. The headquarter offices were shared with its parent company AT&T in New York City, with the Bell Labs as the research staff and Western Electric as its manufacturer.
At first, there was much skepticism of the value of motion pictures as an educational tool in public schools, despite mogul William Fox's willingness to spend $9 million in putting projectors into the nation's classrooms. As lampooned in The New Yorker (November 9, 1929): "We doubt if any director could photograph Bunker Hill for the kiddies without stopping the fighting at least once for Major Pitcairn to sing 'Sonny Boy'.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22079419. VIAF identifies the subject as 266188668. The Library of Congress control number is n80089981. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1995, 1928 and 1929.
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This entry incorporates text from “Encyclopædia Britannica Films” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.