Figure 1.--Here Lem in "Follow Me Boys" is being honored for all his work with the Boy Scouts. The Scout uniform pictured was worn by American Scouts from 1943-80.

The largest and most important groups of course is the Scouts. But relatively few movies have been made about them. The most well known one that comes to mind is the American film Follow Me Boys, a wonderful film about Scouting. We know of a few other American films. Perhaps more have been made in other countries, but we do not know of any at this time. HBC finds it rather extronidary that there are not, for example, any British films on Scouting! A British reader who is quite knowledgeable about films, tells HBC, "No, I can't think of any British films about scouting as such." There are many films in which Scouts appear, but not that many actually about Scouting. Strangely, there appear to have been more films made on the Hitler Youth than Scouting.

Individual Movies

HBC has noted the following films on Scouting or that include important scenes depicting Scouts or Scouting. There are quite a number of films with scenes that include Scouts. HBC has noted virtually no films, however, actually about Scouting or focusing on the Scouting movement. The one exception we have found is the American film, Follow Me Boys!. We were a little suprised about this. Almost all of the films we hve noted have scenes involving Scouting, but Scouting is not the main focus of the film. This seems a bit strange as Scouting is such an important youth movement, involving mllions of children in countries around the world. We also note that in many films with Scout scenes, the producers have not identified the boys as Scouts or Boy Scouts. Often the name of a fictatous youth movement is used.

Television

HBC has also noted some television programs that have depicted Scouts. There seem fewer TV programs that have had Scouting scenes than movies. And we have never seen a television program focusing on the Scouting movement tself. Again it is mostly American programs that we are familiar with. We do not, however, recall any television programs specifically about Scouting. "Leave it to Beaver" in 1958 had an episode in which Wally, Eddie, Chester, and Tooey join the Boy Scouts. Beaver, too young to join the Scouts, had to spend a lonely Saturday without brother Wally, until a storm caused the trip to be cancelled. All the boys wore short sleeved shirt, short pants uniforms with knee socks in this episode. "My Three Sons" in 1964 had Chip and Ernie and a few Scout friends on an weekend camping trip with dad Fred Mac Murray as scoumaster. Dad had a conflict: he was working on an important project with a colleague at the time, but he'd promised the boys to take them camping. Dad, the boys, and the colleague all go camping together with predictably unpredictable results. Last week, we noted that actor Ralph Hart from "The Lucy Show" always wore contemporary clothes. In one color episode, though, Ralph, Lucy's TV son, and their troop went on a camping trip. The uniforms were long sleeve and long pants, just as in an earlier B&W episode when the boys wore their Cub Scout uniforms.

Observations

After looking over the information here on Scout films and television programs we have a few observations. An interesting question is why have there been so few Scout film made. One would think that a group that so many boys have been involved in wouls have had any number of films made about it. Scouting in America was the principal non-school actibity for boys until the 1970s when many more activities became increasingly available. As it apparent from this page, however, a very small number of films have touched on Scouting--and really only one ("Follow Me Boys!") actually really devoted to Scouting. Amother interesting question is why are there no British films on Scouting, after all Scouting was founded in England. There are few countries, perhaps only America, in which Scouting has been so hrealded. While the number of American films is limited, HBC has been able to find no English films at all. We also note in America boys in made up youth groups meant to portray Scouts.

Created: November 8, 2001
Last updated: 6:59 PM 1/29/2008