Directed by William Wyler, this is a light comedy and drama about the quest for taking accurate polls that involves only a small defined population as being an accurate representative of the whole country. The trick is to find that localized population, and hope it stays that way for some years. Thus, it should ideally be conservative in its growth and change in demographics, or so Jimmy Stewart's character thought.
It has its comedic moments, such as the chaotic time when it becomes the destination for many outsiders, who want to move there or give their opinions there. The ups and downs in the relationship between Jimmy Stewart, as the chief pollster and Jane Wyman, head of the movement to make Grandview grow, is amusing. But, to me, the funniest bit is the informal competition between Stewart and Jane in reciting "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (Stewart), and "The Song of Hiawatha"(Jane), simultaneously, to each other. That took some talent!
The Middletown sociological study which inspired this screenplay was conducted during the 1920s and '30s, by Robert and Helen Lynd. They searched for and found a town with demographics for the Caucasian residents only, similar to the mean for the US as a whole. About 5% of the population was African Americans, who were excluded. It appears that the study in this screenplay also excluded African Americans, Latinos and Asians, as none were seen among the residents or visitors. Thus, neither the original study nor the polls taken in this screenplay necessarily provided an accurate sample of Americans as a whole. This is even more true today, when African Americans, Latinos and Asians make up about 35% of the population.
The 2016 presidential election showed that the great divide between small town plus rural areas, on the one hand, and large cities plus their large suburbs, on the other, was the most significant factor in determining whether Republicans or Democrats carried a region or state. Thus, to conduct a reasonably accurate poll on the presidential candidates would require a minimum of inclusion of representatives of these two populations in their proportion in the US as a whole. Also, in the case of presidential elections, one would have to estimate the number of probable voters in each of these categories for each state, because the number of electors/voters is slightly greater for small population states than for large ones. Thus, although Hilary Clinton won the overall popular vote by a very slim margin, Donald Trump won the electoral vote by a substantial margin, partly because the Democrat votes were more concentrated in the big population states, especially California.
Interestingly, after the town people realized that their opinions were being tracked as representative of an ideal town for taking polls, they were asked whether they thought a woman could function satisfactorily as president. 79% responded 'yes'. This was considered an outrageous result. As history has shown, in reality, the nation was far from considering the possibility of a woman president.
I don't understand why people confused Grandview as a representative town for taking polls with Grandview as an ideal town to live in or near. This confusion of attributes is what precipitated the chaos after a news report labeled Grandview as the ideal(not typical) American town.
See this film in B&W at YouTube.
It has its comedic moments, such as the chaotic time when it becomes the destination for many outsiders, who want to move there or give their opinions there. The ups and downs in the relationship between Jimmy Stewart, as the chief pollster and Jane Wyman, head of the movement to make Grandview grow, is amusing. But, to me, the funniest bit is the informal competition between Stewart and Jane in reciting "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (Stewart), and "The Song of Hiawatha"(Jane), simultaneously, to each other. That took some talent!
The Middletown sociological study which inspired this screenplay was conducted during the 1920s and '30s, by Robert and Helen Lynd. They searched for and found a town with demographics for the Caucasian residents only, similar to the mean for the US as a whole. About 5% of the population was African Americans, who were excluded. It appears that the study in this screenplay also excluded African Americans, Latinos and Asians, as none were seen among the residents or visitors. Thus, neither the original study nor the polls taken in this screenplay necessarily provided an accurate sample of Americans as a whole. This is even more true today, when African Americans, Latinos and Asians make up about 35% of the population.
The 2016 presidential election showed that the great divide between small town plus rural areas, on the one hand, and large cities plus their large suburbs, on the other, was the most significant factor in determining whether Republicans or Democrats carried a region or state. Thus, to conduct a reasonably accurate poll on the presidential candidates would require a minimum of inclusion of representatives of these two populations in their proportion in the US as a whole. Also, in the case of presidential elections, one would have to estimate the number of probable voters in each of these categories for each state, because the number of electors/voters is slightly greater for small population states than for large ones. Thus, although Hilary Clinton won the overall popular vote by a very slim margin, Donald Trump won the electoral vote by a substantial margin, partly because the Democrat votes were more concentrated in the big population states, especially California.
Interestingly, after the town people realized that their opinions were being tracked as representative of an ideal town for taking polls, they were asked whether they thought a woman could function satisfactorily as president. 79% responded 'yes'. This was considered an outrageous result. As history has shown, in reality, the nation was far from considering the possibility of a woman president.
I don't understand why people confused Grandview as a representative town for taking polls with Grandview as an ideal town to live in or near. This confusion of attributes is what precipitated the chaos after a news report labeled Grandview as the ideal(not typical) American town.
See this film in B&W at YouTube.