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"WE HOPE TO SET A BOY TO DREAMING"
    A poster, for fundraising purposes for the Futurliner Restoration project, has been developed from a painting by John Falter, which was then used on the cover of the 1953 GM Annual Report. John Falter was a popular artist and did many covers for the Saturday Evening Post (and many other magazines) until he died in 1982. When he attended a Parade of Progress in 1953, he took many photos of the Futurliners an displays and then using his artistic license, painted a canvas of the essential elements of the Parade. John Falter tried to "bring out some of the homeliness and humor of mid-western town and home life" and hence, the title of the poster is "WE HOPE TO SET A BOY TO DREAMING". It is very well done and a collectors item for all of you who are interested in the history and the Futurliner restoration project. We know our market is limited so we only have produced a limited amount of posters. The quality of the poster is very suitable for framing and I know that you will be pleased with it.

    The poster is 18" high by 22" wide and is available at NATMUS in Auburn, Indiana, and can be ordered from NATMUS over the phone, or by mailing a check, or by mailing in a form with your credit card number on it. Send your donation of $10.00 + $3.00 shipping and handling and your poster, suitable for framing, will arrive in a protected cardboard mailing tube.

WE HOPE WE SET A BOY TO DREAMING
    The poster is taken from an original painting that was done by John Falter. GM commissioned him to do this painting and it appeared on the GM front and rear cover of their 1953 Annual Report. Following is a little history of what GM asked John Falter to portray as well as a brief history of John Falter.
    "To set a boy to dreaming, is another major objective of the Parade", said Paul Garrett, vice president of General Motors.
    "Because technological progress has been so rapid over the past few years, with new discoveries opening up so many new avenues of research, the available supply of young scientists and engineers falls far short of the demand.
    "If in the near future we don't get enough new scientists and engineers to enable the demand to be met, our rate of progress will lag. And so the Parade seeks to interest youth in making a career in the technical progressions."
    The first purpose of the General Motors Parade of Progress is to entertain, to interest, to enlighten its audiences, young and old. In so doing we strive to make clear the processes by which American industry contributes to our national well-being, security and progress.
    The basis of that contribution is the efforts and initiative of individuals--perfecting new methods and processes, making new discoveries and inventions.
    That is why we hope, that among the crowds who visit our exposition, there are youngsters who find their imaginations stirred, who catch the glimmerings of a vision, who start in pursuit of that vision by turning to their home chemistry sets, their model kits, their tool chests and workbenches.
    That is why we hope that somewhere we set a boy to dreaming -- and set him on the road to usefulness and service to himself, his country and his fellow men.
    When we asked artist John Falter to visit the Parade of Progress and put on canvas what he saw there for the cover of our Annual Report, we had in mind that he might possibly capture something of this spirit of the show.
    Mr. Falter can be suspected of having had his tongue is cheek when he sketched the small lad gone limp and dreaming peacefully in his go-cart. However, we do not begrudge him his little joke, because in the eager gesture of older brother, in the absorbed young faces upturned before the science demonstration, and no less in the rapt attention of their elders, he has so admirably succeeded in his assignment.
JOHN FALTER, the Artist
    John Falter (1910-1982) American artist/illustrator, Born and raised in Nebraska. His most know pictures were painted for the covers of The Saturday Evening Post (185) second only to Norman Rockwell.
    He was called " America's most gifted illustrator" by Rockwell. Falter opened a studio in New Rochelle, N.Y., which had long been something of a colony for illustrators, including Frederic Remington and Norman Rockwell. Falter commented, "Rockwell was our inspiration then. I didn't meet him until years later. We would hear that Rockwell had been out on the street and we'd all run out and hunt for him. If they'd tell us that he had looked in a shop window, we'd look in the same window trying to absorb what he looked at by osmosis."
    Falter did illustrations for Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, McCall's Life, Look, Esquire and commercial work for Gulf Oil, Arrow Shirts and Pall Mall. He also did 300 recruiting posters and painted portraits of famous subjects, Clark Gable, Adm. William "Bull" Halsey, Olivia de Haviland and James Cagey.
    Falter liked to bring out some of the homeliness and humor of Middle Western town life and home life. "I used humor wherever possible." he said.
    I think that explains the young boy, "set to dreaming," in his Taylor Tot stroller.