Last Date

Drivers between the ages of 15 and 24, burning up the roads in the family car or their own souped-up hot rods, kill themselves off at the rate of 7,100 a year, account for 27% of all traffic fatalities in the U.S. Last year traffic-minded James S. Kemper, board chairman of Chicago's Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Co., whose policyholders (along with all the rest) pay $125 million a year in increased insurance rates because of teen-age drivers, decided to do something new about what he called "teenicide."

Allotting $100,000 to his campaign, he hired a Chicago studio to make a movie for free distribution to the nation's high schools, youth clubs and other organizations. By last week Lumbermen's 20-minute movie, Last Date, had been seen in 35 states by some 2,250,000 people, many of them young drivers.

Last Date tells the sobering, to-the-point story of Nick, high-school athlete and hot-rod addict, and his pretty girl friend Jeanne, who take Nick's souped-up jalopy for a reckless joy ride between dances, end up in a head-on collision which kills Nick, permanently disfigures Jeanne.

The demand for the film has been greater than expected. Lumbermen's has had to increase the original 100 prints to 400, has nearly exhausted its $100,000 allotment, finds that new requests are rolling in faster than ever.

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