Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Family Business

Growing Up • 1h 26m

Directed by Tom Cohen • Documentary • 1982 • 90 minutes

Part of the acclaimed Middletown series.

Howie Snyder is an archetype: a retired Marine colonel in his mid 40s, he is an American entrepreneur struggling to make his business succeed.

Howie's Shakey's Pizza franchise in Muncie, Indiana employs his whole family: wife, nine children, and Howie himself. He's the representative of the American Dream: the chance to invest long hours and hard work in exchange for financial security for oneself and family. To watch Howie Snyder as he dickers for better treatment by the Shakey's chain, as he seeks additional financing to stave off looming bankruptcy, and as he sits morosely counting an evening's disappointing receipts is to watch America at work. And to see Howie's family rally around him in the hour of his greatest need is a heartwarming experience.

"Marvelous... as close to a genuine slice of life as television can muster."—Los Angeles Times

"Remarkably intimate... There are scenes that will stick with you for life."—Chicago Tribune

Tags
american studies, americas, anthropology and archaeology, business, doc, documentary, dvd, economic anthropology, economics, expository, family business, family issues, film, icarus films, indiana, labor and economics, management, middletown, muncie, ovid, ovid_ca, pizza, restaurant, s_0034, s_0081, s_0085, s_0104, s_0263, s_0306, s_0461, shakey's pizza, social significance of work in a small family-run business, social studies, sociology, the, the industrial heartland, title_defgh, title_f, title_m, united states, video, world regions

Up Next in Growing Up

  • Guns and Mothers
    53:46
    Guns and Mothers

    Guns and Mothers

    Directed by Thom Powers • Documentary • 2003 • 53 minutes

    Two advocacy groups, The Million Moms and the Second Amendment Sisters, are diametrically opposed on gun control, but they agree on one point: mothers will and should have a voice in determining gun control policy in America. GUNS and MOT...

  • Mama Colonel
    1:12:08
    Mama Colonel

    Mama Colonel

    Directed by Dieudo Hamadi • Documentary • 2017 • 72 minutes

    Colonel Honorine Manyole, commonly known as 'Mama Colonel,' works for the Congolese police force and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Having worked for 15 years in Bukavu, in the east of...

  • An Elephant Sitting Still
    3:54:03
    An Elephant Sitting Still

    An Elephant Sitting Still

    Directed by Hu Bo • Drama • With Yu Zhang, Yuchang Peng, Uvin Wang • 2018 • 230 minutes

    Under the gloomy sky of a small town in northern China, different protagonists’ lives are intertwined in this furious tale of nihilistic rage. While protecting his friend from a dangerous school bully, 16-yea...

×