Creating "a definite desire to go there": Crawley Films and Tourism Promotion, 1937–1963.

This article examines the role of F.R. "Budge" Crawley and Crawley Films in shaping Canadian tourism promotion through sponsored nontheatrical films from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. It traces the company's evolution from amateur filmmaking to becoming a leading producer of government-commissioned tourism films, including wartime contracts with the National Film Board (NFB) and postwar productions supporting economic reconstruction and cross-border tourism. Targeting primarily middle-class, upwardly mobile settler families, these films employed thematic and visual strategies—such as vivid Kodachrome imagery and seasonal motifs—to depict Canada as an accessible wilderness destination, while subtly reinforcing settler-colonial narratives that marginalized Indigenous presence. The article highlights Crawley Films' tailored production approach, its collaboration with federal and provincial sponsors, and its lasting influence on Canada's cinematic and cultural identity in tourism promotion.