This Month in History: Johnson Service Company Aids Film Production

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June 14, 1972: "Police Dog" filmed at branch office

The Johnson Service Company's (Johnson Controls' former name) San Francisco Branch received a letter dated June 14, 1972 from the San Francisco Police Department thanking the branch manager, Dennis Gruszynski, for the branch's help in the filming of the movie "Police Dog."

Apparently, the San Francisco branch office was used as a setting for one or more scenes in the movie. Prior to the filming, the San Francisco branch office had been lending its building at night to the San Francisco Police Department for training both crowd-control and bomb-sniffing police dogs. 

Apparently, the San Francisco branch office was used as a setting for one or more scenes in the movie.

As for the movie, Boxoffice, a Hollywood trade publication, reported in January 1975 that Handel Film Corp., the same company that filmed at the San Francisco branch office, had rescheduled production on a film entitled "A Police Dog Named Duke."

In 1981, a 50-minute film called "Police Dog" was released by the Handel Film Corp. that follows the training of a police dog and the day he saves his master's life in the first part of the film. The second part shows the police dog's adventures in many U. S. cities, including San Francisco, where an officer and his dog are shown conducting a successful building search for a burglar (the building being, presumably, the San Francisco branch office).

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Warren Johnson, founder of Johnson Controls

History

In 1885, long before anyone talked about carbon footprints or climate change, Warren Johnson launched a company to explore new ways to harness and conserve precious energy resources.