In 1952, Good News Productions purchased the property and buildings of the village of Yellow Springs and brought the movie industry to this rural community. Its primary goal was to produce religious films in a creative and artistic atmosphere. The movie crew lived in the village's houses and old hotels converted to apartments, while two barns served as production studios and the old hospital housed the editing facility. Good News Productions produced more than 400 films, along with television and radio shows focused on the Christian message. A staff of 50 worked together as production managers, scriptwriters, sound recorders, photographers, animators, cameramen, lighting technicians, actors, assistant directors, prop men, makeup men, and press representatives under director and producer Irvin Shortess Yeaworth, Jr., also known as Shorty. In 1955, Yeaworth found a gooey material produced by Union Carbide and thought it could be used for a science-fiction film, leading Good News Productions to shoot The Blob in the village and at locations in Phoenixville and Downingtown, Pennsylvania. The company sold the film to Paramount Pictures, which released it in 1958 as its first full-length feature shot in color, starring Steve McQueen. Good News Productions also produced 4D Man, starring Robert Lansing, Lee Ann Merriwether, and Patty Duke. Movie production ceased in 1974. The company used three production facilities: Studio A in the small studio barn across from the Lincoln Building, Studio B in the Revolutionary War Hospital building on the northern hillside, and Studio C in the large nineteenth-century barn at the end of the village, where many scenes for The Blob were filmed.
