This week in Universal News, New Orleans celebrates Mardi Gras. Be sure to look closely at 0:40 to catch a glimpse of a Beatles fan surrounded by a gaggle of clowns.
From the release sheet:
THE ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS STORY: The charming, old City of New Orleans, forever young in spirit, whoops it up for Mardi Gras…the annual celebration that precedes the austere days of Lent. Tourists and townspeople let inhibitions fall where they may as they eat, drink, and dance in the streets and at famous jazz joints like Pete’s Place. “Let us be gay,” and for Pete’s sake who can blame them.
You may view the complete newsreel, including stories about the failure of a NASA test rocket, the visit of Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands to Curacao, a collection of locks in Holland, and the Flamingo Stakes in Florida, here.
About the Universal Newsreel Collection at NARA:
The Universal Newsreel Collection is one of the most used motion picture collections at the National Archives and Records Administration. Universal Newsreels were shown in movie theaters twice a week, from 1929 until 1967, and covered a wide range of American life and history during that time period. Each release usually contained five to seven stories averaging two minutes in length.
In 1974, Universal deeded its edited newsreel and outtake collection to the United States through the National Archives (NARA), and did not place any copyright restrictions on its use (some stories may contain other underlying intellectual property or proprietary use rights).
While Universal disposed of many of the soundtracks, leaving the newsreels incomplete, supplementary material like scripts, shot lists, and event programs can be found in the production files, available for research at Archives II in College Park, Maryland.
Learn more about the Universal Newsreel Collection in this post and in this Prologue article. Watch other Universal Newsreels in our research room, in OPA, and on this playlist.