For the release of a new short film about Austria’s Lipizzan horses, Universal-International, the maker of Universal News, staged a special publicity event at a drive-in movie theater.
From the release sheet:
“HORSE NIGHT” AT THE DRIVE-IN, CALIFORNIA – “Horse night” at the drive-in. An enterprising theatre manager sets up oats and rye on the rocks and invites the equine crowd in for a special showing of Universal-International’s short subject, “Stallions On Parade.”
You may view the complete newsreel, which includes stories about a deadly typhoon in Japan, daring parachuting tricks in France, the opening of the World Series, and others, on our YouTube Channel.
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.