This week’s Universal News features a story from 1934 about a model kitchen run by the Detroit Free Press It is a local story and was only shown in movie theaters in Detroit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0dBIpfT28M From the release sheet: WIVES TAUGHT TO COOK IN NEW MODEL KITCHEN SET UP BY NEWSPAPER. Detroit Free Press runs a test … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: A Model Kitchen, 1934
The gangster was an icon in the 1920s and 30s. While prohibition limited the sale of alcohol, the gangster smuggled in liquor from Canada and established speakeasies across the country. As the Great Depression left thousands unemployed, the gangster embodied a sense of rebellion. Gangsters were immortalized in cinema and talked about in the papers. … Continue reading Gangsters, G-Men, and Archivists
This week's Universal News story dates from 1963 and features a chimpanzee ice skating in Germany. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHMEGatiKPM From the release sheet: SPORTS MONKEY SHINES! THIS CHIMP IS A GAY BLADE: Usually, summer is the whacky season, but this winter things aren't on an even keel in Germany. They've taught a Chimp to Skate and he's … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Ice Skating Chimpanzee, 1963
In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. Operation MANTRAC (Manual Angle Tracking Capability) (Local Identifier 342-USAF-33788/ARC Identifier 68704), is an example of one declassified film. Using some really great animation and a … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 1st Quarter
This week in Universal News, the New Year is celebrated in the United States and Cuba. 1933 would be the year that Prohibition was repealed, although the festivities evident in this story certainly do not seem lacking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbDXtoOXjSI&feature=youtu.be From the release sheet: BIG CITIES CELEBRATE AS 1932 PASSES OUT; GAILY WELCOME 1933 Unprecedented whoppee and … Continue reading This Week In Universal News: New Year’s Eve, 1932
Before the advent of televised network news programs and the 24 hour news cycle on cable and the internet, newsreels were one of the main sources people had for news. One of five major newsreel companies, Universal Studios produced and released newsreels which were shown in movie theaters, twice a week, from 1929 until 1967. Each release usually … Continue reading A Moving Image “Newspaper”: Universal Newsreels at the National Archives
This week, we’re excited to provide a sneak peek of a new series on our Media Matters blog. Starting in January, we’ll launch “This Week in Universal News”. Every Monday, archives technician Jim Konicek will feature a story from the National Archives’ Universal Newsreel Collection released that week in history. Today’s post features the iconic … Continue reading Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center, 1937
This post was written by guest blogger Carrie Goeringer. On December 23, 1944, weather on the island of Corsica was bleak and dreary, as it had been for most of the winter. Many of the children who lived on the island had never known a real Christmas because of the ongoing Second World War. So, the … Continue reading Corsican Kids Christmas Party With the 57th Bomb Wing 1944
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the 110th anniversary of The Great Train Robbery, a film that pioneered editing techniques that are so commonplace as to be invisible to viewers today and is acknowledged as the first example of modern film fiction narrative. But this wasn’t the only important innovation taking place in December … Continue reading I Saw Kitty Hawk: Film, Memory, and Archives
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth . . . . Put out my hand and touched the Face of God.” You may be familiar with these lines—the first and last of John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s 1941 sonnet “High Flight”. Many of us likely recognize them from President Ronald Reagan’s speech on the … Continue reading Celebrating Aviation with Magee’s “High Flight”
