What Were Newsreels?
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Newsreels were short films that gave an overview of current political events before a feature film was shown. Newsreels were run in theaters off and on between 1910 and 1967. They got their start when the first film newsreel Pathé Gazette was shown in Britain and the United States. They were pioneered by the French cinematographers, brothers Charles Pathé (1863–1957) and Emil Pathé (1860–1937), both of whom were agents who sold the Edison phonograph in Paris, France. They initially visited London, England, to acquire filmmaking equipment and secured financial support to set up production units for newsreels in Britain, the United States, Italy, Germany, Russia, and Japan. These short movies were primarily shown during wartime and eventually became outdated with the advent of television newscasts. The last newsreels were screened in 1967.
Further Information: "Charles Pathé." Electric Library. [Online] Available http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/09904.html, October 23, 2000; Kronish, Amy, and others. The Nathan Axelrod Collection: Moledet Productions 1927-1934: Carmel Newsreels, Series I 1935-1948. Rutherford, N.J.: Farleigh Dickinson Press, 1994; McKernan, Luke. Topical Budget: The Great British News Film. London: BFI Publishing, 1991; Smither, Roger, and Wolfgang Klave. Newsreels in Film Archives: A Survey Based on the Final Newsreel Symposium. Wiltshire, England: Flicks Books, 1996.
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