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Movietone News known in the U.S. as Fox Movietone News, produced cinema, sound newsreel
Newsreel

A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest....
s from 1928-1963 in the U.S., from 1929-1979 in the UK (for much of that time as British Movietone News), and from 1929-1975 in Australia. One of the earliest in the series featured George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, was an Irish people playwright.Although Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays....
 Talks to Movietone News, released on 25 June 1928.

An early conductor of the Movietone News orchestra was Harry Lauder II, nephew of famous entertainer Sir Harry Lauder
Harry Lauder

Sir Henry Lauder , known professionally as Harry Lauder, was a notable Scotland entertainer, described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador!"...
, who was contracted with them for 18 months before William Fox
William Fox (producer)

William Fox was a pioneering United States motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox Theatre chain in the 1920s....
 took him to his Hollywood studio.






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Movietone News known in the U.S. as Fox Movietone News, produced cinema, sound newsreel
Newsreel

A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest....
s from 1928-1963 in the U.S., from 1929-1979 in the UK (for much of that time as British Movietone News), and from 1929-1975 in Australia. One of the earliest in the series featured George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, was an Irish people playwright.Although Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays....
 Talks to Movietone News, released on 25 June 1928.

An early conductor of the Movietone News orchestra was Harry Lauder II, nephew of famous entertainer Sir Harry Lauder
Harry Lauder

Sir Henry Lauder , known professionally as Harry Lauder, was a notable Scotland entertainer, described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador!"...
, who was contracted with them for 18 months before William Fox
William Fox (producer)

William Fox was a pioneering United States motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox Theatre chain in the 1920s....
 took him to his Hollywood studio. Sir Harry Lauder also appeared in test sound films made at the Fox Studios in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 during the winter-spring of 1927.

One installment, Fox Grandeur News, was released on 26 May 1929 in Fox's short-lived widescreen
Widescreen

A widescreen image is a film, computer or television image with a wider and shorter aspect ratio than the standard Academy frame developed during the classical Hollywood cinema era....
 process Grandeur
70 mm Grandeur film

70 mm Grandeur film, promoted as Fox Grandeur, was a 70mm film widescreen film format developed by the Fox Film Corporation and used commercially on a small scale in 1929-1931....
, and shown before the feature film
Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial Film distributor in Movie theater and being the "main attraction" of the screening ....
 Fox Movietone Follies of 1929.

Hearst Metrotone News
Hearst Metrotone News

Hearst Metrotone News was a newsreel series produced by the Hearst Corporation, founded by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst produced silent films under the titles of Hearst Newsreel, International Newsreel, and MGM News before settling on the generic title Hearst Metrotone News....
 initially leased the Case Research Lab
Theodore Case

Theodore Willard Case known for the invention of the Movietone sound system sound-on-film sound film system, was born into a prominent family in Auburn, New York....
 patents from William Fox for its sound newsreels. Each of these studios used this system of recording sound film
Sound film

A sound film is a film with synchronization, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before reliable synchronization was made commercially practical....
 for news items because it was an easily transported single-system of sound-on-film
Sound-on-film

Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture....
 recording.

Fox's first use of recording a news event was on 20 May 1927: Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an United States aviator, author, inventor and explorer.On May 20?21, 1927, Lindbergh emerged instantaneously from virtual obscurity to world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in New York City to Paris - Le Bourget Airport in Paris in the s...
's take-off from Roosevelt Field for his historic solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean was filmed with sound and shown in a New York theater that same night, inspiring Fox to create Movietone News.

A regular narrator of the newsreels was broadcaster/journalist Lowell Thomas
Lowell Thomas

Lowell Jackson Thomas was an United States writer, Presenter, and traveller best known as the man who made T. E. Lawrence famous. So varied were Thomas's activities that when it came time for the Library of Congress to catalog his memoirs they were forced to put them in "CT" in their Library of Congress Classification....
.

In Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, Movietone and Cinesound were competitors for newsreel coverage, but have now combined under the Movietone News name.

The University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina is a state university , co-educational, research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States....
  has a portion of the Fox Movietone newsreel collection. The rest of it is owned and managed by the Fox Film Corporation's corporate successor (and namesake), Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel is a US Cable News and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation....
. The majority of the collection is stored in New Jersey, mostly unseen since the newsreels were originally shown in theatres. During its early years, Fox News Channel had a weekend show which played the newsreels.

Licensing for Fox Movietone newsreels owned by the University of South Carolina is handled by the Newsfilm Library, while licensing for Fox Movietone News still owned by News Corp. is handled by the British company ITN
Independent Television News

ITN is a major news and content provider with headquarters in the United Kingdom. It is made up of five key businesses: ITN News, ITN Source, ITN On, ITN Factual and ITN Consulting....
, as part of its archive, including Fox News Channel, Reuters
Reuters

Reuters Group Limited is a United_Kingdom-based, Canadian controlled news agency and former financial market data provider that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters....
, Granada
Granada

Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada , in the autonomous communities of Spain of Andalusia, Spain....
 and the UK network Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
.

See also

  • The March of Time newsreel series produced by Time-Life
    Time-Life

    Time-Life is a book, music, and video marketer, that since 2003 has been owned by a private equity company Ripplewood Holdings. Since 2003, Direct Holdings US Corp is the legal name of Time Life, and is no longer owned by its former parent Time Warner....
     from 1935 to 1951
  • Universal Newsreel
    Universal Newsreel

    Universal Newsreel was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. Nearly all of them were filmed in black-and-white, and many were narrated by Ed Herlihy....
     newsreel series produced by Universal Studios
    Universal Studios

    Universal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six Worldwide major American film studios. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California....
     from 1929 to 1967
  • Hearst Metrotone News
    Hearst Metrotone News

    Hearst Metrotone News was a newsreel series produced by the Hearst Corporation, founded by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst produced silent films under the titles of Hearst Newsreel, International Newsreel, and MGM News before settling on the generic title Hearst Metrotone News....
     newsreel series produced by Hearst Corporation
    Hearst Corporation

    Hearst Communications, Inc. is a privately-held United States-based media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower in Media of New York City, USA....
     from 1914 to 1967 (distributed by Fox Film Corporation 1929-1934 and by MGM 1934-1967)
  • Paramount News
    Paramount News

    Paramount News is the moniker for the newsreels that were produced by Paramount Pictures ....
     newsreel series produced by Paramount Pictures
    Paramount Pictures

    Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production company and distribution company, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California....
     from 1927 to 1957
  • Pathé News
    Pathe News

    Path? Newsreels were produced from 1910 until mid-1956, when the newsreels in general stopped production. The newsreels were shown theatrically, silent at first with title cards mentioning the action on the screen and then with voiceover narration, which was added in the early 1930s....
     newsreel series produced by Pathé Film
    Pathé

    This article deals with the Path? Film company. For their music business, see Path? Records.Path? or Path? Fr?res is the name of various French people businesses founded and originally run by the Path? Brothers of France....
     from 1910 to 1956 (later distributed by RKO Radio Pictures 1931-1947 and then Warner Brothers 1947-1956)
  • Movietone sound system
    Movietone sound system

    The Movietone sound system is a sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures which guarantees synchronisation between the sound and the picture....
     sound-on-film
    Sound-on-film

    Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture....
     system introduced by Fox Film Corporation in 1927
  • Movietone Records
    Movietone Records

    Movietone Records was a budget subsidiary of 20th Century Fox's record division, which issued 29 albums starting in 1965 and ending in 1967. Most or all of these were reissues of albums that had appeared earlier on the 20th Century Fox label....
     the budget subsidiary of 20th Century Fox' record division
  • William Wallace and Gregory Lauder-Frost, Harry Lauder in the Limelight, Lewes, East Sussex, 1988, p.52 (for Harry Lauder II) ISBN 0-86332-323-X


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