Reel Fliers of 1938

Welcome to the third installment of the REEL FLIERS series that looks at the “Golden Age” of aviation through the motion picture camera lens of the Universal Newsreel. Started in late 1929, this newsreel documented all types of people, places, things and events, including those associated with the ups and downs of aviation through the end of 1967. Today, this newsreel provides a unique moving-image documentation of our aeronautical heritage, stored on celluloid film, in magnificent black and white. Along with the photograph and the written word, the newsreel should be considered a principal tool in the aviation enthusiast’s research toolbox.

As previously mentioned in the Spring and Fall 2012 issues of AAHS, the MCA/Universal Newsreel Library Collection contains over 14,800 reels of surviving edited stories and outtakes and are available for your viewing and research pleasure at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Archives II facility located in College Park, Maryland.

QUIET ON THE SET!
As we continue to explore this vast film collection for aviation Golden Age stories, let’s take a look at 1938. That was an active aviation year and Universal produced 104 newsreel stories on the subject. Titles included:

CHINA CLIPPER FORCED BACK
AIRMEN IN THRILLING STUNTS
BOMBERS ON GOOD-WILL TOUR
BALLOON BARRAGE TESTED
FRENCH INSPECT AIR BASES
AIR RAID TAKES DEADLY TOLL
AIR ENDURANCE RECORD BROKEN
HAWKS DIES IN PLANE CRASH
$31 COAST-TO-COAST FLIGHT

By the way, these headlines are the actual titles of aviation newsreel stories from 75 years ago.

PLEASE STAND BY…
The following newsreel stories are based on catalog cards, related paper documents, microfilm records, and a review of the newsreels themselves.

Below the story title you will find the notation STORY LINE, a section that provides an overview of the story based on the Universal Newsreel Synopsis Sheets. The ACTION section is next and describes the edited film scenes that visually support the story line. The original narration script appears in the SCRIPT section and any cameraman comments and general historical information are provided in the NOTES area. Last, the story’s reel number, length (in seconds), event location, and release date are all logged in the DATA category.

As an interesting side note, Universal typically destroyed the narration and music tracks for silver recovery soon after a story was released. As a result, the Universal Newsreel stories held . . .