Newsreels

Theatrical newsreels, produced in America from 1911 to 1967, were 8-to-10 minute compilations of film clips with voice-over narration (subtitles during the silent era) on important and entertaining events in the nation and around the world. They were released twice weekly, and typically were the first item shown on a cinema bill, before the cartoon, serial, and feature film. At their peak in the 1930s and 1940s, newsreels were a significant source of political information, seen by tens of millions of Americans each week. During wartime, for morale and security reasons, the American government attempted to control both their content and their tone.

Newsreels were of marginal importance during World War I because of the technical limitations of film at the time, and also because of heavy censorship. All combatants were reluctant to allow newsreel cameramen near the front lines, and, prior to 1917, filmmakers often staged fake battle scenes and presented them as real. After America entered the war on April 6, 1917, civilian photographers were banned from the fighting front, and all combat footage was shot by cameramen and technicians from the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Although Signal Corps films are of great historical interest, film quality was often poor and coverage was sporadic. The footage obtained was rigorously censored not only by the military, but by the civilian Committee on Public Information (CPI), often called the Creel Committee after its dynamic and controversial director, George Creel. A few dramatic scenes, such as the sinking of the Austrian battleship St. Stephen, passed the censors, but overall, American cinema audiences between 1914 and 1918 saw little that was either authentic or interesting.

Between 1918 and 1941, newsreels became technically more sophisticated and also more entertaining. Although they favored such subjects as sports, bathing beauties, and train wrecks over politics, and although narration was often light-hearted and superficial, newsreel companies did send intrepid cameramen to cover wars and revolutions around the globe. With the rise of militaristic regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the beginning of World War II in Europe on September 1, 1939, dramatic images of German dictator Adolf Hitler's speeches, marching Nazis, and the bombing of Shanghai and London appeared on American movie screens.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the government moved quickly to integrate newsreels, like other media, into the war effort. Direct censorship was not imposed. Instead, access to combat zones was restricted, and the Office of War Information (OWI) worked closely with newsreel companies to ensure that footage shown in theaters revealed no military secrets and was not harmful to civilian morale.

Each of the five major newsreel companies (Fox Movietone, Pathe News, Universal Newsreels, News of the Day, and Paramount News) was allowed to send two camera crews to each major fighting front. Smaller companies such as All-American News, which in 1943 was supplying news of interest to African Americans to 365 segregated Negro theaters in urban areas and the South, were not included. The footage shot by civilian cameramen was pooled, combined with greater amounts of footage shot by Signal Corps and U.S. Navy photographers, and subjected to stringent military censorship before being released to the newsreel companies. OWI also created its own company, Universal Newsreels, whose films were distributed overseas and were intended to show the United States in a favorable light.

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