Many people got their world news from the newsreel at the movies in the days before television network news, CNN, FOX news, and the Internet. A newsreel was a compilation of serious and humorous world news stories that various movie studios put together and released in theaters with their films.
In 1911, Pathe released the first newsreel, and the newsreel’s popularity quickly grew. Despite its silence, the newsreel gave the average citizen a glimpse of life outside of his city limits. Most people had a radio and listened to national and international news on it, but they could also see the news on the newsreel. The newsreel can be considered the forerunner of both network television news and entertainment news programs.
In 1926, the first “talkie” newsreel was shown, and the films were then produced by five companies: Fox Movietone, Paramount, Universal, Warner-Pathe, and Hearst Metrotone. More theaters installed sound equipment and were able to show newsreels with sound after The Jazz Singer debuted in 1929 and became a bona fide hit, proving that sound was the future of movies. Fox opened an all-newsreel theater in New York in 1929, and the concept quickly spread throughout Europe and Asia.
Because the movie studios were in charge of the newsreels’ content, they slanted the news occasionally and even staged events for their cameras. Several companies were involved in this during WWI. Many of the cameramen and reporters, on the other hand, were true journalists who captured incredible footage of historic events. Most people believed that Paramount had the most balanced newsreels, while MGM’s Hearst-Metrotone had the most slanted.
The newsreel is an important part of photojournalism history as well as a historical archive. Newsreel reporters were in the foxholes filming footage that accurately recorded history before network news reporters had video cameras on the battlefield. Where else could the average person see films of events like King George VI of England’s coronation or the Japanese surrender signing on the deck of the USS Missouri? We take it for granted now, but 75 years ago, it was revolutionary. In 1967, when the final Universal newsreel was released, it marked the end of an era in cinema.