Movietone News

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. It was also in France and in Australia and New Zealand until 1970. It was in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986 as British Movietone News. In Germany, it was Fox Tönende Wochenschau.[1]

History[change | change source]

A vintage Fox movietone motion picture camera

Movietone News started from an earlier newsreel called Fox News. It made silent newsreels. When Fox started making movies with sound in 1928 with Mother Knows Best, the name Fox Movietone was used for Fox's sound movies.

Advertisement from the Blue Mouse Theater announcing the Pacific Coast premiere of The Jazz Singer, and Movietone News
Newspaper ad from a fully equipped theater in Tacoma, Washington, showing The Jazz Singer, on Vitaphone, and a Fox newsreel, on Movietone, together on the same bill.

Fox Films joined with 20th Century Pictures in 1935 to become 20th Century-Fox. Fox Movietone News was shortened to Movietone News.

In Australia, Movietone and Cinesound competed for newsreel coverage. Later, they joined and became the Australian Movie Magazine.

Status and licensing[change | change source]

The University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections[2] has some of the Fox Movietone newsreel collection. Fox News Channel has the rest.

Licensing for Fox Movietone newsreels owned by the University of South Carolina is handled by the Moving Image Research Collections. Licensing for Fox Movietone News is still owned by Fox Corporation and handled by Fox News Channel. British Movietone is owned by British Movietonews Ltd.

Magic Carpet of Movietone 52 issues a year, 1932 ad

In 2016, the British Movietone archive had been acquired by Associated Press.[3][4][5]

The Movietone News Australia archive was given to the National Film and Sound Archive in 1988.[6]

Archive[change | change source]

The Academy Film Archive has the 20th Century Fox Movietone Shorts and Documentaries Series Collection.[7]

In 2015, British Movietone and Associated Press's archival footage was put on YouTube.[8][9]

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ Baechlin, Peter; Walter-Strauss, Maurice (1952). Newsreels across the world (PDF). UNESCO Paris.
  2. ↑ "Moving Image Research Collections - University Libraries | University of South Carolina".
  3. ↑ "AP acquires historic British Movietone archive". Associated Press.
  4. ↑ Nicolaou, Anna (27 September 2016). "AP buys rights to British Movietone newsfilm archive". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10.
  5. ↑ Sweney, Mark (27 September 2016). "AP acquires British Movietone archive" – via www.theguardian.com.
  6. ↑ "Collection - Cinesound Movietone Australian Newsreels on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online".
  7. ↑ "20th Century Fox Movietone Shorts and Documentaries Series Collection". Academy Film Archive. 3 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "AP makes one million minutes of historical footage available on YouTube". Associated Press.
  9. ↑ Victor, Daniel (22 July 2015). "YouTube's Historical Footage Expands, Both Serious and Silly". The New York Times.

Other Websites[change | change source]

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