Almost Lost Images and Audio

Digitized from 8mm silent home movies, here are scenes of Hoover Dam and the city of Las Vegas, taken in 1955, if the date on the box is to be believed.

Digitized from silent 8mm home movies, these are scenes of antique steam tractors on display and in operation....must have been a harvest festival or something....probably from the 1970s.

Digitized from a silent documentary produced by the now-defunct and disappeared Castle Films this segment is "Victory Over Germany" with scenes from the final stages of World War II in Europe. Posted for historical education and critique.

Found on 16mm film from an estate, the film can with this was marked just "Gettysburg." This looks to be a commemorative parade in the streets of Gettysburg, itself.....maybe Veterans Day or Fourth of July or the anniversary of the battle there...it has active duty military bands and marching units, but also Union and Confederate re-enactors and schools' marching bands. It also has plane and helicopter flyovers, so looks like it was a pretty big deal. I'm guessing the date to be around 1955 to 1965....it's in black and white, not color, and unfortunately silent, and no titles or credits, so it seems to be taken on a 16mm "home movie" camera. 1963 would have been the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, so that might be a good guess. Enjoy.

Digitized from a silent reel of 16mm film from an estate, according to the label on the film can, these are scenes of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, probably around 1965-1970, judging from the content. I can find no credits or attribution. Posted for historical education and critique.

Some film of a demonstration, and an interview with Chaim Herzog in 1975. As Wikipedia notes, "In 1975, Herzog was appointed Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, in which capacity he served until 1978. During his term the UN adopted the "Zionism is Racism" resolution (General Assembly Resolution 3379), which Herzog condemned and symbolically tore up (as his father had done to one of the British white papers regarding the British Mandate in Palestine), saying: "For us, the Jewish people, this resolution based on hatred, falsehood and arrogance, is devoid of any moral or legal value. For us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of paper and we shall treat it as such." In recent years British historians headed by Simon Sebag-Montefiore have included this speech in a book on speeches that changed the world, which includes others by Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy." Herzog was later President of Israel, and died in April, 1997. His son, Isaac Herzog, is now President of Israel. There are no credits on the film, so I cannot determine the creator...it was a bit of 16mm film found in an estate collection. Posted here for historical information and purposes of critique.

Found on a piece of 16mm film from an estate, this clip shows a group of Israel Scouts in the US, and an interview with two of them, circa 1970. There are no credits, so I can make no attribution. Posted for historical education and critique.

Digitized from a silent news documentary produced by the now-defunct "Official Films," here are scenes, some staged, some not, from the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. The USSR pushed Nazi Germany back from it's greatest extent of expansion in the Second World War. Posted for historical education and critique.

A groups of Australian soldiers trapped on the Island of Timor in 1943 make things difficult for the Japanese occupiers of the territory. Digitized from a silent news documentary produced by the now-defunct "Official Films" and presented for historical education and critique.

Digitized from a silent documentary of the time produced by the now-defunct "Official Films," and in the public domain, here are scenes from the Battle for Guadacanal, in 1943. Distributed for historical education and critique.

Digitized from a segment of a silent documentary produced by the now-defunct and disappeared Castle Films, here are scenes from the US taking the war to the Japanese in the South Pacific, specifically the Marshall Islands. Provided here for purposes of historical education and critique.

Digitized from a segment of a silent documentary from the now-defunct and disappeared "Official Films," here are scenes from the 1943 Casablanca Conference, where US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to plan the course of the war to come. In the public domain, and provided here for purposes of historical education and critique.

Digitized from a segment of a silent documentary from the now-defunct and disappeared Castle Films, and in the public domain, here are scenes from the Indianapolis 500 car race of 1949.

Outtakes from an old film, probably from the 1940s or 50s.....can you identify the actors? The film(s)?

The most deadly disaster in Toronto's history.....scenes from the fire and after math that destroyed the Great Lakes luxury liner SS Noronic at the dock in the city. 189 passengers died on their vacations, according to the headlines in this silent documentary from the now-defunct and disappeared "Official Films," now in the public domain.

Using new techniques of aerial refueling, a US B-50 bomber makes a circumnavigation of the globe in the air. Digitized from a silent newsreel produced by the now-defunct and disappeared Castle Films and provided for historical education and critique.

OK, this is just plain funny. Found in a bunch of old 16mm films I'm digitizing....

A gaffe....or a rare honest moment with a female reporter, I think from CBS.....from a bit of film taken on his visit to Saigon in 1961, here is LBJ doing the political thing on the streets...wait for the last thing he says.

Found in a bunch of 16mm film from the 1960s.....no idea what the exact source was....the famous Rod Serling in one of his "Twilight Zone" intros gaffes and cracks up.....enjoy.

Made in 1942, this silent wartime documentary by the now-defunct and vanished Castle Films is full of scenes showing how America was gearing up for World War II....ship launches, aircraft factories, tank building, and recruiting and training manpower. It is certainly a wartime piece, and a bit heavy on the pro-American propaganda, but that is hardly surprising, given the time. Digitized from the 16mm version produced for home viewing, and provided for historical documentation, discussion and critique.

Digitized from the 16mm version, this silent documentary by the now-defunct and vanished Castle Films is a wartime piece, rather heavy on the pro-American war effort propaganda, but worth viewing for, if nothing else, all of the wartime aviation training and combat scenes. Some good footage from the named battle, though that is edited in with obviously staged scenes not actually from combat. Regardless, some really excellent scenes of military aviation during WWII. Published for historical education and critique.

Like all NASA films, this is now in the public domain...it is their yearly "report" film for the year 1979.....talks about the Shuttle (before it ever launches), the Hubble Space Telescope (before it's even named), Skylab, and a number of other space and aeronautical programs for the year. Nice look into history, and is presented for historical education and/or critique. Digitized from 16mm color movie film with some fading and decoloring.

Starring Charley Chase, Mae Busch and Fritz Schade, and directed by Frank Griffin, here is "Settled At The Seaside," a silent comedy short from Keystone Studios in 1915, and now in the public domain.

A silent comedy movie, now in the public domain, about buying a used "flivver" - a Ford model car and driving it into misadventures, written and starring Victor Moore, directed by Henry Jackson, with Majorie Slade as co-star.

Are you bold enough to sail an ice skimmer, or just grab a sail and ice skate across a frozen lake? Here's a look from the last century at those sports, from a silent documentary, now in the public domain, from the now-defunct and vanished "Official Films."