Almost Lost Images and Audio

Ski jumping from back in the day.....wooden skis and leather boots and bindings.....NOT the "agony of defeat," but still a heck of a spill at the end.

Digitized from a silent documentary from the now-defunct and vanished "Official Films," and in the public domain, here are some scenes of skiing, very old school, with leather boots and leather strap bindings....and lots of spills and chills.

Various scenes of sights in Alaska in about 1955, digitized from silent 8mm "home movies." BIG salmon in the stream.....games on snowshoes....furs and critters.....enjoy.

Digitized from silent 8mm "home movie" pictures, these are scenes from Mexico in about 1955, if the film box is to be believed. Included are street scenes, what looks like a fair of some sort, some nature scenery and, I think, a feast day at the local cathedral. Enjoy.

In this public domain, like all of the Edison recordings (he willed them to the National Archives), this is "All Night Long," recorded on an Edison cylinder and played on an Edison player, sung by Anna Chandler.

Like all Edison records, this is in the public domain.....an audio simulation of an attack on a ship off of the US coast by a German submarine during the First World War. A bit dramatic, but certainly to the point.

From the public domain files of the National Archives, here are scenes showing early US military aviation efforts....Wright Flyers, biplanes of all types, experiments in bombing, and a few crashes, too. Many of the pilots who fought in the skies for the US in WWII are shown...Rickenbacker and the whole bunch, as well as how the planes were built and shipped to the front in Europe.

Scenes of driving on Daytona Beach, Florida, in the late 1960s or early 70s, something that was a must-do if you were in the area.

Digitized from silent 8mm "home movies," these are scenes from California, sometime around 1950, including the Mt. Palomar Observatory, Pasadena, the Hollywood Bowl, and some very big trees, among other things.

Digitized from 16mm silent "home movie" film, this is the Jubilee Military Parade in Easton, Pennsylvania, from 1937.

After the Second World War, the US embarked on a series of weapons development and testing regimes, to include what would late come to be called "cruise missiles." Here are some scenes of that missile, the "flying bat" used to attack stationary ships.

Digitized from silent, but color, 16mm"home movies," these are scenes of downtown Mt. Pleasant, complete with parade...Veteran's Day? Certainly were a number of marching units......

Digitized from silent color "home movies" and taken around 1970, here are scenes of downton in Toronto, CA, and Niagra Falls of that time.

Digitized from captured German silent films, complete with German narration cards, here are scenes of actual U-boat (unterseeboot, or submarine) warfare during World War I. This is the third of three files with these scenes.

Digitized from captured German silent films, complete with German narration cards, here are scenes of actual U-boat (unterseeboot, or submarine) warfare during World War I. This is the second of three files with these scenes.

Digitized from captured German silent films, complete with German narration cards, here are scenes of actual U-boat (unterseeboot, or submarine) warfare during World War I. This is the first of three files with these scenes.

Digitized from a public domain (as they all are, as Edison willed them all to the National Archives) Edison 4-minute cylinder record, here is the "Colonel Stuart March" by "Conway's Band," dating from the early 1900s.

Digitized from 8mm silent "home movies," here are scenes from about 1948 of Central Park and Times Square, in New York City.

From the public domain files of the National Archives, here are silent scenes of British Army tanks, at the time new and experimental on the battlefield, captured and sometimes put to use by their opponents, the Germans.

"Heroism on the Sea" - this piece of a silent newsreel issued by the now-defunct and disappeared Castle Films shows a ship in deep trouble in heavy seas, sinking, with the Captain heroically trying to save the ship, while saving the crew and all but one passenger, and eventually receiving a hero's welcome back to New York. He even gets a medal and a parade. Was the ship secretly carrying a supply of zirconium needed to construct the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus? The government isn't saying...

Brief piece of interview with Buzz Aldrin, second man to step on to the Moon, about the importance of Apollo 11 in the history of mankind.

One of a series of Superman cartoons made by Max Fleischer in Glorious Technicolor, now in the public domain because the studio neglected to renew the copyright when it came due. This is "The Bulleteers." Superman was created by Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster. "Faster than a speeding bullet......more powerful than a locomotive...."

Animated film made to boost morale during the Second World War by Warner Brothers, now in the public domain. Great caricatures of the Axis "Ducktators" and a message that still rings true in a number of ways, despite the use of some racial stereotypes of the time.

Subtitled "With the Policemen of the Allies" on the North Sea," here are silent scenes, now in the public domain, demonstrating how British seapower is essential for carrying out the War....that is, World War I.

Digitized from silent 16mm "home movie" film, these are scenes of the German port of Bremerhaven after WWII, and pictures of a US Army family, that was apparently stationed overseas, returning home, via ship.