Almost Lost Images and Audio

Scenes from a tourist trip to Salt Lake City in 1962 (according to the postmark on the box), taken from silent 8mm home movie film. Shows the capitol and other sights in the city, to include the airport and the lake itself.

A snake and a mongoose on display for the tourists in India, sometime around 1955, from silent 16mm film, digitized.

Clips digitized from a newsreel produced by the now defunct and disappeared "Official Films" that used mainly government-produced footage, these clips are from "News Thrills of 1943" and tell the story of the Allied air attack across the Mediterranean Sea on the oil fields of Ploesti. Contains actual combat footage. Posted for historical education, discussion and critique.

A segment of a 1942 newsreel produced by the now-defunct and disappeared "Official Films," a production company that most often used government-created films to make documentaries and newsreels for the public, this clip shows actual combat footage of a Japanese attack on an unnamed US aircraft carrier in the South Pacific. Given as it was from 1942, I believe it was probably Yorktown before she was sunk at Midway. Posted for historical education, discussion and critique.

Here's an interesting bit of footage digitized from 16mm film....it was almost certainly shot in New York City, and shows the famous actors Cary Grant and Farrah Fawcett (Majors) at a table together in a crowded location...perhaps a restaurant? Farrah is then briefly interviewed. This was probably shot by a news cameraman in the 1970s....you can find on the internet a number of still shots of the two of them together in places like Studio 54 (which this might have been). The footage was purchased at an estate sale of a former film editor for a New York television station, but has no notes or other attribution. Posted for historical education and critique....and if anyone has specific information as to the time/place, please drop a note about it.

Scenes from coronations of British kings and queens, to include the current Queen of England, on the throne for over 60 years.

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.

Another "soundie" from the 1940s, this one is The Blacksmith Song, produced by the now defunct and vanished "Official Films," and starring the ubiquitous Spike Jones as the Blacksmith and two unidentified actors as the horse. Digitized from 16mm film. Enjoy.

As the US prepared troops to go into combat in World War I, physical training and hand-to-hand combat was a large part of the training they received. Here are scenes of that training from an Army film found in the public domain files of the US National Archives.

From public domain archives.....here are early military tanks in movement and action in World War I.

Seized by the US Army Signal Corps, here are a number of silent scenes from the German side of World War I, to include what appears to be some actual combat footage, as well as German leadership and German soldiers and airmen. Posted for historical education, discussion and critique.

"Count Dohna and his "Moewe" - a silent film procured by the US Army Signal Corps and placed into the public domain files of the US National Archives, showing actual scenes of German commerce raiding on the seas in World War I. The actual film was "taken with German camera, lens and film by the first made of the "Moewe," Captain-lieutenant Wolf." The "Moewe" was the name of the combat-raiding ship. This is some pretty darned impressive footage of actual sea combat in the early years of the First World War.

Scenes of British, Russian and American battle tanks in action in Europe and the Pacific, to include actual combat footage taken from inside a flame-throwing US tank in one of the island battles. Rare footage of Russian/Soviet tanks of the time. Taken from a newsreel produced by the now-defunct and vanished Castle Films, and clearly from footage of combat photographers. Posted for historical education, discussion and critique.

A silent newsreel, almost lost to history, made for the home market, on 8mm movie film (somewhat aged...there are some spots and scratches) of the nuclear bomb test against obsolete Navy ships moored at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The idea was to test the survivability of naval vessels of various types in the event of an atomic/nuclear bomb attack upon them, as well as decontamination techniques....the newsreel was put together from official US government films taken on scene at the time.

Scenes of the Italian Army in World War I, from the public domain files of the National Archives...made by the US Army Signal Corps.

A segment of a 1942 newsreel produced by the now-defunct and disappeared "Official Films," a production company that most often used government-produced film to create public releases. This clip shows mostly Australian troops fighting against the Japanese through the jungle terrain of New Guinea in the early years of the war in the Pacific, and includes at least some actual combat footage. Some very impressive shots of combat supply airdrops requiring some pretty gutsy flying. Posted for historical education, discussion and critique.

Digitized and reversed from the original 16mm negative movie film, here are scenes of Bob Hope and his USO troupe arriving in Europe and doing a small USO show, probably in 1946 or 47......that's quite a car they've got to tour him around in.

The Palace of Fine Arts, in San Francisco, CA.....this was taken from silent 8mm home movie film shot in 1963 or 1964.....the scaffolds used for a restoration of the buildings was still in place in several locations, and that restoration was completed in 1965.

Taken from wartime newsreels now in the public domain, here are scenes of American Army Air Corps aircraft in action over North Africa in 1942.

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.

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.

Scenes digitized from 8mm silent "home movies" of a rattlesnake hunt in Texas, sometime in the 60s or 70s.

From the public domain files of the US National Archives, here is a US Army historical film (No. 1109) procured by the Army Signal Corps with silent scenes of "The Italian Army in the World War" (referring to WWI, not II). Lots of men, materials and weapons are shown, including mule pack trains and cavalry, artillery being moved up steep mountain roads and troops on bicycles, as well as early Italian tanks. Has some actual combat scenes, as well as training and movements. This is really an impressive look at Italian efforts during The Great War.

Scenes of Washington DC in the 1950s, digitized from 8mm "home movie" films.

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.