You will see a list of the Hearst newsreels stories shown in theatres for one year (mostly News of the Day). You can use the slider to select the year (1929–1967). Every week there were two newsreels, each of which typically had five to nine stories. Starting with 1946, you can watch most of these stories on this website. A selection of videos before 1946 is also available (especially for 1929–1931).
If the story title is displayed in red, this means that the video is available to watch. You can click on the title to watch the video. To dismiss the video click on the title again. If the title is gray, this means we have not yet scanned the story, but it may become available in the future.
Many newsreels on this site have their original released sound track, but some do not. Sometimes we only have the “ambient” sound (without narration and editing), and sometimes we have no sound at all. We note this in the left margin. We expect to be able to improve the sound quality in the future.
In the margin to the left of each story you will see the date when the story was released, and the newsreel volume and issue. Each new volume started in August or September, so volumes do not correspond to years. The issues in each volume were numbered from 200 to 303. If you click on the date you will see the original printed “Synopsis Sheet” that was sent to theatres to describe this issue. To dismiss the sheet click it again.
Do not try to use your browser’s BackArrow to dismiss a video or a synopsis sheet. This will take you back further than you intend. Just click on the same item again to dismiss it.
The Options menu lets you restrict the display to show only those story summaries that have videos available on this website.
Begin browsing the newsreels shown in theatres.
The newsreel companies photographed many stories they did not use in their released newsreels. They retained much of this unused footage in their vaults, and you can watch many of these stories on this website. Most of this footage has never been seen by the public.
The options menu for unreleased materials gives you several choices. You can limit the list to only those stories that have videos. You can sort the stories either by their date or by their VM number. When you click on the VM number (at the left margin) you will see an image of the original Hearst card describing this story.
Begin browsing the Unreleased Materials.
This displays a list of topics, such as “Foreign Affairs” or “Transportation” or “Disasters.” If you click on a topic you will see a list of sub-topics, such as “Plane Crash” or “Shipwreck.” If you click on the sub-topic you will see a list of stories.
This is only a preliminary list, intended give you a synoptic view of the subjects covered by newsreel stories of the Eisenhower years (1953–1961).
Begin browsing the Sample Topics.