One of the “Yesterday’s Newsreel” TV show episodes from the early 1950s, this film uses segments from the defunct General Newsreel Co.
Opening titles: Yesterday’s Newsreel (:06-:26) Title: 1931 – Round the World in 4 Days. Wiley Post and Harold Gatty. In 1931, Gatty served as navigator, along with pilot Wiley Post, on the flight which set the record for aerial circumnavigation of the world. Plane takes off, the plane is a Lockheed Vega 5B monoplane, named the Winnie Mae. Plane flies over Canada. Plane lands, starts taking off. Aerial footage over Holland. Tempelhof Airbase in Holland. Crowd of people lifts Post. The plane goes across Moscow and the rest of Russia. Bering Sea. Canadian soil. Cleveland Airport. The plane flies towards NYC. The plane lands. A crowd treats them as heroes. At night, fireworks are going off. Crowd cheers. Post and Gatty talk to the radio interviewer. New York Harbor, July 3, Post and Gatty and their wives wave at the people (:27-4:33). Title: 1921 – Bedmaking Marathon. Pasadena, CA, chambermaids make beds, learn how. A woman makes a bed very fast. Title: 1923 – John Harvard Takes Up Arms. Harvard Horsemen, Harvard University. Horses on the track. Men look at guns. A boy gets a pat on the head. Horses jump over an obstacle. Title: 1922 – Personalities. Joseph Gurney Cannon was a United States politician from Illinois and leader of the Republican Party. He stands and looks around, reads a book. Helen Meany, in 1928 Olympics she won first place. She pats her hair, and tucks it. She smiles. Heywood Broom, Texas Guinan, and Frank Gilmore sit together in the early 1930s. Title: 1926 – Train Wrecked in River. September 5, 1926, a train has derailed (4:34-8:10). The location was Granite, Colorado and the train the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad’s Scenic Limited. Running southeast, the train exceeded the rated speed for the track and crashed into the Arkansas River, resulting in 30 deaths and 54 injuries. The locomotive, tender, and six cars plunged into the river. Crash reports indicate the engineer was attempting to make up time since the train was running 25 minutes late. Title: 1923 – Strongarmed Pianist. Henry Cowell plays the piano. He does an odd technique on the piano, pulls his hands and fingers. Title: 1922 – Fashions of the Day. New shoe fashions. A woman shakes her head. The shoe finally fits a foot. A woman shows off new fashion shoes. Boston 1923 – a woman has her hair down. A new device can make permanent waves by using hot air. Her hair is curly. Title: 1926 – Sports. September 1926 – Charlie Hough is a pole-vaulter. He goes up and over into the sand. Scandanavians on ice, March 1928, Olympics. Ski jumping. A skier crashes. Figure skating. Sonja Henie skates (8:11-12:04). No end credits
In 1930, the record for flying around the world was not held by a fixed-wing aircraft, but by the Graf Zeppelin, piloted by Hugo Eckener in 1929 with a time of 21 days. On June 23, 1931, Wiley Post and the Australian navigator Harold Gatty, left Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, in the Winnie Mae with a flight plan that would take them around the world, stopping at Harbour Grace, Flintshire, Hanover twice, Berlin, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk, Nome, where his propeller had to be repaired, Fairbanks where the propeller was replaced, Edmonton, and Cleveland before returning to Roosevelt Field. They arrived back on July 1, after traveling 15,474 miles (24,903 km) in the record time of 8 days and 15 hours and 51 minutes, in the first successful aerial circumnavigation by a single-engined monoplane. The reception they received rivaled Charles Lindbergh’s everywhere they went. They had lunch at the White House on July 7, rode in a ticker-tape parade the next day in New York City, and were honored at a banquet given by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America at the Hotel Astor. After the flight, Post acquired the Winnie Mae from F.C. Hall, and he and Gatty published an account of their journey titled, Around the World in Eight Days, with an introduction by Will Rogers.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
