Made for the home market in the 1930s, this silent film draws from Pathe Newsreels and is called “News Digest”, with a focus on the year 1938. It had been produced by Pathegrams (:09). The first section of the film is about the Los Angeles flood of 1938 (:19). This disastrous flood was one of the largest in history and occurred due to two major storms blowing in over the Los Angeles Basin. In a matter of a few days it produced about a year’s worth of rainfall. 20,000 had been forced into homelessness due to the flood (:28). Black and white footage follows with a view of outside the California market (:41) as well as a group of citizens peering out from their porch (:46). Toppled trees and poles lay into the street (1:05). Houses as well as cars also lay damaged by fallen trees (1:20). A hurricane had driven a whale into the shoreline in a ship graveyard (1:32). Men stretch themselves out at arm’s length to show the length of the beached whale (1:39). The film switches to a dust storm showing two people walking slowly through the dust cloud while holding onto a fence for guidance (2:09). Moving over to Europe, the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg (2:55) was forced to allow Austria to become a German state by the Nazi’s in 1938 although he was strongly opposed to doing so. The next section focuses on the Douglas DC-4 “Sky Giant” which was to be the largest transport plane (3:31). Men move around the inside (3:41) and slowly push the engine into place (3:58). The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engine propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s. A massive sled boat is next seen easily gliding and breaking through ice in water (4:46). The Regatta opening in 1938 (5:12) presents viewers with picturesque views of sailboats in the water (5:54) and this was to be the last best year for yachting as the second world war would soon halt it. As war threats became eminent, the US ramped up it’s rearmament activity (6:55). Furnaces are shown burning as weapons are being produced (7:14). Sixteen-inch guns were to be made again for the first time since 1920 (7:21). A new invention in flood rescue is the ‘mechanical alligator’ which viewers can see this rescue tank toppling trees with ease (8:29). Next, two planes named Maia and Mercury are pictured sitting atop one another (9:49). This was the Shorts Mayo Composite which was a piggy-back long-range seaplane/flying boat combination. They were to enable reliable long-range air transport services and we can see the pair taking off together (10:30). Footage of a speed outboard boat race includes one boat named Captain running around a flag and others following at a mile a minute (11:18). In the Bavarian Alps, bobsleds are being pushed down an Olympic course (12:18). Many are lay to ruin as one group topples over around a corner (12:37) and another crashes and flips completely over sending its inhabitants into the snow (13:01). The end screen appears with a rooster overtop ‘Pathegrams’ (13:07)

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