This Yesterday’s Newsreel film (episode 82) offers the viewer “television highlights of the news of yesteryear” by providing vintage clips of famous people and events from the first half of the 20th century. The episode opens with George Lewis “Tex” Rickard looking over the fight contract between Jess Willard and Jack Dempsey. He looks at plans for a stadium, and footage shows men building the stands near Toledo, OH, site of the match. Jess Willard climbs into a car, then he is shown posing for the camera. Viewers see Willard training in the ring. Fans rush to the stadium for the fight (01:24). The episode then shows Rickard standing outside Boyle’s 30 Acres in New Jersey prior to the fight between Dempsey and France’s Georges Carpentier. At Madison Square Garden (2:12), Rickard signs Gene Tunney to a fight with Dempsey. There is a good panning shot of Chicago’s Soldiers Field where the 1927 Tunney-Dempsey rematch will be held. Mourners line up outside of Madison Square Garden to say goodbye to the late Rickard (03:04). In the next segment, cars drive down the Everglades highway in 1928 (04:00), also known as Tamiami Trail (the southernmost section of U.S. Highway 41). Thomas Edison attends the opening of the highway. That is followed by footage of car wash services in St. Paul, MN. Cars move through car wash facilities where men and women scrub, wash, and dry the cars. In the “Personalities” segment, viewers see Fables in Slang author George Ade at his Indiana home, golfing, and sitting at his desk. Mrs. Lillian Gilbreth stands in front of the camera talking and then is shown standing with her husband, Frank B. Gilbreth. Tennessee statesman Cordell Hull, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, sits at a desk and sifts through papers. In the following segment, viewers see the destruction of a 1925 tornado in north Minneapolis (06:50): much of the area is left in ruins, and several buildings are engulfed in flames fanned by strong winds. At an accordion school (possibly Sly Prior Accordion School) in 1927, adults and children pose in front of the school playing accordions in one of the biggest accordion concerts (07:34). In the episode’s “Aviation” segment, viewers see planes competing at Mitchell Field, Long Island, for the 1929 Guggenheim Prize (08:06). Biplanes fly through the sky and perform maneuvers. The Schroeder & Wentworth Burnelli GX-3 flies in the air and then lands. In “Fashions of the Day,” the episode takes viewers back to the flappers of 1924: three women sporting short haircuts wear stylish clothes and smoke in public (09:23). In the “Sports” segment, viewers see swimmer Myrtle Huddleston compete in the 1927 Wrigley Ocean Marathon; Canada’s George Young swim’s ahead and wins the race. Huddleston exits the water, becoming the first woman to make the swim between Catalina Island and the California coast. She poses with her young son. The episode concludes with footage of a 1930s football game at Sing Sing prison against Holy Name. Sing Sing’s Alabama Pitts (a future professional athlete following his pardon) entertains the crowd of inmates with his play.

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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