Author Archive: Retro

Newsreel story from the early 30s documenting a sports festival in China, including a sport that must be an early version of the hackysack. Narration is breezy, but manages to avoid stereotypes for the most part, which is amazing given the time this was made. It does give you a historically interesting brief glimpse of pre-war China.

ARC Identifier 643188 / Local Identifier 263.334. This film explores the industry and culture of the cities of Tianjin and Beijing. National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. (09/18/1947 – 12/04/1981)

Documentary about the great boxer «Joe Louis — The Brown Bomber, Heavyweight Champion of the World».

In 1957, Richard D. Heffner sat down with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Judge J. Waties Waring to discuss the subject of “The New Negro.”

Dir. Frank Capra. Documents the significance of blacks in American history and black soldiers during World War II.

This film shows several important visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance at work.

Long-time New York Yankee star, first baseman Lou Gehrig battles ALS with the help of his wife, and of his teammate, catcher Bill Dickey. The disease cuts short Gehrig’s great baseball career, and kills “The Iron Horse” within a few years.

During WWII, the U.S. government produced numerous documentaries, often under the supervision of Frank Capra, designed to build support for the war. One of the more curious entries in this effort was The Negro Soldier. The structure of the film is that of a black minister who preaches a sermon to his all-black congregation. Over the course of 40 minutes, the minister recounts the contributions of blacks in American military history, from Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre to the men who served in WWI, along the way touching on the War of 1812, the Civil War, the exploration of the West and the building of the railroad, the Spanish-American War, and the building of the Panama Canal. Throughout, the filmmakers blend archival footage and Hollywood re-creations to illustrate the preacher’s words, and even include a re-creation of the destruction by the Nazis of a WWI monument in France to African-American soldiers. The film then [...]