E. M. Newman Travelogues
Edward M. Newman (March 16, 1870 – April 16, 1953) was a film producer of many documentary film shorts released by Warner Brothers and edited at Vitaphone studios in Brooklyn, New York in the 1930s. These were mostly of the travelogue genre.
Overview
Around 1930, the major studios in Hollywood discovered that travel shorts running under 11 minutes were among the cheapest to produce as "filler" on the theatrical program. The number of "faraway adventures" made for eager Depression Era audiences, who seldom traveled far from home, rapidly increased at this time. (Films of this type had been around for decades.) Only one cameraman was needed, sometimes with a few assistants, along with one editor, sometimes a studio orchestra and usually a narrator. Much of the material could be shot silent and dubbed over later, although Fox Movietone News included on-location sound recordings with many of their "Magic Carpet" series.
Compared to the competition (which included Fox, Amadee J. Van Beuren "Vagabond Adventures" for RKO Pictures, Universal Pictures "Going Places", Columbia Pictures "Rambling Reporter", Educational Pictures "Treasure Chest" and other series and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Burton Holmes and James A. Fitzpatrick "Traveltalks"), the Warner-Newman travelogues were well-produced and often featured locales not covered in other series. One additional novelty was that the series name changed with each "season" (lasting September through August/September of the next year), spotlighting a specific theme such as U.S. history (as seen by famous sites) and "musical journeys". This enabled the theater exhibitors to offer attendees something different and new each year.
Ira Genet collaborated as director and writer with many of these. Key editor was Bert Frank, who also worked on many other Vitaphone shorts, including some documentaries that assembled old silent film footage. Leo Donnelly was a key narrator in the earlier shorts, also handling Ripley’s Believe It or Not for Warner-Vitaphone.
When rival FitzPatrick with MGM started shooting in full Technicolor, Warner was already spending a fortune on their other two-reel musical and comedy shorts in color. As a result of this (along with various technical difficulties), the Newman series continued to be released in black and white until 1936, then opted for the more economical Cinecolor. Trade reviews tended to unfavorably compare them with the MGM Traveltalks, which boasted the full rainbow effect. Yet they continued to be praised for their expert commentary and interesting subject matter. In 1938, the so-called "Colortours" were regrouped as the Vitaphone Color Parade, moving on to multi-subject topics backed by Mechanix Illustrated.
Earlier career
Prior to joining Warner-Vitaphone, E.M. Newman had roughly two decades of documentary film making experience. Unfortunately, like other pioneering "globe trotters", he was only fleetingly discussed in the periodicals of the times and is largely ignored by modern film historians. Like the more famous Burton Holmes, he was active on the travelogue lecture circuit (both with films and still photographs).
Educational Pictures, known today for its 1920s and '30s comedy films and as a distributor of animated cartoons more than its many documentaries, utilized him for a series of nature films and travelogues released in 1918, including some "scenics" of the Philippines, Japan and Mexico. Approximately thirty were produced.[1][2] His interest in shooting wildlife with a camera never dimmed, since many of Warner's travelogues of the 1930s showcased such footage. (Examples include Animals of the Amazon and Slackers and Workers of the Jungle, while Berlin Today featured police dogs in training and Dear Old London covered the zoo in detail). In 1922, he tackled a 7,000 mile tour of Africa and, according to Film Daily, over 30,000 feet of footage (handled with just two assistants), including "two hundred different tribes of natives and all possible species of wild animals".[3]
World War I saw him as a film correspondent and, according to Film Daily (August 21, 1918), "He has been with the American troops from their transports to the front. He was with them in Alsace, on the Piave and the Asiae-o Plateau. He witnessed the shelling of Paris and the raids on London. Mr. Newman's material includes all the work of the American forces, from the building of miles of railroads to the enormous bakeries. He still suffers from the effect of a gas attack, which laid him up for several weeks, and robbed him of his voice."
For the next 22 "seasons", he was on the lecture circuit and made a number of visits to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences covering such locales as the Virgin Islands [4][5] and, for his second travelogue presented at Carnegie Hall, a tour of Damascus and Syria.[6] In 1924, he was working alongside Burton Holmes gathering material in Europe.[7] A few months before releasing his first Warner travelogues, he had another successful Carnegie Hall presentation covering Italy with G. J. Marfleet and color work by Dorothy Rankin.[8]
Listing of films
A full list of the travelogues released between 1931 and 1938 are as follows (with review dates by Film Daily and copyright dates when release dates are not available):
Traveltalks
Burnet Hershey is sometimes credited on these
| Title | Release, copyright or review date | Location or subject |
|---|---|---|
| A Trip to Tibet | © March 19, 1931 | Tibet |
| Scenic of Algiers | April 12, 1931 (Film Daily review) | featuring the "Paris of North Africa", Algiers |
| Animals of the Amazon | May 1931 | Brazil wildlife including sloths, giant anteaters, river dolphins and monkeys |
| Down the Blue Danube | June 28, 1931 (Film Daily review) | Vienna, Austria & Germany |
| Little Journeys to Great Masters | August 1, 1931 | Rome & Florence |
| Southern India | October 11, 1931 (Film Daily review) | |
| The Road to Mandalay | November 1, 1931 (Film Daily review) | Burma |
| Mediterranean By-ways | December 6, 1931 (Film Daily review) | Morocco, Sardinia, Malta & Pompeii (Italy) |
| Java | January 2, 1932 (Film Daily review) | Singapore, Colombo & Java |
| Northern India | March 20, 1932 (Film Daily review) | includes Agra region |
| Oberammergau, Land of the Passion Play | April 3, 1932 | covers the 1930 performance in Bavaria (Germany) |
| Soviet Russia | May 15, 1932 (Film Daily review) | features Saint Petersburg |
| When in Rome | June 11, 1932 (Film Daily review) | Rome |
| A South American Journey (South American Journeys) | June 25, 1932 (Film Daily review) | Brazil & Argentina included |
| Paris Glimpses | July 9, 1932 (Film Daily review) | Includes the Eiffel Tower & Champs-Élysées |
| Dancing Around the World | August 24, 1932 (Film Daily review) | Spain, Sweden, Italy (cameo by Douglas Fairbanks visiting), the Zulu people & Java |
| Dear Old London | August 26, 1932 (Film Daily review) | features London Zoo |
| Berlin Today | August 31, 1932 (Film Daily review) | features police dog training in Berlin |
World Adventures
Primary narrator was Leo Donnelly.
| Title | Release, copyright or review date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty Spots of the World | September 17, 1932 (Film Daily review) | Blue Grotto (Capri), Amalfi, the Acropolis of Athens, various spots in Japan & India |
| Transportation of the World | © September 21, 1932 | |
| Wonder Spots of the World | October 3, 1932 (Film Daily review) | includes Victoria Falls in Zambia, Pisa (Italy), Egypt including the Great Sphinx of Giza & the Taj Mahal |
| An Oriental Cocktail | October 10, 1932 (© September 29) | Hawaii (brief stop), mostly Japan |
| Curious Customs of the World | © October 17, 1932 | Includes Parsi customs in India, spirit killing in Bali, dances in Korea & Hawaii |
| Seeing Samoa | October 18, 1932 (Film Daily review) | |
| From Bethlehem to Jerusalem | © November 26, 1932 | |
| High Spots of the Far East | © February 6, 1933 | Pearl River (China), Siam & Egypt |
| Strange Ceremonies of the World | © March 31, 1933 | Japan, Hawaii |
| Main Streets | © April 12, 1933 | New York City, Paris, Venice & others |
| Workers of the World | May 6, 1933 | fishing in Ireland, Sulu harvesting, native American crafts |
| Costumes of the World | © July 24, 1933 | |
| Top of the World | © September 15, 1933 | Iceland |
Musical World Journeys
| Title | Release, copyright or review date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Exploring the Pacific | September 23, 1933 | Cocos Islands, Galapagos & Tahiti |
| Samoan Memories | © October 25, 1933 | Samoa |
| The Cannibal Isles (In the Cannibal Island) | © February 28, 1934 | Fiji & other parts |
| Italy, the New and the Old | © March 2, 1934 | Venice |
| Spanish America | © March 2, 1934 | Cuba, Mexico, Panama & other parts |
| Jerusalem, the Holy City | © March 15, 1934 | |
| Heart of Paris | © March 24, 1934 | |
| Slackers and Workers of the Jungle | © July 16, 1934 | Ceylon elephants & Malayan monkeys |
| The East Indies | © July 23, 1934 | Indonesia |
| Picturesque Siam | © July 25, 1934 | |
| Dark Africa | © August 2, 1934 | Ethiopia & Gulf of Aden |
| A Visit to the South Seas | © October 4, 1934 | |
| Central America | © October 5, 1934 |
See America First
Mostly narrated by John B. Kennedy, these United States locational travelogues were distributed in a more chronological order (based on historical periods) after their initial releases. The first three were shown in Washington D.C. at a special screening.
| Title | Release or review date | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Pilgrim Days | August 28, 1934 | |
| Boston Tea Party | August 28, 1934 | where the Revolutionary War began |
| Dixieland | August 28, 1934 | tour of the pre-Civil War south |
| Hail Columbia | © November 22, 1934 | covers terrain of Louisiana Purchase |
| Remember the Alamo | © January 2, 1935 | Texas tour |
| The Blue and the Gray | March 2, 1935 | profiles site of the Civil War (United States), along with veterans on parade (newsreel footage) |
| Westward Bound | April 13, 1935 | |
| The Trail of the 49ers | © April 22, 1935 | mostly California |
| Remember the Maine | May 4, 1935 | covers Spanish–American War |
| The Yanks are Coming | June 1, 1935 | vintage footage of World War I |
| Boom Days | June 23, 1935 | vintage footage from the last decade |
| The Mormon Trail | © July 6, 1935 | |
| Forward Together | July 13, 1935 | saluting the last few years and President Roosevelt |
Our Own U.S.
| Title | Narrator | Release or review date | Subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curious Industries | Harry Von Zell | September 7, 1935 | scrap iron collecting, oil drilling, goats & frog farming, clam & turtle fishing. |
| Playgrounds | James Wallington | October 5, 1935 | Virginia Beach, Coney Island, Palm Springs, Florida, Lake Placid (New York), Lake Marancook |
| Camera Hunting | Paul Douglas | October 18, 1935 (Film Daily review) | critter footage: beavers, trained ducks, cat & monkey team, alligators |
| Nature's Handiwork | David Ross | November 29, 1935 | Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite & other national parks. |
| Odd Occupations | Ken Roberts | November 27, 1935 | includes sponge diving in Tarpon Springs, Florida, turtle hunting, shoe-making in Pensacola, Florida & sulphur mining |
| Steel and Stone | Milton Cross | January 25, 1936 | history of bridge construction |
| A Day's Journey | Harlan Reed | February 22, 1936 | San Francisco, New Orleans and other cities |
| We Eat to Live | Howard Claney | April 9, 1936 (Film Daily review) | NYC Fulton Fish Market, Chicago's stockyards, Florida citrus |
| Vacation Spots | Don Wilson | April 18, 1936 | Includes Key West, Saratoga Springs, New York, Bar Harbor, Maine & Hot Springs National Park. Parts in Cinecolor. |
| Harbor Lights | H. V. Kaltenborn | March 21, 1936 | Ellis Island, Seattle, San Francisco, Savannah, Georgia & Galveston, Texas |
| Irons in the Fire | John S. Young | June 13, 1936 | |
| Can You Imagine? | Ray Saunders | July 13, 1936 | Milwaukee Zoo, lion wrestling, Provincetown, Massachusetts town cryer, etc. |
| For Sports' Sake | Brooke Temple | August 5, 1936 | includes mule baseball |
Colortour Adventures
Filmed in “Naturalcolor” and Cinecolor
| Title | Narrator | Release or review date | Location or subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Pearl of the Pacific | September 5, 1936 | Hawaii | |
| Colorful Occupations | Paul Douglas | October 3, 1936 | ladybug farms, flower designing, balloons, Siamese cat breeding |
| Northern Lights | Jean Paul King | October 21, 1936 | Sweden |
| The Hollanders | Basil Ruysdael | January 2, 1937 | Netherlands |
| Along the Mediterranean | Howard Claney | January 23, 1937 | Morocco, Spain, Greece & Italy |
| Nice Work | Milton Cross | January 30, 1937 | Norway fishing, Hawaii sugar, native American crafts |
| Land of the Midnight Sun | Alan Kent | February 27, 1937 | Norway |
| Nature the Artist | David Ross | March 20, 1937 | footage of flowers, from California deserts through a Holland, Michigan show |
| Cradle of Civilization | Kenneth Roberts | April 17, 1937 | Rhodes, Athens & Istanbul |
| Alpine Grandeur | Alan Kent | May 15, 1937 | Switzerland |
| Gateway to Africa | Howard Claney | June 12, 1937 | Morocco |
| Land of the Magyar | Basil Ruysdael | July 3, 1937 | Hungary |
| Crossing the Sahara | Howard Claney | August 14, 1937 | includes Morocco & Egypt |
| Long Bright Land | Howard Claney | September 18, 1937 | New Zealand including the kiwi |
| It's Work | Paul Douglas | October 23, 1937 | |
| Mysterious Ceylon | Basil Ruysdael | November 20, 1937 | Sri Lanka |
| Land of the Kangaroo | Howard Claney | December 18, 1937 | Australia |
| India's Millions | Basil Ruysdael | January 8, 1938 | |
| Malayan Jungles | Howard Claney | February 5, 1938 | Malay Peninsula including wildlife like the Chevrotain, along with native sports |
| What the World Makes | Paul Douglas | March 12, 1938 | |
| Pearl of the East | Howard Claney | March 21, 1938 | mostly India |
| Crossroads of the Orient | Basil Ruysdael | April 2, 1938 | Singapore |
| Toradja Land | Howard Claney | April 30, 1938 | Celebes (Sulawesi) & Borneo |
| Isles of Enchantment | Howard Claney | July 21, 1938 | Komodo (island), Flores & Bali |
| The Hermit Kingdom | Dwight Weist | August 27, 1938 | Siam |
See also
- List of short subjects by Hollywood studio#Warner Brothers
- Travelogue (films)
- Vitaphone Color Parade
- Burton Holmes
Links
- E.M. Newman on the IMDb.com
- Film Daily links (individual reviews referenced above)
References
- Liebman, Roy Vitaphone Films – A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts 2003 McFarland & Company
- Motion Pictures 1912-1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1951 Library of Congress
- BoxOffice back issue scans (reliable for release dates and some plot descriptions)
Notes
- ↑ Motion Picture News, January 19, 1918
- ↑ Film Daily, August 18 & August 21, 1918
- ↑ Film Daily, "Back with Jungle Films", September 20, 1922
- ↑ Kristin L. Hoganson, Consumers' Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920, 2007 University of North Carolina, p.327
- ↑ The Bulletin of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences Volume 23, September 18, 1920
- ↑ New York Times, November 29, 1920
- ↑ Film Daily, "After New Material", March 3, 1924
- ↑ Film Daily, November 26, 1930