{"id":2032,"date":"2010-08-27T12:12:41","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T16:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2013-08-02T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T02:56:11","slug":"march-of-time-newsreels-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/27\/march-of-time-newsreels-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"March of Time Newsreels in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mr_t_in_dc\/4249887012\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Film Canisters by Mr. T in DC\" src=\"\/blog\/2010\/08\/27_film_canisters.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"171\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"15\" vspace=\"6\" \/><\/a>Back in the days before 24-hour news networks, people went to their local movie theaters to see what was going on in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The March of Time, perhaps the most well-known producer of these videos, distributed documentaries that covered everything from American culture and lifestyles, to business and industry, to the nation at war.<\/p>\n<p>To celebrate the 75th anniversary of this precursor to breaking news videos on YouTube, the Museum of Modern Art has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moma.org\/visit\/calendar\/films\/1105\" target=\"_blank\">a special film exhibition<\/a>, running September 1 through September 10. Turner Classic Movies has posted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/thismonth\/article\/?cid=343405&amp;mainArticleId=343404\" target=\"_blank\">background information on The March of Time<\/a> and will <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/thismonth\/article\/?cid=345580&amp;mainArticleId=343404\" target=\"_blank\">show five of the newsreels<\/a> on September 5th.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, highlights from the collection of historical videos are also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/marchoftime\" target=\"_blank\">available online from HBO Archives<\/a>. Note that a free site login is required to view the videos. Additional materials are also available from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/themarchoftime\" target=\"_blank\">March of Time\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The newsreels and documentaries on the HBO site include historical events, cultural happenings, and biographical profiles. The videos provide a wonderful snapshot of life in America and around the world.<\/p>\n<p>I first wrote about the March of Time collection on Bedford Bits last summer. You can check my blog entry <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bedfordstmartins.com\/bits\/film-theory\/use-newsreel-videos-for-background-and-analysis\/\" target=\"_blank\">Use Newsreel Videos for Background and Analysis<\/a> there for specific ideas.<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite possibilities for class discussion this fall is the <a href=\"http:\/\/hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/secure\/gotoepisodedetails?key=MEDIAHBO124\" target=\"_blank\">Oil and Men video<\/a>, which offers a profile of Standard Oil of Indiana from 1951. What a great pairing that 30 minute video would make for videos and news stories on BP\u2019s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some others you may want to spend some time with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/secure\/gotoepisodedetails?key=MEDIAHBO160\" target=\"_blank\">Basic English 1<\/a>, with text by I. A. Richards, is quite odd, though perhaps not the best \u201cteaching picture.\u201d There\u2019s also a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/secure\/gotoepisodedetails?key=MEDIAHBO158\" target=\"_blank\">Basic English 2<\/a> if you survive the first video.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/secure\/gotoepisodedetails?key=MEDIAHBO128\" target=\"_blank\">Tobaccoland, USA<\/a> might pair nicely with an analysis of cigarette advertisements and anti-smoking commercials.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/secure\/gotoepisodedetails?key=MEDIAHBO139\" target=\"_blank\">Leadbelly<\/a> is a short biopic on the famous musician, which might be compared to profiles on celebrities shown on TV or in magazines like <em>People<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hboarchives.com\/apps\/searchlibrary\/ctl\/secure\/gotoepisodedetails?key=MEDIAHBO162\" target=\"_blank\">Wit and Humor<\/a> is a dramatization of Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s short story \u201cDr. Heidegger\u2019s Experiment.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s unfortunate that HBO has left the running clock on the videos, but it\u2019s still a handy collection with limitless possibilities for the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/srgblog\/473813703\/\" target=\"_blank\">Creative Commons licensed Flickr photo by Mr. T in DC<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the days before 24-hour news networks, people went to their local movie theaters to see what was going on in the world. The March of Time, perhaps the most well-known producer of these videos, distributed documentaries that covered everything from American culture and lifestyles, to business and industry, to the nation at war. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,41],"tags":[40,129,371,127,130,128],"class_list":["post-2032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american","category-classroom-activity","tag-assignments","tag-documentary","tag-film","tag-march-of-time","tag-nathaniel-hawthorne","tag-newsreels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-wM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2034,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions\/2034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}