Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Midwinter Sailing in Florida in the 1930's

I have posted occasional links to some of the British sailing video shorts (under the name British Pathe', can someone elucidate on this unusual name?) put together, most likely as news reels that they would use to lead into the actual main-attraction movie, common practice circa 1930's and 1940's.

Below is a link to a midwinter sailboat race, sailed on Biscayne Bay, Florida in 1933 while those in the northern U.S (and England) froze their butts off. A Classic Moth appears at about the 45 second mark, almost getting T-boned by a larger sloop at the leeward mark.

Midwinter Sailing in Biscayne Bay, 1933

Update: Tillerman, with his first hand knowledge of English history, answers my question about the odd name British Pathe'. I've dragged his following comment over to the main post:

"Charles Pathé was a Frenchman who was one of the pioneers of the motion picture industry. When I was a boy, one of the companies he founded, Pathé News, used to make newsreels, short films covering current news that were shown in British cinemas. As I recall in those days on your trip to the cinema you would see a main feature, a B-movie (usually starring Ronald Reagan) and a Pathé newsreel.
Apparently, at some point more recently, Pathé News changed their name to British Pathé. I gather their main role theses days is in managing the newsreel archives which have been digitized and put online."

1 comment:

Tillerman said...

Charles Pathé was a Frenchman who was one of the pioneers of the motion picture industry. When I was a boy, one of the companies he founded, Pathé News, used to make newsreels, short films covering current news that were shown in British cinemas. As I recall in those days on your trip to the cinema you would see a main feature, a B-movie (usually starring Ronald Reagan) and a Pathé newsreel.

Apparently, at some point more recently, Pathé News changed their name to British Pathé. I gather their main role theses days is in managing the newsreel archives which have been digitized and put online.