Yesterday's Newsreel Maginot Line Circus Fire (1925)

Synopsis

This Yesterday’s Newsreel film (episode 120) 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 begins with French troops training near the Maginot Line in 1939. Footage shows troops going through bunkers and tunnels along the Maginot Line. Soldiers ride a subway system. Soldiers man the line’s Central Fire Control. Anti-tank steel spikes protrude from the ground along the line. Soldiers load shells into artillery guns. In the next segment (02:47), viewers see European strongman Zishe Breitbart in 1923 as he bends iron bars, breaks chain links with his teeth, drives nails into wood planks with his bare hands, holds a motordrome on his torso while two cyclists ride motorcycles on it, and lies on a bed of nails and braces himself against two plank sections laid over him, which then have horses and a baby elephant cross on them. In “Personalities” (04:58), viewers see newly appointed Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as he receives congratulations and then poses with his family, U.S. Army General Billy Mitchell standing with his wife and infant child, and John J. Raskob standing outside a building prior to being named chairman of the National Committee of Democrats. Next, the episode shows footage of the aftermath of a 1922 fire at the Big Show Circus’ winter headquarters in Bridgeport, CT (06:24); viewers see the charred remains of circus wagons,…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

12 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage