About the Collection

Before the advent of television news five major newsreels were screened in theaters throughout the United States: Fox Movietone News, Paramount News, Universal News, Hearst/MGM's News of the Day, and Warner-Pathé News. Twice a week, these companies released a one-reel "issue" that featured news from across the globe and around the corner. Such a broad scope of coverage was made possible by the hundreds of camera crews spread throughout the country and the world. These crews submitted film to newsreels headquarters in New York and each roll of film was accompanied by a "dope sheet." Dope sheets contained information from the camera crews to help newsreel editors understand the contents of the film ["dope", by the way, was slang for "information"].

Prior to World War II, the newsreel companies were competitors. During the war, however, they combined with other news agencies to form a "roto" system to streamline the distribution of vital war information and conserve human and material resources. In peacetime, newsmen from all agencies would cover major government activities, but the roto system allowed one cameraman to cover the story with the agreement that all newsreel agencies would have equal access to the film.

The roto system worked well, but sharing film resources for major news stories and most overseas war news meant that each newsreel was forced to look harder for the exclusive content that would distinguish its newsreel from the others.

Understanding the collection: Fox Movietone News distributed its newsreel by volume and issue number. Each volume contained 104 issues, spanning a full calendar year--the first issue of every volume was released the first week of September. Volume 25 Issue 1, for example, was released in September XX, 1942. References to particular volumes and issues (in orange or red wax pencil ) can often be found on dope sheets. Each incoming film was assigned a unique story number by Fox. These story numbers ran sequentially from the beginning of the sound newsreel in 1927 through the end of the Fox Movietone Newsreel in 1963. The numbering system ran in a pattern xx-yyy (with yyy rolling over at 999). Thus, story number 51-999 was followed by story number 52-001. These numbers are typically marked on the sides of the dope sheets. Any additional paperwork submitted with a dope sheet (e. g., a typescript of a politicians speech) was also marked with the appropriate story number.

"Fox Movietone News: The War Years" provides important insight into how news during the war was processed by Fox Movietone News for popular consumption. In its current form, the exhibit provides only a small sample of the more than 30,000 dope sheets filed by Fox Movietone News from December of 1941 through 1945.

"Fox Movietone News: The War Years" is part of a collaboration between the University of South Carolina Newsfilm Libray, The Motion Picture Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress, and Twentieth Century Fox.

Greg Wilsbacher, Head of the Newsfilm Library, suggested this collection and allowed the Digital Activities Department access to it for loading to CONTENTdm. Phu Nagen (MLIS, 2005) scanned the collection and created the metadata. Santi Thompson (MLIS, 2008) and Deborah Green (MLIS, 2007) loaded the items to the database and updated the metadata records to the SCDC guidelines. The metadata records follow the Western States Best Practices Dublin Core format. Stewart Baker (MLIS, 2007) created a home page for the collection. The work could also not have been done without the help of Tony Branch, of the Systems Department, who is the systems administrator for the CONTENTdm database and helps to manage the computers and scanners in the Digital Activities Department.