From the '36 Centennial Expo to the JFK Assassination to the SMU Death Penalty, Hundreds of Short Moments and Memories

Below, Friend of Unfair Park PeterK was wondering in the comments what newsreel footage of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition looked like. So he set off in search of some. And what he came back with last night was an extraordinary find -- a 42-clip collection consisting not only of...

By Robert Wilonsky

May 28, 2011

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Below, Friend of Unfair Park PeterK was wondering in the comments what newsreel footage of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition looked like. So he set off in search of some. And what he came back with last night was an extraordinary find -- a 42-clip collection consisting not only of short glimpses at the '36 Fair Park World's Fair, but other black-and-white flashbacks including highlights from the first National Football League championship game (Cowboys vs. Packers at the Cotton Bowl in '66), Amon Carter railing against Dallas's selection as the site of the World's Fair ("You'd think Dallas invented Texas"), the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald and excerpts from a 1941 doc about Dallas ("a mighty smart and stylish place" full of "real big-city folks").

Which, as it turns out, is but a fraction of a fraction of the available-for-licensing local look-sees: A "Dallas" search turns up some 560 clips, ranging from old news reports (most about the SMU death penalty) to a recap of the Georgia-SMU Cotton Bowl game on December 31, 1966, to slow-mo and time-lapsed and aerial glimpses at local landmarks (including this 27-minute-long rotating spin from high atop Reunion Tower taken in '02) to W.A. Criswell talking to the First Baptist congregation about how in-attendance President Gerald Ford refused to grant Playboy an interview. Here's one Peter thought Schutze would enjoy: newsreel footage capturing Trinity River flooding in the 1950s.

Stayed up till just past 1 this morning going through these. Didn't make it halfway through. In other words: Just the film fest with which to fill your long Memorial Day weekend.

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