Pathe News
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Pathe Newsreels were produced from 1910 until mid-1956, when the newsreels in general stopped production. They were shown theatrically, silent at first with title cards mentioning the action on the screen and then with voice over narration, which was added in the early 1930s.
Pathe News is the oldest name in the motion picture industry today. The company was founded in France in 1895 by Charles Pathe, a dynamic personality who was directly responsible for the rapid growth of the young motion picture industry and the discovery of many of its major artists. In fact, employees of the early Pathe company in America composed a veritable Who's Who in the motion picture industry.
In 1895, Charles Pathe chose as a trademark the rooster, known from the days of the Gauls as an emblem of victory. The choice was prophetic, for today the Pathe rooster, with the clarion voice, is recognized in the remotest corners of the world as a symbol of authority of visual information.
In 1947, the film assets of the successor companies of Pathe News, Inc. were purchased by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. from the RKO interests, who had acquired them in 1931. Warner Bros., as had RKO before them, continued to produce the theatrical newsreel, (Pathe News Film Library), and also produced a series of thirty-eight theatrical short subjects, and eighty-one issues of the "News Magazine of the Screen" which added to the Pathe film properties and are now part of the company's extensive film library.
In 1956, Warner Bros. discontinued the production of the theatrical newsreel and sold the Pathe News film library, the 38 theatrical short subjects, the "Pathe News Magazine of the Screen", the crowing rooster trade mark and the copyrights and other properties to Studio Films, Inc. (shortly thereafter named Pathe Pictures, Inc.), who subsequently relinquished the name and film properties of both companies to Pathe News, Inc.
Voice Over talent consisted of Dwight Weist, Dan Donaldson, Andre Baruch and Clem McCarthy, among others.
[edit] External links
- Archival newsreels of Marilyn Monroe from Paramount News and Pathe News
