Travelogue (films)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Travelogue films, a form of Virtual tourism or travel documentary, have been providing information and entertainment about distant parts of the world since the late 19th century.
In 1893 Burton Holmes created the first travelogues. His travelogues were primarily lectures, illustrated by hand colored glass lantern slides, but he soon began adding film clips. After World War II, Lowell Thomas created popular Movietone News Reel travelogues shown in movie theaters across the U.S.
During the 1950s and 1960s independent film producers created film travelogues which were shown in towns and schools across the U.S.A. Public travelogue series, offering several evenings of travelogue films during the winter months, were often sold on a subscription basis in small and medium sized towns.
One popular travelogue filmmaker, Al Bell, traveled throughout the midwest during the 1960s and into the 1970s showing his travelogues in grade schools.
In the 1970s and 1980s the popularity of traditional travelogues declined. But, the advent of cable television channels such as the Discovery channel, and the availability of small, high quality, digital film equipment has renewed the popularity of travel films.
