MS 762 - Boggs Castle Film Collection
MLA Citation
Tags
| Title | MS 762 - Boggs Castle Film Collection |
|---|---|
| Introduction | The Boggs Castle Films Collections consists of 64 commercially produced newsreel films (on both 5" and 3" reels) from the period of World War II and the years immediately preceeding it: 58 films produced by Castle films and 6 films produced by Official Films. The films were donated and transferred to the Center for Archival Collections on October 5, 1998, through the cooperation of Arlo and Helen Boggs of Bowling Green, Ohio. There are no restrictions on the use of this collection, but the copyrights are probably retained by Castle Films or their successor companies. The register was prepared by Marilyn Levinson, Curator of Manuscripts in October 1998. |
| Agency History | Castle Films provided the American public with a window on current events through the "magazine" newsreels which they made available for the amateur home-movie market starting in the 1930s. It had been estimated that in 1937 more than 2 million Americans owned their own 8mm or 16mm projectors. These films were in the same vein as the theatrical newsreels, which other major producers such as Fox-Movietone News, March of Time, and Pathe made a part of the program at most moviehouses in the period from 1930 through the war years, but the Castle Films product was never released in the theatrical market. The founder of Castle Films, Eugene Castle, had been the Pacific editor for Fox News in the early 1920's. |
| Scope and Content | The Boggs Castle Films Collection consists of 64 8mm newsreel type films (58 Castle Films and 6 Official Films) which were commercially available starting in the 1930s to the amateur, home-movie market. Only a couple of the items deal with the pre-war period, covering the War in China and the News Parade of 1937, all the rest involve events associated with World War II, from the early period to the entry of the U.S. into the war. Another small segment related to the progress of the war on the homefront is illustrated by the Civil Defense series, two films of which are in the collection. Although Castle Films continued to produce material after the conclusion of the war, the Boggs collection does not include anything beyond 1947. Many Castle Films are available in digital form online at the Ball State University Digital Media Repository (BSUDMR), at the Internet Archive (IA), and You Tube (Youtube). Links to these resources are provided in the inventory below. |
| Series Description | AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS FILMS (8mm) |
| Inventory | Box 1 Numbered films (5" reels)
Box 2 Numbered films (5" reels)
Box 3 Numbered films (5" reels)
Box 4 Unnumbered Individual Films
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