Courtesy of ITN Source / Reuters

Did you know that newsreels entertained their audiences with humorous and often pointedly satirical animated takes on important events? Some of the earliest animations produced for Gaumont Graphic were George E. Studdy’s war cartoons shown from March to July 1915. This remarkable series adds an important dimension to our understanding of the representation of the war on cinema screens throughout Britain.The details of these stories, such as A Spring Topic, can be found on the News on Screen database.

There are many more light-hearted examples lampooning familiar events of the 1920s from general elections to the Grand National,  with this example showing the 1927 race from the Gee Gee’s perspective! High-quality downloads of selected examples of these and more delightful animations are available to UK HE/FE subscribers at Newsfilm Online.