1930

• • January 1930
  • Bi-weekly longer ‘super edition’ released alongside ‘ordinary’ edition. Required an expansion of the editorial team and likely that Lean joined now
  •  
• • Dance of the Basque Peasants
    (40 seconds)
  • Gaumont Sound News Issue 10, released 13/1/1930
    Eight men are filmed performing the a traditional Basque dance that is said to be a thousand years old … on a tennis court!
  • 
• • 31 March 1930
  • First National Pathe release Pathetone Weekly
  •  
• • April 1930
  • E.V.H. Emmett, later the voice of Gaumont Sound News, does his first commentary on a story concerning Princess Elizabeth’s birthday presents
  •  
• • Easter Racing at Brooklands
    (162 seconds)
  • Gaumont Sound News Issue 37, released 21/4/1930
    Brooklands was the first custom-built banked motor race circuit in the world and opened in 1907. In 1926 it hosted the first British Grand Prix. This item shows the circuit in its heyday, when it could hold crowds of over 200,000 people.
  • 
• • Budapest Choir at Barts Hospital
    (78 seconds)
  • Gaumont Sound News Issue 43, released 12/5/1930
    The Lord Mayor of Budapest arrives by coach followed by shots of the choir singing outside in the quadrangle of the hospital to assembled patients, in beds and wheelchairs.
  • 
• • Brooklands Air Pageant
    (73 seconds)
  • Gaumont Sound News Issue 47, released 26/5/1930
    This story shows the 1930 air display at Brooklands including an early parachute display and low passes over the crowd.
  • 
• • 2 June 1930
  • Pathe Super Sound Gazette released bi-weekly
  •  
• • July 1930
  • E.J.H. Wright, editor of British Movietone News resigns to join Paramount
  •  
• • 14 July 1930
  • Universal release British Talking News, first talking newsreel recorded on disc
  •  
• • August 1930
  • The Avenue Pavillion, Shaftesbury Avenue is converted into the British Movietone News Theatre (owned by Gaumont), later Shaftesbury Avenue News Theatre
  •  
• • September 1930
  • Paramount start to advertise Paramount Sound News launch in March 1931
  •  
• • Opening of Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Road
    (175 seconds)
  • Gaumont Sound News Issue 80, released 18/9/1930
    The Phoenix Theatre opens in 1930 with the premiere of Noël Coward’s Private Lives. Coward himself stars alongside Gertrude Lawrence, Adrienne Allen and a young Laurence Olivier. In this item Mr Cochran, the producer, opens champagne and makes a speech to crowds outside the theatre.
  • 
• • £1000 Golf Tournament At Oxhey
    (109 seconds)
  • Gaumont Sound News Issue 82, released 25/9/1930
    Archie Compston and Sandy Herd competing for a £1,000 prize
  • 
• • 5th October 1930
  • The British R101 airship crashes at Beauvais, France with the loss of 48 lives including a Cabinet Minister. David Lean recalled recording the commentary for the first edition of Gaumont Sound News released early that evening. The newsreels claimed to beat the press to the news story of the year.
  •  
• • November 1930
  • Keith Ayling, editor of Gaumont Sound News resigns to join British Movietone News. He is replaced by R.S. Howard.
  •