Cinegazette

Dates

1947 - 1957

Category

Cinemagazine - Industrial

History

Cinegazette, also known as Cine-Gazette or London Transport’s Cine Gazette, was conceived as a series to promote the work of the London Transport Executive both to its staff and the wider public. The first issue, produced by Academy Picture Corporation and released in 1947, was a mixture of recent technological developments and staff sporting news. The series was shown to staff in cinema coaches and by mobile units, and also to members of the public through mobile units and exhibition displays. There was no regular distribution network for the series, and it seems that there was also no regular production schedule - the series was just released periodically.
From the third issue onwards, it was Academy Pictures’ intention that issues would have a more formal structure. They announced that each issue would have a set pattern: a main item on an aspect of London Transport Activities; a ‘Round and About’ feature for staff; and an item of interest to the general public. However, this pattern was only applied sporadically, being interspersed with single story issues.
When British Transport Films (BTF) took on film production for the entire transport network, they also took on the production of Cinegazette, for which they are credited from issue 11 onwards. The film unit, under the direction of Edgar Anstey, continued with single story issues, rather than the pattern set by Academy Films. This format seems to have been especially successful from a distribution angle, as several of the later issues were shown in cinemas or televised by the BBC. These include some of the most famous films made by BTF, such as ‘The Elephant Will Never Forget’, Cinegazette No.12 (1953) and ‘Do You Remember?', Cinegazette No.14 (1955).
The final issue of Cinegazette, No.16, was released in 1957.

Provenance

The NoS team were given access to issues 1 to 6 by the London Transport Museum, from which the synopses have been written. In addition, material has been collected from copies of Film User, the British Film Institute Film & TV Database, and British National Film and Video Catalogue Retrospective File.

Other Information

Intertitles on issues one to six name this series ‘Cinegazette’. However, the titles for issue twelve name the series ‘Cine Gazette’. Some sources also list the series as ‘London Transport’s Cine Gazette’. For ease of recognition and cataloguing, the News on Screen team have chosen to take the series’ original name - ‘Cinegazette’.

Films in this series can be obtained from:

Film Archive

Name

London’s Transport Museum

Email

simon.murphy@ltmuseum.co.uk

Web

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk

Phone

020 7379 6344

Fax

020 7565 7254

Address

39 Wellington Street
Covent Garden
London WC2E 7BB

Series held

View all series held by London’s Transport Museum

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries: nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk For commercial/footage reuse enquiries: footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)