What 16mm Films Did You See Last Night?

[Ed Gordon]

Steve, I watched it last night. That print posted on youtube is a standard definition copy which was probably made from a 16mm print like yours. That company, Periscope Films, is a name that seems to pop up often lately. When I searched for your film the youtube post on the Periscope came up first. I found more info on your film at the Periscope website:

76474 NASA HIGHLIGHTS OF 1967 NEWSREEL SATURN V ROCKET

Made in 1967, this Aeronautics and Space Report was produced by NASA. Just ten years after the launch of Sputnik, this film shows some of the preparations for the Apollo 11 moon landing. First, the Surveyor probes are shown landing on the Moon and making photographic surveys. The Lunar Orbiters are also shown — 3 of these craft circled the Moon to create photographic maps of the surface. The Apollo 4 mission is also shown, with a successful test of the Saturn V rocket. In the wake of the loss of the three Apollo 1 astronauts, this film shows (at the 4 minute mark) some of the safeguards put into place to prevent a future incident. Other unmanned space explorers shown include the Biosatellite, the Orbiting Solar Observatory series, and more. The Atlas-Agena rocket is shown launching communications and weather forecast satellites. This includes new satellites for communications with aircraft over the oceans, which were often out of range of ground signals for an hour or more. Also seen is the Mariner V program run through the Jet Propulsion Lab, with William Pickering shown discussing the probe at the 9 minute mark. The San Marco rocket is seen, with a launch platform from near Kenya, is seen at the 10 minute mark. Sounding rocket launches are seen as well from Wallops Island. The XB-70 supersonic aircraft is seen at the 10:40 mark, the F-111 with its variable shaped wings, and the hypersonic X-15 rocket plane which was retired in 1967. The X-15 was pushed toward Mach 7 in a specially-coated X-15 (which here appears white). An HL-10 Lifting Body is also seen being tested at Edwards Air Force Base. The film ends with studies of civil aviation including work to diminish noise from jet aircraft.

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com

PeriscopeFilm.com is a great place to research older films. The "transportation" category includes a lot of films on old railroads. I noticed that you can sign up at their site and download digital copies of old films. Their business is selling stock footage. Which I assume is why the video includes an embedded counter so that customers can specify the footage they want.

Now if only I could find a website hosting those old Movietone and Universal newsreels.

[Steve Klare]

Hi Ed,

Yes, that's the one. I actually had to watch it a few minutes because I've only seen the 16mm once!

1967 was also the year I started Kindergarten, but I don't hold that against the movie!

Mom picked me up that first day:
"So, did you like it?"
"Well, I'm glad It's over with!"

-but they made me go back...all the way through until the end of Graduate School!

[Ed Gordon]

Last Night: Space Highlights 1967

This is a NASA release, with the official looking "NASA, Washington DC" label on the can and all! I'd say it was meant for public-relations purposes as everything is an overview.

'67 was a big year For NASA since they were preparing to send manned-flights to the moon. It wasn't a good year since that January there was a fire on the launch pad and three Astronauts died. They commented on the fire and discussed how the Command Module was being redesigned to prevent this happening again. Because of this, the manned portion of the program was on hold that year while they regrouped.

...

Steve, is this video from youtube the film you recommend?

[Steve Klare]

Hi Melvin,

It runs a little more than 15 minutes (-from a pretty full 600 Foot Reel). It didn’t go very deep into details, just enough to show the Public that NASA was making progress! I wonder if it was meant to be televised.

What's interesting is the Narrator's opening line begins "Just ten years after Sputnik...".

Black and white is an asset here: the color NASA films I passed up on were all quite red.
.

Commander Pete Conrad visits Surveyor 3 after a long trip from Florida.
The camera by his right shoulder is now in the Smithsonian.
(Apollo 12's LEM stands in the upper right.)

[Melvin England]

Steve - There seems to be a lot to see in that film. Sounds really interesting. How long did it run for, please ?

[Steve Klare]

Last Night: Space Highlights 1967

This is a NASA release, with the official looking "NASA, Washington DC" label on the can and all! I'd say it was meant for public-relations purposes as everything is an overview.

'67 was a big year For NASA since they were preparing to send manned-flights to the moon. It wasn't a good year since that January there was a fire on the launch pad and three Astronauts died. They commented on the fire and discussed how the Command Module was being redesigned to prevent this happening again. Because of this, the manned portion of the program was on hold that year while they regrouped.

They showed some of the very earliest Apollo flights, which went no further than Earth orbit just to test new equipment. These are ones we don't often talk about these days since nothing glamorous happened. They showed the launch of Apollo 4: still unmanned, but meant to test the ability of the Saturn V launch vehicle to achieve Earth orbit and the Command Module to safely splash down.

It wouldn't be for another year that Apollo 8 would take a crew all the way out to the moon and return. Apollo 10 actually had Astronauts aboard the LEM descending towards the lunar surface. Still about 50 miles up, they basically said "Nnnnnope!" and went back up to rendezvous with the Command Module and return home. Apollo 11 actually did the deed! (NASA was very deliberate, and very patient!)

They talked about the Surveyor program: how unmanned landers were being sent to potential Apollo landing sites to assess the viability of their plans for manned landings. One of the neat things about seeing a film like this from a fixed moment in time is the viewer knows things that the people in the film don't just yet and can tell even more of the story that within the film is only beginning. Apollo 11 missed its planned landing site by over a mile (the area was much rougher than they expected), so NASA planned to make a test of their real ability to land at a chosen site. Apollo 12 landed well within walking distance of the now dormant Surveyor 3 lander and the Astronauts removed several pieces of equipment off the lander for return to Earth and analysis of the effects of their exposure to the Lunar environment.

They mentioned that NASA had launched an Earth satellite that would allow aircraft to fly all the way across the Atlantic without any period of radio silence for the first time. They also mentioned a fly-by of Venus to measure its atmosphere. A few years later, the Soviets made a series of landings there and got the whole story.

I enjoyed this film a lot: I was a little kid when all this was going on and I just loved watching it happen back then. I made a point of looking up at the moon when there were Astronauts there, just to think about that fact.

This is a nice print: sharp black and white in really good shape with excellent sound. It's natural to imagine how it could be used in shows.

A few CineSeas ago, the Thursday Night Theme was "space". It's a shame it arrived maybe a year too late, but I think the Crowd would love it, so it's going to be there next time!

I do shows at home with mixed formats and an audience and this one is just perfect to be a short for my Apollo 13 DVD feature. That could happen too!

[Ed Gordon]

Ed, that actually sounds like something that a director would do.

Stranger things have happened. In an interview with Ellen Burstyn, the subject of odd things happening on the set while making a movie, she recalled a story that Robert Surtees (cinematographer) told her:

I want to tell you a story he told me. It's a show biz story. He was making some movie. I don't know what the movie was, and the leading man completed his last scene. They did a close up and he died, but they hadn't shot the person he was talking to the reverse of her close up, so they propped him up and shot over his shoulder. Is it even legal? No? Oh god, I can't even believe that.

[Janice Glesser]

Ed, that actually sounds like something that a director would do.

[Ed Gordon]

There was a a story I heard, but never found any confirmation, that Mike Nichols told the cameraman to keep rolling after Ross and Hoffman sit down in back of the bus. Nichols did not tell Ross and Hoffman about it, because he wanted to get a confused reaction from the two actors when they kept expecting someone to yell, "cut!".

[Janice Glesser]

Watched my son's favorite movie "The Graduate". It's a classic with a great soundtrack. I love towards the end when a very young Richard Dreyfuss pops his head into the camera view and says, "Do you want me to call the cops... I'll call the cops! "

[Janice Glesser]

Doug...lol! Growing up living in San Francisco it wouldn't surprise me. It's the melting pot capital of the world 😊

[Douglas Meltzer]

Janice,

I'm assuming that class of '65 was fluent in Norwegian!

[Janice Glesser]

Last night I watched my copy of "Witness". I haven't been watching a lot of film the past year, but I've taught my son to work my Elmo 16mm CL projector. I get to just sit back and enjoy the show.

I also found out this week that Danny Glover's sister Connie graduated with my class of '65 at George Washington High School in San Francisco. Small world 🤩.

[Steve Klare]

“C’mon, Nawwwmin! -They just opened up the bahhhhh!”

[Janice Glesser]

Thank you Steve.... That is one of my favorite lines too!