British Pathe

Reel 1.

No title. Intertitle reads: "Racing the trains." A speedboat called Baby Gar IV races along on a river with a steam train keeping pace on the banks. The train at the railway station. Name plate - Lord Nelson. We see the train speeding along. The "Flying Scotsman". We see the engine...

Reel 1.

No title. Intertitle reads: "Racing the trains." A speedboat called Baby Gar IV races along on a river with a steam train keeping pace on the banks. The train at the railway station. Name plate - Lord Nelson. We see the train speeding along. The "Flying Scotsman". We see the engine and its name plate. Shot from by the side of the wheels to show movement of the pistons. Engine driver. Top shot of the train passing underneath and a shot from low down - on the tracks. Shot of pistons moving by the wheels.

Motor racing. Track not recognised by this cataloguer. No date mark on this section - presumably 1920s. One of the drivers is Leon Duray. (This extract from a Pathe News item.) Next intertitle reads: "Grantland Rice Sportlight - The feature of Yale's great Olympic crew was power, precision and the ability to pull together - Pathepicture" - presumably from an American newsreel. We see teams row on a large river. C/U of spectators. Possibly from the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

Jack Dempsey is driven in an open topped car. Clowns run after the car. It seems to be some kind of sports ground. Crowds wave. Two other men not recognised are in the car. Steam train arrives at a station. Two young children paddle in the sea with their mother, one in a cute sailor suit.

A woman holds the leads of three greyhounds. C/U of one of the greyhounds and another greyhound being stroked by his owner. Several men holding dogs let them go and they run off. We see this in slow motion. A greyhound track - very basic grass track with wire fence and lots of spectators. The dogs jump fences - we see this in slow motion. They run to the finishing line and are collected by their owners, including a young boy and two women. Scoreboard reads: "Partanis Course". C/U of the heads of two of the dogs.
01:07:08 - Tennis player Bill Tilden is shown in Forest Hills, L.I. We can see stills and moving picture cameramen by the side of the court. We see him take a shot in slow motion. Top shot of the court. Charley Paddock the runner is featured at Colgate Stadium, West Orange, New Jersey. We see him take part in a race in slow motion. Johnny Weissmuller dives into a pool and swims front crawl lengths against an opponent. A group of Ostriches are seen running in an Egyptian landscape (the pyramids look a bit unreal so maybe a backdrop?) C/Us of legs as they run.

01:09:34 - Speedboat cuts through the waves. A dog chases a cat at high speed. Two cats perch on a high ledge to escape the dog. Child seen earlier in sailor suit on beach. Running race. Speed ice skater. People being blown over on a very windy day. Land boats travel on a beach. A man and a woman sit on a sledge and travel down a slope splashing down in the sea. Surfers. Seaplane takes off. Speed boat. Baby Gar IV - same footage as earlier. C/U of the prow of the boat. Boat speeds past, someone waves. Men and women dressed in old fashioned bonnets and clothes (Georgian?) aboard an old locomotive (Stephenson's Rocket type of thing). They wave to the camera. A man swims. A seaplane flies through the air.