Propaganda, patriotism and profit: Charles Urban and British official war films in America during the First World War

Film History: An International Journal

Volumn 14, Issue 3-4, 2002, Pages 369-389

  McKernan, Luke ^a,b  

^a British Universities Film and Video Council

^b c/o BUFVC ^*  (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 63849303091     PISSN: 08922160     EISSN: 15533905     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2979/FIL.2002.14.3-4.369     Document Type: Review

References (89)

1. David Dimbleby and David Reynolds, An Ocean Apart: The Relationship Between Britain and America in the Twentieth Century (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1988), pp. 43-46
2. For the story of British First World War propaganda, in general and in America, see Cate Haste, Keep the Home Fires Burning: Propaganda in the First World War (London: Allen Lane, 1977)
3. Gary S. Messinger, British Propaganda and the State in the First World War (Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press, 1992)
4. H.C. Peterson, Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914-1917 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939)
5. M.L. Sanders and Philip M. Taylor, British Propaganda During the First World War (London: Macmillan, 1982)
6. James Duane Squires, British Propaganda at Home and in the United States from 1914 to 1917 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935)
7. For the story of the British official war films, see Kevin Brownlow, The War the West and the Wilderness (London: Secker & Warburg, 1979)
8. Nicholas Hiley, Making War: The British News Media and Government Control, 1914-1916 (PhD thesis, Open University, 1984)
9. Luke McKernan, Topical Budget: The Great British News Film (London: British Film Institute, 1992)
10. Nicholas Reeves, Official British Film Propaganda During the First World War (London: Croom Helm, 1986)
11. Roger Smither (ed.), Imperial War Museum Film Catalogue, Volume One: The First World War Archive (Trowbridge: Flicks Books, 1994)
12. Philip M. Taylor and Andrew Kelly (eds.), 'Britain and the Cinema in the First World War', special issue, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 13 no. 2 (1993)
13. For an account of Britain Prepared's production, see Brownlow, The War the West and the Wilderness, pp. 49-52
14. The film, lacking the original Kinemacolor sections, is held at the Imperial War Museum Film & Video Archive, London. See Smither (ed.), Imperial War Museum Film Catalogue, Volume One, cat. no. IWM 580
15. J. Brooke Wilkinson, Film and Censorship in England, Chapter XI, The War Years', Public Record Office (hereafter PRO) INF 4/2, pp. 313-314. This is the only chapter in public hands of Wilkinson's unpublished autobiography, the chapter on the First World War having been submitted for government approval in 1939
16. Wilkinson, Film and Censorship in England, pp. 307-309
17. M.L. Sanders, 'British Film Propaganda in Russia, 1916-1918', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 3 no. 2 (1983), pp. 117-129
18. Urban's parents were, strictly speaking, Austro-Prussian. His father came from Ronsberg, Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and emigrated to America in 1864. His mother came from Königsberg, East Prussia, and emigrated in 1850. Charles Urban (ed. Luke McKernan), A Yank in Britain: The Lost Memoirs of Charles Urban, Film Pioneer (Hastings: The Projection Box, 1999), p. 9
19. Film titles taken from Terry Ramsaye, A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1926), pp. 683-684
20. Urban to Wellington House, March 1916, quoted in 'Memorandum by Mr E.A. Gowers, Wellington House: Cinematograph Films in Neutral and Allied Countries, 29 May 1916, PRO FO 395/37 file 8403/104484
21. Urban to Wilkinson, 28 March 1916, quoted in Wilkinson, Film and Censorship in England, p. 310
22. American Society programme for Britain Prepared at the Berkeley Theatre, 17 March 1916, Charles Urban Papers, Science Museum Library, London (hereafter URB) 4/1-34
23. William J. Robinson, affadavit, 'In relation to the scurrilous attacks and untrue statements published by a certain London newspaper in regard to the negotations for the exhibition of British war films in America by Charles Urban', 10 October 1916, p. 1, URB 4/1-67
24. Charles Urban, 'Statement of Charles Urban in relation to the scurrilous attacks and untrue statements published by the Evening News of London, England, in their issues of 4 and 5 October 1916, in regard to the exhibition of "Britain Prepared" and "The Battle of the Somme" in the United States of America', (October 1916), p. 3, URB 4/1-69
25. Note from Guy Gaunt, 'British War Films', 21 November 1916, PRO FO 395/38 file 8403/249642
26. Robinson, affadavit, p. 1; Urban, 'Statement', pp. 2-3. The members of the syndicate were president Maurice Eckstein, of the United Fruit Company, vice president Edward S. Curtis, renowned for his epic series of photographs The North American Indian, and the directors James Logie (whose loan of $30,000 was its principal source of capital), William Sloane, Walter Scott and J.P. Bell; and William J. Robinson himself
27. Robinson, affadavit, p. 1; Agreement between Charles Urban and William J. Robinson, 7 April 1916, URB 4/1-113
28. Robinson, affadavit, p. 2
29. Indorsements from United States Government Officials and others on the Motion Picture Object Lesson for America 'How Britain Prepared', URB 4/1-41
30. Baker to Urban, 17 May 1916
31. Roosevelt to Urban, 19 May 1916, Indorsements from United States Government Officials etc., URB 4/1-41
32. Warren to Urban, 20 May 1916, Indorsements from United States Government Officials etc., URB 4/1-41
33. Variety, 2 June 1916
34. 'War in the Movies', The Chicago Tribune, 9 July 1916, URB 4/3-36
35. On The Battle of the Somme, see S.D. Badsey, 'Battle of the Somme: British war-propaganda', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 3 no. 2 (1983), pp. 99-115
36. Roger Smither, '"A Wonderful Idea of the Fighting": the question of fakes in The Battle of the Somme', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 13 no. 2 (1993), pp. 149-168
37. Reeves, Official British Film Propaganda During the First World War, pp. 157-164
38. Baynes to Goode, 5 November 1917, URB 4/1-141
39. Ramsaye, A Million and One Nights, p. 597
40. Robinson, affadavit, pp. 2-3
41. Urban, 'Statement', p. 5
42. Urban to White, 2 November 1916, URB 4/1-90
43. [W.G. Faulkner], 'Germans Exploit Somme "Pictures": Vast Sums Being Made in America', The Evening News, 4 October 1916, URB 4/1-63
44. William J. Robinson, 'In Relation to the Newspaper Article Purporting to have Appeared in the London Evening News of 4 October', 23 October 1916, URB 4/1-68; Robinson, affadavit; Urban, 'Statement'
45. Robinson, 'In Relation to the Newspaper Article ...'; Urban, 'Statement'
46. An extended analysis is given in the chapter 'British Propaganda in the United States' in Sanders and Taylor, British Propaganda During the First World War, pp. 167-127
47. Urban to Masterman, 28 October 1916, p. 8. URB 4/1-82
48. Robinson, 'In relation to the newspaper article ...', p. 1
49. Urban to Strand Theatre, 27 October 1916; Edel to Urban, 31 October 1916; undated Evening Post clipping. URB 4/3-59
50. Copies of advertisements in URB 4/3-48, 4/3-49 and 4/3-50, also advertisement in Motion Picture News for Kitchener's Great Army and The Battle of the Somme, 21 October 1916, URB 4/3-51A
51. Advertisements in Motion Picture News, 14 October 1916, URB 4/3-52A.
52. Gaunt to Montgomery, 15 November 1916, PRO FO 395/37 file 8403/229993
53. Gowers to Montgomery, 1 December 1916, PRO FO 395/37 file 8403/24352
54. Arthur Edwin Krows, 'Motion Pictures - Not for Theaters', part nine, The Educational Screen, May 1939, p. 153
55. Charles Urban, Terse Facts', 2 October 1917, p. 2, URB 4/1-38
56. Urban, 'Terse Facts', p. 2
57. 'Vanderbilt Heads New Film Concern', The Morning Telegraph, 14 January 1917, URB 4/105 verso
58. Urban to Aitken, 30 December 1916, URB 4/1-108
59. [Gaunt], memo, 'British War Films', 21 November 1916, PRO FO 395/38 file 8403/249642
60. Thwaites to Lampson, 23 October 1916, PRO FO 395/37 file 8403/224033
61. Gowers to Montgomery, 9 January 1917, PRO FO 395/65 file 125/7671
62. untitled report by R.W. Candler of Joy and Candler, 28 Wall Street, NY, 24 January 1917, PRO FO 395/65 file 125/20021
63. Gowers to Gaunt, 2 February 1917, PRO FO 395/65 file 125/27080
64. Exhibitors Trade Review, 16 December 1916, URB 4/3-68
65. promotional material for The War, URB 4/3-70
66. Baynes to Goode, URB 4/1-141, p. 3
67. 'How Pictures Helped America to Join the Allies', The Evening News, 17 January 1918, p. 4, URB 4/3-146
68. Craig W. Campbell, Reel America and World War I: A Comprehensive Filmography and History of Motion Pictures in the United States, 1914-1920 (Jefferson, NC/London: McFarland, 1985), pp. 56-57
69. promotional materials for The Tanks in Action at the Battle of the Ancre in New York journals, 19 May 1917, URB 4/3-83 to 4/3-88
70. Strand Theatre publicity leaflet for The Retreat of the Germans at the Battle of Arras, URB 4/3-91A
71. Butler to Buchan, 21 August 1917, PRO FO 395/80 file 132634/181167
72. Unidentified newspaper clippings giving details of Keith deal, URB 4/3-98
73. Urban to Manice, 4 September 1917, URB 4/1-130
74. Urban, 'Terse Facts', URB 4/1-138, pp. 3-4
75. Pathé Exchange, 'Statement of Collections on Retreat of the Germans for w/e 24 November 1917', 'Statement of Bookings on 'Retreat of Germans' to Month Ending 2/28/18', URB 4/1-153
76. Sanders and Taylor, British Propaganda During the First World War, pp. 185-189
77. Messinger, British Propaganda and the State in the First World War; pp. 89-91
78. 'Memorandum for Captain Gaunt', 12 April 1917, PRO FO 395/65 file 125/77644
79. McKernan, Topical Budget, pp. 38-39
80. Urban to Wilkinson, 7 September 1917, p. 2, URB 4/1-132
81. The standard account is James R. Mock and Cedric Larson, Words that Won the War: The Story of the Committee on Public Information 1917-1919 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1939)
82. Raymond Fielding, The American Newsreel 1911-1967 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), pp. 123-124
83. Campbell, Reel America and World War I, pp. 70, 78. Fielding and Ramsaye both incorrectly give the date of the formation of the Division of Films as March 1918
84. Fielding, The American Newsreel 1911-1967, p. 86
85. House of Lords Record Office, Beaverbrook Papers E/2/17, 20 January 1918 [?]; McKernan, Topical Budget, p. 60
86. 'Cinema Propaganda- British War Films in the United States', The Times, 16 January 1918
87. Campbell, Reel America and World War I, pp. 91, 236. The film is referred to as just The Far Flung Battle Line in some sources
88. Variety, 9 August 1918
89. Urban to Balfour, 24 October 1918, URB 4/1-157