National Archives and Records Service film-vault fire at Suitland, Md. : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, June 19 and 21, 1979 (1979)

52 For example, the Government did not usually film the speeches of Presidents. Newsreel camermen, on the other hand, followed the Presidents and filmed speeches, campaigns, and conventions. Durinof the 1930's there were numerous stories about U.S. relations with other countries and the developing crises in Europe and Asia. The newsroels liad stories on the introcluction of new^ military technology, esi)ecially in aviation, and covered congressional joint sessions, House and Senate hearings, and White House ceremonies. Newsre^ls also ran many stories which, although not related directly to the activities of the Federal Government, are important for an understanding of this country's historical development. These include stories on labor strikes, conditions during the Great Depression, movements in foreign countries — such as Germany and Italy in the year immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II — technological change, scientific achievement, ethnic and racial minorities in the United States, the changing perceptions of women in social and vocational roles, activities of famous and infamous personalities, and the performing arts and communications. It is true, on the other hand, that newsreels contain much ephemera since they typically mixed light entertainment with journalism. Hence, there are numerous stories concerned w^ith sports events, human interest situations, disasters, the weather, beauty contests, fashion shows, and stunts and oddities of limited interest. During the negotiations for the deposit of the Universal Newsreel Library, as well as for the ^larch of Time, the donors would not consider dividing collections at the j)lace of storage to separate footage of lasting value from the ephemeral, although it w^as agreed that nonvaluable items would not be duplicated as NARS worked thix)ugh the footage when stored in its vaults. NARS was fully aware that much of the footage did not warrant permanent preservation, and for this reason we indicated at the time of accession that we would select for j^reservation only those portions eventually evaluated as having historical significance. The newsreel volumes — that is, the edited releases — were given first priority for preservation and are being preserved in their totality. This is be<?ause historians have recognized that the value of newsreels is based on unique pictorial information and editorial comment. This dual value is ]>articularly important for the pretelevision era in which newsreels played a significant role in formulating public perceptions of national and international issues. Also, organic series deserve to be preserved in the original order as they were seen by their contemporary audiences. Predominance of outtakes does not lessen a collection's research value. They offer the possibility of access to significant historical footage whicli was eliminated from the final release versions during the editing process, and, consequently, was not seen by contemporary audiences. The research value of outtakes may be briefly sunnnarized. They represent relatively unadultei-ated film evidence "of past events. They show events in far greater detail than was permitted in the brief edited stories. They serve as a basis for evaluating the biases of the newsreel editors in selecting shots for a finished story.