The Sports Parade (a.k.a. “The Sport Parade”) was a short film series of Warner Bros. that was regularly shown before the main studio feature, along with another Warner-Vitaphone short, Joe McDoakes comedy and/or Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The average running time of each film was between nine and eleven minutes.
Overview
Virtually all of these were filmed in Technicolor. (A few early ones used Cinecolor as it gradually replaced the Vitaphone Color Parade on Warner’s short subject program.) This gave them an advantage over rival series like Paramount Sportlights with Grantland Rice, Columbia World of Sports, RKO Pathé Sportscopes, Universal Variety Views, and MGM Pete Smith “Football Thrills”, which used color sparingly for special entries. Warner’s most prolific competitor in Technicolor live-action shorts, 20th Century-Fox, produced only 20 out of 100+ Movietone Sports Reviews from the late thirties through early fifties in color. In the era before television, it was considered more economical to shoot in black and white like the newsreels.
Although Warner Bros. separated this series from its less sports-oriented series Technicolor Adventure (film series) during the later 1940s, many post-war Sports Parades resembled high quality color travelogues of the period, showcasing a variety of recreational pursuits in the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Egypt, India and Australia. André de la Varre supervised many of the best international productions, while Edwin E. Olsen and ski expert Dick Durrance were particularly skilled at using hand-held cameras for up-front action shots. Howard Hill specialized in archery and Van Campen Heilner handled many fishing and camping reels for both Warner and studio rival RKO. Despite lacking high profile sports news commentators, key radio veterans like Art Gilmore and Marvin Miller put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into their narration.
The series won three Academy Awards and was nominated three other times. Despite being phased out in 1956, they were successfully reissued throughout the sixties since many of the topics had a timeless appeal and were always popular at the box office.
List of titles
Below is a listing of titles by year of release, listed by title / major credits / release date / notes of interest. Only a few have made DVD release.
1940
| Title |
Major credits |
Release date |
Notes
|
| Football Highlights (Football Thrills) |
De Leon Anthony; narrator: Wendell Niles |
August 31 (preview) |
Overview of newsreel clips includes scenes with Knute Rockne (some footage in black & white)
|
| Fly Fishing |
Dick Miller & Del Frazier; music: Rex Dunn; narrator: Wendell Niles |
September 21
|
| Diary of a Racing Pigeon |
producer: Gordon Hollingshead; director: Del Frazier; music: Howard Jackson; narrator: Knox Manning |
November 30 |
birds showcased
|
| California Thoroughbreds |
director: Del Frazier; music: Howard Jackson; narrator: Wendell Niles |
December 22
|
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
See also
References
- Liebman, Roy Vitaphone Films – A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts 2003 McFarland & Company
- Motion Pictures 1912-1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1951 Library of Congress
- Motion Pictures 1940-1949 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953 Library of Congress
- Motion Pictures 1950-1959 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1960 Library of Congress
- BoxOffice back issue scans