The March of Time
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The March of Time was a newsreel that was shown in movie theaters from 1935 - 1951. It was prepared by Time, Inc. as the idea of executive Roy Edward Larsen. It was launched in over 500 theaters and was an immediate success with audiences, but because of its high production costs (estimated at $50,000 per episode, which were released about one per month), was a money loser. It was ultimately ended when the widespread adoption of television and daily news shows obliviated the newsreel format.
The newsreel included both reporting, on-location shots, and dramatic reenactments.
It was satirized in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane as News on the March.
From 1931 to 1935, The March of Time was presented as a radio show.
[edit] MGM musical
The March of Time was also the title of a planned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film produced in 1930. Production of this early film, which would have been one of the first musicals filmed in Technicolor, was abandoned, although a number of musical numbers were filmed. Some footage from The March of Time later found its way into other pictures, including The Devil's Cabaret (1930), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), Beer and Pretzels (1933), Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Jailbirds of Paradise (1934), and The Big Idea (1934).
In 1994, footage from the unfinished film appeared in That's Entertainment III. Among the performers originally scheduled to appear in The March of Time were Buster Keaton, Weber and Fields, Marie Dressler, and Bing Crosby.
