Pete Smith

The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.

This Pete Smith Specialty shows newsreel footage events that live up to the title. They include, among others, a diaper derby (the father who puts a diaper on his child fastest wins), a fireman's ball (two teams of fire fighters use high-pressure water hoses to move a large ball to score goals), and a basket race (men run a footrace while balancing a "tower" of ten baskets on their heads).

This humorous Pete Smith Specialty short looks around various studios on a film lot.

In this Pete Smith Specialty short, clips from several unidentified silent films are woven into a story, with humorous commentary by Smith.

Modern meteorology and a hard-working government weather team put their science and organization to work as a cold front moves from Alaska toward the citrus groves of Southern California. First, the scientists predict the storm's course, giving several days' warning to farmers and growers. The growers, typified by the Morgan family, prepare the oil-burning pots throughout their grove. Then, as the temperature dips below freezing, they light the pots. The cold snap continues as oil-supplies dwindle; the smoky air slows traffic, including trucks bringing more oil. The scientists strive to predict how long freezing temperatures will last: can the Morgans hold out?

This comedic short looks at human foibles that lead to major aggravations.

In this Pete Smith Speciality, the audience is asked a series of multiple-choice questions on various subjects.

An amusing short film that looks at human and animal babies.

Another in the long series of "Pete Smith" shorts from M-G-M in which William Newell meets and falls in love with Sally Payne, and begins to budget for their plans to get married. His budget, alas, does not include nor anticipate the plans of Sally and her parents. This short was reissued in June of 1950 to be shown as a trailer with 1950's "Father of the Bride" and some sources think this short was made for that express purpose and date it as a 1950 film.

A "Pete Smith Specialty" short that looks at legendary movie stuntman Harry Woolman planning and rehearsing stunts for films.

A "Pete Smith Specialty" - a fairly serious look at radio hams in the usual jokey format. Shows aircraft using morse code.

In this Pete Smith Specialty short, we see how real-life investigator Jo Goggin used a motion picture surveillance camera to gather evidence and disprove a fraudulent insurance claim.

A dog accused of murdering sheep is brought to trial.

The Green Bay Packers teach football tips.

The story of the short film from the beginning of the movies in the 1890s, when all movies were shorts, through the 1950s when short subjects virtually disappeared from theaters.

A chef helps a housewife cook a duck dinner that will not give her husband indigestion.

This Pete Smith Specialty shows water-safety and life-saving techniques taught by the American Red Cross to advanced swimmers.

A dog living in a junkyard learns that all stray dogs will be exterminated by 3 o'clock that afternoon, so sets off to find a master before the deadline.

Trader Hound, a dog who walks upright, wears human clothes, and speaks English, is in darkest Africa with a young sheik who is looking for adventure. With their native guides, they are searching for a lost princess, Nina T-Bone. After sleepless mosquito-filled nights, clothes lost to a mischievous monkey, and a battle royal between a lion and a gorilla, they make their way to Izorgi Village, where the fierce Afri-Curs live and where Nina T-Bone may be a prisoner. Trader Hound and his party are taken captive, and the Afri-Curs prepare a pot to boil them. Can they make their escape?

This short film shows U.S. Marines in training at a number of unidentified bases, with a focus on hand-to-hand combat.

A humorous history of the bicycle since 1819.

Frank Morgan is hired to put together a movie using odds and ends from the MGM vaults. He does so by splicing together a string of completely unrelated short subjects and musical numbers, interspersed with a repeated loop of a scene from some melodrama. (Contains in their entirety the shorts, "Musical Masterpieces," "Our Old Car," and "Badminton," as well as clips from other projects)

Swing High is a 1932 American Pre-Code short documentary film directed by Jack Cummings. In 1932, it was nominated for an Academy Award at the 5th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Novelty). The film documents The Flying Codonas, a family of flying trapeze artists.

This Pete Smith Specialty short demonstrates the uses of micro- and macrophotography. We see extreme closeups of the mechanical workings of a tiny wristwatch, the surface of a cat's tongue, and several insects. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-Reel.

In this short film, champion fisherman Ernie St. Claire tries to catch a large salmon in Oregon's Rogue River.

A humorous look at various circus and other acrobatic feats. One of the "Pete Smith Specialties" produced and narrated by "A Smith named Pete."

This Pete Smith Specialty short provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Ice Capades practices with ice skating favorites of the time.

A demonstration of trick shots by champion bowler Andy Varipapa.

With Pete Smith providing dry off-screen commentary, we watch some serious fishing: a marlin caught near Catalina, a hammerhead shark caught then wrestled in a small rowboat near Baja, the largest (721 pounds) great white shark caught to date in California waters, Chinook Indians catching salmon at Celilo Falls in Oregon - each with his designated place on the river where his ancestors stood, and, last, a crew on a boat off Mexico hoisting and hurling tuna using unbarbed hooks (baited only with a feather) as fast as they can as long as the school is there - backbreaking work - but a $25,000 catch.

The unusual talents of Johnny Price, a minor league baseball pitcher and trick artist, are showcased in this Pete Smith Specialty. Among other talents, Mr. Price can throw two (and, in certain situations three) baseballs simultaneously to different people. The catchers can be side by side, with one high and one low, or standing on the pitcher's mound and second base while Price throws the ball from the catcher's position. He can even perform these feats while suspended upside-down.

In this short, members of the California Water Bugs club demonstrate new ways to get thrills when water skiing.

La Fiesta de Santa Barbara is a 1935 American comedy short film directed by Louis Lewyn. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 9th Academy Awards in 1936 for Best Short Subject (Color). It features a young, pre-stardom 13-year-old Judy Garland singing "La Cucaracha" with her two sisters (billed as "The Garland Sisters"). In the film, Hollywood stars participate in a Mexican-themed revue and festival in Santa Barbara. Andy Devine, the "World's Greatest Matador," engages in a bullfight with a dubious bovine supplied by Buster Keaton, and musical numbers are provided by Joe Morrison and The Garland Sisters. Comedy bits and dance numbers are also featured.

This Pete Smith Sports Champion short visits Southern California where it quickly moves from orange orchards to the mountain snow playground at Big Pines L.A. County Camp for some winter sports including sledding, skating, and ski jumping.

This Pete Smith Specialty short takes a humorous look at the inconsiderate pests whose annoying habits make enjoying a movie impossible.

This Pete Smith Specialty short focuses on the young men who have signed up for the U.S. Army. The film uses the analogy of the speed, accuracy, and teamwork of sports and how these qualities are translated into the weapons training of American soldiers. We watch target practice by Army personnel with shoulder weapons, mortars, and various artillery pieces.

This Pete Smith Specialty is a humorous look at a student's first flying lesson, in a propeller-driven biplane.

A short film where viewers are given 10 or 15 seconds to answer questions about the United States and its involvement in World War II.

This short film focuses on a day in the life of a Hollywood talent scout assigned to cast animals.

This short features professional bowler Andy Varipapa. He first shows the correct way to grip a bowling ball and the proper form for delivering the ball down the alley. He then performs several trick shots.

In this Pete Smith Specialties short, two professional dancers beautifully demonstrate the rumba and conga while actors humorously display some incorrect techniques for those dances.

Wild bears that bother livestock are captured with ropes and shipped to zoos.

An examination of the history of anesthesia, from ancient Egyptian times to contemporary times.

This short film highlights the odd 1930s fad of playing baseball while riding donkeys.

In this Pete Smith Specialty, cameraman Charles T. Trego films water skiing champion Preston Petersen, as he and two unnamed female skiers perform various tricks and feats of skill in their sport.

This short looks at the sport of rock climbing. A team of three men ascend a rock wall on Southern California's Tahquitz Rock (also known as Lily Rock) above Idyllwild. The various climbing techniques are explained, as well as the dangers one encounters in this sport. We also see the team rappel from the summit. A second team, used for comic relief, has nothing but problems.

A satire on movie newsreels combines with humorous narration of silent screen footage in this one reel comedy short.

The second "Pete Smith Special" dealing with Fala, the pet dog of the late-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died long before the release of this short. Smith provides the commenary and narration from Fala's "diary" as the dog visits his favorite places of interest at Hyde Park, the Roosevelt family's country estate in upper New York state. Any appearance of FDR, if there is one, in this January 19, 1946-release short is Archive Footage.

Fala was the famous Scotch Terrier owned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his last two presidential terms.

This Pete Smith Specialty short shows, humorously, the disastrous results when people save their money in unsafe places.

This comedic short presents a series of nonsensical news stories, in a "Wotaphony Newsreel". The reel's feature, "The Curse of an Aching Husband", takes place in 1911 and is a voiced-over silent.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are stopped by narrator Pete Smith for the purpose of showing the audience how much wood and wood by-products the average person carries.

Re-enactment of how the 726-carat Jonker diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1905 by the family of Jacobus Jonker; how it was sold to Harry Winston; and how it was cut by Lazarre Kaplan.

This short film showcases water sports activities such as sailboat racing and surfboard riding, including Christian Peterson doing a human surfboard at 45 mph.

This short film presents an unusual Beverly Hills store called the Patio Shop, where trash is turned into art.

An off-camera narrator takes us through various scenarios of "just suppose". First we watch what would happen if a private detective behaved at home as he does in the movies; it's a ticket to a domestic disturbance. Next, a son gets to treat his father the way his father treats him. In the third episode, to a shopkeeper's chagrin, a man shops for a hat the way a woman does. In the final sketch, we suppose a household in which the man gets pregnant and has a baby, while the mom, clueless about little children, is the one with the career.

This "Pete Smith Specialty" features narrated clips of acrobats and stunt performers who earn their living in unusual and exciting ways.

The first part of this short is a "Metrophony" newsreel. It contains actual newsreel footage with humorous commentary (e.g., a flotilla of gondolas is parodied as being the Harvard/Yale regatta). The second part parodies silent movies with a film called "Minnie the Pretzel Twister" starring 'Cynthia Goosefeather.'

This MGM Oddity features the 1933 National Football League champion Chicago Bears. The team demonstrates various plays, which are shown first in real time, then in slow motion.

Romance of Radium is a 1937 American short film directed by Jacques Tourneur, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This short film tells the story of the discovery of radium and how it is used in medicine. In 1937, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (One-Reel) at the 10th Academy Awards

The trials and tribulations of a husband as his pregnant wife gets closer to the delivery date.

This Pete Smith Specialty short showcases former heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer with various sparring partners in the ring. Slow motion is used to illustrate how Baer uses his skills.

After the audience is instructed how to use the 3-D glasses they received, demonstrations of three-dimensional films are presented. Various objects move towards the camera, including a ladder being shoved out a window, the slide on a trombone, a woman on a swing, and a thrown baseball.

A boogie-woogie piano introduces what purports to be a jitterbug lesson, starring prize winner Arthur Walsh, his partner, and then later various other couples. We start with steps imported from other dances, like the waltz, then sped up. Next Walsh and his partner show some basic steps, but the movements are too swift for the narrator to describe them or the viewer to learn how to do them. By the end, various couples (all but a pair of briefly-seen children are white), including some comic ones, give a high-speed demonstration as the music rocks and swings. These are hep cats. Pete Smith's narration is full of slang.

A Pete Smith Specialty shorts series entry. Dave demonstrates a variety of household items and furniture which, while modern, is much more trouble than the progress is worth.

In this Pete Smith Specialty comedic short, we see various ways a wife may unintentionally hold her husband back.

This rare Technicolor entry in the Pete Smith Specialty series shows various events at a rodeo in Casper, Wyoming

A short film showing the Irish contact sport known as hurling, which is similar to, but much rougher than, American football.

An attempt to explain the economic cycle of inflation and unemployment.

Pete Smith tells the story of 'Sparky', a German shepherd dog trained to lead his blind master, a country doctor who lost his sight in a fire, and now has to depend upon the dog to lead him in his daily rounds. 'Sparky" was the dog who was responsible for the Interstate Commerce Commission passing a special ruling allowing guide-dogs to travel first-class in Pullman cars to accompany their blind partner, and not as animals confined to the baggage car. Smith shows how 'Sparky' went to Washington D. C. with his master and helped sell the change to the legislators.

In this comedic Pete Smith Specialty short film, a homeowner experiences a series of mishaps while taking a day off from the office.

This Sports Parade series entry follows the life of Dixie Dan, a harness racehorse, from birth through age three.

Despite the school just having won an important basketball game, its students are more interested in one of its teachers, namely Charles C. Peterson, who teaches them in the fine art of playing billiards.

A Pete Smith Specialty explaining the finer points of meat carving, shown by an expert.

This humorous short film shows various species of tropical fish at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, California.

This entry in the series starts with a "Wotaphony Newsreel," which contains feature stories with humorous commentary. Then we see "Passions of Horse Pistol Pete," produced by Super-Stupid Pictures. It consists of excerpts from an unidentified silent movie, with narration that has no relation to the actual plot of the film.

This serious Pete Smith Specialty series entry encourages industry to hire people with disabilities to help with the war effort. As a boy, Ben Helwig was blinded in an accident while playing baseball. He eventually acquired a guide dog and now works in a defense plant.

This Pete Smith Specialty showcases the Cristiani Family, a circus act. They mount and dismount moving horses and perform acrobatic feats while riding them.

This Pete Smith Specialty short looks at the notion that a man chases a woman till he catches her. Who's really chasing whom?

In this Pete Smith Specialty short, Dr. Harold E. Edgerton demonstrates stroboscopic photography, which he helped develop. This process allows us to see in slow motion what happens during events that occur too fast to be seen by the naked eye. Examples shown here include a bullet in flight as it shatters a light bulb, the moment of impact when a kicker kicks a football, and the motion of a hummingbird's wings as it hovers.

Highlights the fast-paced and dangerous world of professional auto racing.

In this Sports Champions entry, power boat racers use specially designed outboard motor boats in a race on California's Salton Sea.

This Pete Smith Specialty short was produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor. Using humor, it shows what can happen when tools and machinery are misused and safety warnings are ignored.

In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a new father experiences the trials and tribulations of fatherhood.

This short film focuses on how racehorses are trained.

This Sports Champions entry visits a rodeo and highlights the three main events: bronco busting, bull riding, and bull-dogging steers.

A man writes a check for $1,000 to cover a gambling debt. The problem is that he doesn't have enough money in his bank account to cover it. The check was written on Friday afternoon, but cannot be cashed before the following Tuesday. The check is used to pay several debts until...

A 3-D short subject in which the narrator goes to a creepy old house in search of his missing aunt. There he encounters the Frankenstein monster, a witch, a wooden Indian who comes to life, and assorted other monsters and frightening characters, all of whom manage to throw something toward the camera.

This Pete Smith Specialty short shows newsreel clips of people performing strange stunts. Among those featured are a motorcyclist driving through a pane of glass, a car being driven up a ramp and crashing on top of other cars, a human loop-the-loop, and a man who has a cannonball shot at his abdomen at close range.

Short film covering a variety of topics that folks may have wondered about.

After their mother remarries, two brothers cause chaos at their Aunt's home.

A Pete Smith Specialty showcasing athletic stunts.

In this short, Pete Smith provides comedic narration over silent film footage.

This humorous short film shows how carelessness and accidents can harm the war effort, and steps on how to avoid them.

A comic short filled with fake news and a fake movie trailer made up of clips from silent movies.

This comedy short contains a "Wotaphony" newsreel and a short film from Super-Stupid Pictures entitled "The Downfall of Thaddeus G. Blotto, Esq." As the audience views footage from unidentified silent movies, the narrator makes humorous comments while telling the (alleged) story.

The audience is asked questions about sports facts and records involving tennis, wrestling, swimming, golf, and cycling.

A boy trains his new golden retriever for duck retrieving competition, much to the chagrin of his first dog, a lovable but untrained mutt.

This short film focuses on a group of lifeguards from a Southern California beach during the off season.

A Pete Smith Specialty short on saving an important dinner after the household's cook suddenly quits.

Short comedic subject on the history of photography from the daguerrotype to modern amateur photographers.

This "complete show on one reel" starts with Super-Stupid Picture's "The Heel of a Nation", in which the narrator tells a humorous story while the audience sees scenes from a totally unrelated, unidentified silent movie. Then comes a "Wotaphony" newsreel. The last segment is a spoof of James A. FitzPatrick's Traveltalk series. We see a Pitts Fatrick Travel Squawk titled "A Visit to Schnozzle Isle." Schnozzle Isle is just off the coast of a Polynesian land which, when seen from the air, has a profile that looks remarkably (or perhaps not so remarkably) like 'Jimmy Durante' .

In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a raccoon spends the night looking for food for his family. After his encounters with a skunk, a frog, and a menacing bobcat, he experiences the dangers in a vacant cabin.

Pete Smith takes a humorous look at the wildlife that lives among the California redwoods.

A Pete Smith short that deals with the newly-created 3-D process.

Pete Smith does his usual mocking observations while the overweight Maxine Gates goes through the trials and tribulations of losing weight. The agony of enduring the dieting and weight-losing programs and exercises is compounded by the usual food-and-sweets temptations.

This comedic Pete Smith Specialty short examines the folly of using "home remedies" for various ills.

In this comedic Pete Smith Specialty short, women battle for bargains in a department store.

This short looks at the following questions: How would you act as an expectant father? How many greeting cards are sold in the USA each year? Why do indoor radiators make that pounding noise? Why do mammals yawn?

This Pete Smith Specialty offers a look at Marineland of Florida, featuring the various marine life on display there.