Harry Wismer
An RKO-Pathe Sportscope focusing on sports played by Basques living along the Spain-France border in the western Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay coast. Pelota, jai alai, wood chopping, and rowing as well as traditional dances are featured.
Using newsreel footage, this Sportscope entry chronicles the race toward running's four-minute mile, highlighting several important contests. It starts in the 1920's, when Finland's Paavo Nurmi set the record for the distance at 4 minutes 10.4 seconds. It continues through Roger Bannister's first run under 4 minutes in 1954, and ends in spring 1956, when Australia's Joe Bailey became the first to break 4 minutes on US soil.
In this Sportscope short, children from preschool age through age 14 are shown diving from various heights into a swimming pool. Lissa Bengston, of the Royal Academy of Physical Education in Stockholm, Sweden, supervises the children's activities.
The owners of the Loon Bay Lodge in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada usually plan fishing and rafting trips for their guests. In this short they take such a trip themselves down the St. Croix River, which forms the southern end of the international boundary between New Brunswick and the state of Maine.
This documentary short shows two unnamed mountain climbers scaling Grossglockner, the tallest mountain in the Austrian Alps.
In this RKO Sportscope short, a naturalist and his wife go to Louisiana bayou country to hunt a particular species of goose.
This short subject shows Lissa Bengston teaching a group of three- and four-year-olds how to swim in a pool. Miss Bengston, a member of the Royal Academy of Physical Education, Stockholm, Sweden, believes that at this age, children have no fear of the water and, therefore, can be taught to use their natural abilities to swim.
This short shows highlights from several basketball games at two postseason tournaments in 1956. They include the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final games of the National Invitation Tournament; the semifinal and final games of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament; and the NCAA All-Star game.
The baseball player (William Bendix) goes from wayward youth to Boston Red Sox pitcher to New York Yankees home-run hero.
Brad and Barbara Washburn were filmed by National Geographic and RKO Pictures on their ascent of Mount McKinley in Alaska. The film is a pictorial record of the first scientific conquest of Mount McKinley, filmed with the cooperation of the Boston Museum of Science. The short is part of the RKO's 'This is America' documentary series.
