$2,000,000 Mystery Fire Wreaks Disaster at Famed Beach Resort (Universal Newsreel, Jul 1932)

Description

The original release sheet reads: 1. $2,000,000 MYSTERY FIRE WREAKS DISASTER AT FAMED BEACH RESORT: CONEY ISLAND, NY - The worst and most spectacular amusement park fire in twenty years wipes out a large section of this national sea-side playground, leaving 2000 summer cottagers homeless, and thousands of bathers stranded without clothes or car-fare home. The mid-afternoon conflagration, on the summer’s hottest day, sweeps five square blocks along the famous boardwalk. Thousands, at the water’s edge, watch as the bath-houses where they left their clothes go up like kindling. Fire apparatus from all sections of New York responds to save the entire island from ruin. Five hundred firemen, police and volunteer helpers are on the casualty list with minor burns or overcome by smoke. Two hundred thousand spectators jam the beaches and island thoroughfares to watch Coney Island’s biggest “show.” 2. KAYE DON EXCEEDS WORLD SPEED MARK IN THRILLING TRIALS: LOCH LOMOND, SCOTLAND - Kaye Don, death-defying British speed-boat king, wrests world’s record from America with terrific speed of more than 114 miles per hour in Miss England III, the new 5000-horsepower racer built for Lord Wakefield. In the picturesque setting, famed in song and story, Don drives his new speedster until the craft literally leaps from the water. Gar Wood’s American record of 111.7 miles per hour, made off the Florida coast earlier this year, falls unofficially as the $200,000 boat porpoises in its trial spin. 3. FUGITIVE FOR 19 YEARS CAUGHT AND FREED AS REWARD FOR HONESTY: NEW YORK, NY - William H. Collins, who escaped from San Quentin prison, California, in 1913 and was recently apprehended in this city and identified as the result of a scuffle with several men annoying his wife and daughters, wins his release because of his exemplary life since he fled from durance vile. The Governor of California, hearing of the captured fugitive’s excellent reputation as a truck-man and as the head of a devoted family, refuses to ask for extradition, so New York courts allow Collins to go free. A real example of justice tempered with mercy. 4. RAGING RIVER FLOODS COUNTRYSIDE; 12 DEAD, HUNDREDS HOMELESS: GALLAGHER, WV - Sudden and terrible floods descend upon thriving hamlets, trapping hundreds, tossing houses about like matches and laying waste to the pleasant valleys and humble habitations, with the loss of twelve lives, countless head of cattle and leaving 300 families homeless. The scenes of debris and desolation are appalling. Soup kitchens and special provisions rushed in over dangerous roads by the Red Cross and other charitable organizations keep the victims from starvation. 5. THOUSANDS GATHER IN ANCIENT CAPITAL FOR HISTORIC “PALIO” FIESTA: SIENA, ITALY - The oldest horse race in the world, the Palio, and old Fourteenth Century custom, has its 1932 run-off amid scenes of color and excitement. Thirty thousand people jam the great city piazza around which the race is run, following an elaborate pageant in medieval costume and much fanfare and expert waving of banners and guidons. The dangerous turns of the improvised track, so sharp that mattresses are hung on the rail to save the necks of unseated contestants, provide several big thrills and spills. The winner receives a special Palio or banner, the time-honored award which gives this race its name. 6. WILD ACCLAIM HAILS AMAZING CALLISTHENIC CENTENNIAL TOURNEY: PRAGUE, CZECHOSLOVAKIA - 17,000 girl athletes, in graceful exercises, executed in perfect unison, inspire 250,000 spectators to cheers and applause during the greatest outdoor gymnastic demonstration of all time — the 100-year celebration of the “Sokol” Congress. As far as the eye can reach, in lines as clean-cut as West Pointers on parade, white arms gleam and twine, heads and bodies sway in undulating movement, all as one. Without doubt the most impressive and awesome sight ever witnessed in the great President Wilson Athletic Stadium.

Collection

MCA/Universal Pictures Collection

Series

Motion Picture Releases of the Universal Newsreel Library