Head-On Locomotive Smashup Thrills 30,000 at State Fair Show (Universal Newsreel, Aug 1932)

Description

The original release sheet reads: 1. MOLLISON LEAVES ON WORLD’S FIRST 2-WAY TRANSATLANTIC HOP: MINEOLA, NY - With the same informality and care-free attitude with which he landed here last week after the first successful one-man air passage from east to west over the Atlantic, Captain James A. Mollison motors out to his small Puss Moth plane and casually hops off for the return trip. With his tooth-brush, a borrowed shirt and the same ten-shilling note he brought over with him, the daring Scot heads for home and his bride of a few weeks, as the first “aerial transoceanic commuter.” 2. AMERICAN MERMAID VICTOR IN MARATHON SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS: TORONTO, ONT., CANADA - Again Margaret Ravior of Philadelphia shows her remarkable water prowess and wins the world’s 10-mile title in the swimming classic held by the Canadian National Exposition. Showing her heels to the field in the grueling distance contest, she finishes more than a quarter-of-a-mile ahead, while 50,000 spectators cheer her third consecutive “first” in this even. Mrs. Evelyn Armstrong of Detroit is second, May Looney of Warren, OH, third, and Dorothy Nalevaiko of Glen Cove, LI, fourth, with two Toronto girls in the remaining money places. The leading aquatic sports battle of the year in the land of the Maple Leaf. 3. PICCARD ASCENDS TO NEW HEIGHT MARK IN UPPER STRATOSPHERE: DUBENDORF, SWITZERLAND - The amazing balloon trip of the Brussels professor and Max Cosyns, his young assistant, in their daring voyage into the blue to study the effects of the cosmic rays, is one of the scientific high-lights of the decade. Imprisoned in an all-metal globular nacelle or gondola, they cast off just before sun-up and ten minutes later are out of sight in the ether. DESENZANO, ITALY - After a twelve-hour trip 16,500 meters (more than ten miles) above the earth, they narrowly escape drifting out to sea, and finally land here near Lake Garda, with a new record in aerostatics to astound the world, and science waits, with bated breath, for the final results of the momentous ascent, now being laboriously and painstakingly calculated. 4. THE TIDE TURNS, PART V - National industry continues its steady upward climb as thousands of employees go back to work. ELIZABETH, NJ - A million pounds of metal in new machinery orders for the Hoover Dam and for Uncle Sam’s new cruisers and Army dredges causes a speed-up in operations at one of the big Jersey machine manufacturing plants, and the addition of 100 employees to the payroll. DETROIT, MI - 8,000 men are put back to work by one of the leading automobile factories, turning out 2,000 cars a day as a result of the increasing demand. One of the encouraging signs in the new wave of business optimism. KENTON, OH - A bumper onion crop in the Scioto Valley marshes makes work for 2,500 unemployed men, women and children at the peak of the harvest season. 15,000 bushels (25 car-loads) a day are taken from the largest independently owned marsh in the world, 17,000 acres in extent. CHICAGO, IL - The largest washing machine company gets back to the pre-war basis, increasing its personnel by 50 percent, and turning out a washing machine every 28 minutes, as the result of steadily increasing orders. 5. RECORD CROWD HAILS DARING SKY FEATS AT NATIONAL AIR RACES: CLEVELAND, OH - America’s aerial aces put on their most spectacular show at the annual speed contest. Daredevil John Runger amazes the multitude by wing-waling on a looping, spinning plane. Ben Howard and Harold Neumann thrill the 25,000 spectators by dizzy pylon swooping in closed course events. Zooming squadrons of service ships from Selfridge Field and Quantico, VA, provide additional breath-taking moments. Foreign birdmen add their quota of spine chilling acrobatics, to say nothing of Al Wilson and his crazy pusher biplane. The cream of the aeronautical fraternity in the world’s greatest aerial tournament. 6. HEAD-ON LOCOMOTIVE SMASHUP THRILLS 30,000 AT STATE FAIR SHOW: DES MOINES, IA - Two 112-ton passenger engines crash at 50 miles an hour to make a Roman holiday for the huge throng of excited spectators. Set with open throttles from opposite ends of a 3,000 foot stretch of track, the two moguls tear into each other with all the fury of ancient gladiators. A breath-taking crunching of metal, a roar of escaping steam, a shower of white-hot sparks, and the two machines are reduced to complete wreckage. One of the most spectacular demonstrations ever staged in the mid-west.

Collection

MCA/Universal Pictures Collection

Series

Motion Picture Releases of the Universal Newsreel Library