AERIAL ACES Published!

Hi Folks-
Here's what the press release said...

Some Of History's Best Aviation Stories Are Buried In America's Film Vault
A Treasure Trove of Rare Aviation Related Newsreel Footage Re-Discovered at the National Archives.

Film-sleuth Phillip W. Stewart is at it again! After four years of digging, probing, and analyzing the evidence he has created "AERIAL ACES OF THE UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL: A Researcher's Guide to the Aviation Related Stories Released Nationally by Universal Pictures, 1929-1931." This "detective of celluloid" discloses the description of 219 aviation stories produced during the first three years of what was known then as the "Universal Newspaper Newsreel." This well-researched landmark work is a boon to scholars, librarians, and museum curators.

"Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel is an absolutely invaluable contribution to aviation history for which authors, historians and media producers will be grateful for years to come...no serious aviation historian can do without this book." - Walter J. Boyne, Historian and National Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrinee.

These historic aviation newsreels are listed in release order and all are identified by title, reel number, event date, location, and length. Each title has a storyline based on the newsreel synopsis sheets, a description the filmed action, a copy of the original narration script, and concludes with production or historical information. All titles were cross-referenced against various NARA inventories and only those that are known to currently exist are presented in detail.

Unfortunately, relatively few people know that historically significant films exist at the National Archives and even fewer know how to find them. The ultimate goal of Mr. Stewart's investigative work is to lift the veil of mystery surrounding these historic treasures and provide guides to finding them. So, if you're ready to play detective and to investigate America's film vault, you should take a guide--and this is it!

Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel: A Researcher's Guide to the Aviation Related Stories Released Nationally by Universal Pictures, 1929-1931 (ISBN: 978-0-9793243-7-6, $31.95 case bound/978-0-9793243-6-9, $26.95 trade paper, 220 pages, 60 photos, pms press, 2010) is the fourth book in The Historic Footage Project. More information is available at the author's website, www.pwstewart.com. All of Mr. Stewart's books are available from his publisher, pms press (www.pmspress.com), and via Amazon.com.

Whether you are an aviation museum curator, replica aircraft builder, college media professor, airplane model maker, film researcher, media producer, historian, novelist, or a student of aeronautical history, these newsreel stories will provide you with a timeless reference to moving images during the middle years of the aviation's Golden Age.

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Just a note to let you know that...
Hot off the printing press is the Summer 2010 issue of PROLOGUE, the magazine of the National Archives. Inside is an article titled "Frame After Frame" written by yours truly. If you're have an interest in the seemingly endless variety of historical films held within America's film vault, you can read the article at...
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/summer/frame-film.html
Thanks.

The Second Edition of BATTLEFILM: U.S. Army Signal Corps Motion Pictures of the Great War now available at Amazon.com

As sometimes happens, after the initial edition of Battlefilm was released, a few more World War I motion pictures that were within the scope of this book were “re-discovered.” In light of this, 21 new films and their summary descriptions have been added to this Second Edition of Battlefilm, which now puts the total number of entries at 488.

While making these additions, I took the opportunity to add NARA's Archival Research Catalog (ARC) identification number to each title. Therefore, in this edition, below each film title you’ll find information about the number of reels associated with that particular motion picture, followed by its unique National Archives’ Catalog Card reference number [in brackets] and its ARC identification number (in parentheses).

Why, you may ask, is this important to you? The answer to that question is that while this book consists of short summary descriptions of these historically significant Army Signal Corps films, ARC usually contains a more detailed account and occasionally has lengthy shot sheets for some of the titles. With this edition, you now have all the tools you need to proceed with any follow-on research you might want to undertake — on location at NARA’s Archives II facility at College Park, MD, or on-line at www. archives.gov/research/arc/. In addition, I tweaked the subject headings, polished the layout, added a few photos, created an alphabetical title index, and beefed up the subject index.

With this Second Edition, it is my sincere hope that you’ll find Battlefilm: U.S. Army Signal Corps Motion Pictures of the Great War to be a comprehensive resource, a superb historical research tool, and a valuable addition to your World War I stock footage library.

Year 2010

Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a GREAT holiday season.

In reviewing the posts of the last year, I noticed that while there was a lot of info...the regularity of the installments suffered during the last couple of months. After a review of my priorities for this year, that trend will probably continue. When I have updates I will post them here and on my website www.pwstewart.com.

So, what are my priorities for 2010, you may ask?
Well, first is to earn a respectable wage at my full time job so that I can pay the rent and provide basic and other goodies for my family.
Second, is to stay healthy, which is always a challenge in my case.
Third, to publish two books. The Second Edition of my book BATTLEFILM: U.S. Army Signal Corps Motion Pictures of the Great War, will be the first and should be available via Amazon.com and other on-line stores the Spring. There will more info about this in a future blog. The other title scheduled for publication is Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel, 1929-1931. This book should be ready in the late summer or early fall.

In the meantime, I intend to continue working on the Project History series. I just started research on Vol 3, which will cover the years 1933-1935 of the Universal Newsreel. I am also working on a book tentatively titled, Air Front: WWII Aviation Stories of the United Newsreel. Maybe those two will get published in 2011. We'll have to wait and see.

Enough for now. If you have any questions just email me at pws@pwstewart.com.
Phil