Old JW footage on You Tube from Pathe News

by wizzstick 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  wizzstick

  Pathé News was a producer of newsreels , cinemagazines , and documentaries from 1910 until 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as “British Pathé”. Its collection of news film and movies is fully digitised and available online (thanks Wikipedia).

  Anyway, in the last few days they've uploaded loads of films including some featuring JW's from DCs:

  https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe/search?query=jehovah

  Looking at some now, the glory days of the WT really were the 50s.

  Anyway - enjoy!
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  AndersonsInfo

  Thanks so much wizzstick for directing us to the Pathé News archive where a few newsreels of large JW conventions can be seen.

  Of interest to us was the newsreel titled, "Jehovah's Witnesses Hold Convention - 1958." Joe and I spent that convention together as an engaged couple. Joe was a Bethelite with another 18 months to go before he could leave to marry me. The newsreel brought back many fond memories of his family and my family getting to know one another. Joe worked the night-shift in the Bethel Press Room printing out Convention Reports and then hopped on a train to Yankee Stadium to attend the convention, and, of course, to sit next to me and hold my hand. Oh, to be young again! Actually, for us, being a JW then was lots of fun and it was so exciting to be with a few hundred thousand believers all with the same expectations for the future. You could feel the excitement in the air.

  One particular thing hit me as I watched the short newsreel from 1958: all of those who attended are either very middle-aged, just plain old or dead (or should I say "deceased," a gentler way to say "dead"), including a young speaker, Milton Henschel, who is seen giving a lecture to a rapt audience who were expecting the end of the system and "a new order" any moment.

  Here it is nearly fifty years later, the world is still ticking along with no "new order" in sight. Everyone at that convention was blinded by belief, beliefs that we foolishly allowed ourselves to put stock in which the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society taught. (But WT leaders were so convincing; after all we saw it for ourselves in the Bible in those special scriptures that were quoted to us over and over again.) And where did our beliefs get us? Headed down the same road as all humanity has done for thousands of years - the road that leads to old age and death with no exceptions. No amount of belief can change that fact. (And let that be a lesson to you youngsters.)

  Barbara
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  Band on the Run

  I saw Milton Henschel as old. It might have to do with your age at the time. Does any film exist of Pastor Russell?
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  Juan Viejo2

  Some day I will share this story on WatchtowerWatch.com and hopefully those Pathe films may have snippets of that Sunday inside Yankee Stadium:

  On Sunday, August 3, 1958 (my 15th birthday), while people were filing in and some were finding seats on the grass outfield at Yankee Stadium, my father, younger brother and I played catch with our gloves and baseball out in right center field, fairly close to where the Yankee greats memorial headstones were at the time (they've been moved since then). I'll have to watch some of those old films to see if we show up on them. Most of the photos of that event were shot high toward the main stadium seats or over the tops of the outfield fences toward the stage. In both cases the location where we were playing catch is just out of view.

  We didn't celebrate birthdays, but that was the best one I ever had - thanks to my dad. He promised me something special would happen that day for us and it sure did. Mom carried the gloves and ball in her big shoulder bag with the umbrellas. Thanks, Dad!

  The brothers who were acting as ushers were very kindly and even tossed the ball with us a few times. We finally were told to stop when the grassy area was getting too crowded and where we were playing had to be used as a pathway and aisle for late arrivals.

  I wonder if anyone else who is still alive and was there and remembers that day remembers seeing us playing catch on grass where Yankee Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle played the outfield on other weekends. If so - send me a PM. My dad had an 8MM movie camera, but as far as I can remember we either failed to use it or the film (retained by my JW sister) no longer exists.

  I'll check those Pathe videos and see if any caught us out there.

  JV
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  confusedandalone

  My mom was baptized at the 1958 convention... shame I cant send this to her as all my emails are now sent to her spam folder
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  confusedandalone

  BTW AndersonsInfo i went to your site WatchtowerDocuments.org and listened to that convention talk from 1967 that speaks on 1975 possibly being the year that the world will be destroyed. I want to make a copy of it and mail it to my parents. They both refuse to admit that it was ever said. They have the bound volumes from those years... they were both baptized for years at that point but refuse to admit that any bropther ever stated that. What a shame.
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  losingit

  Cool memories Juan Viejo2! The old Yankee Stadium is gone now. It's been replaced with a newer version.
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  Juan Viejo2

  This is not from the Pathe footage, but likely an official WT 16 or 35MM film of the 1958 assemby.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWEG_mp1Dmw

  We would have been playing catch on the right field side of the deepest outfield, just to the right of the covered orchestra tent at Yankee Stadium. But these films were all taken during Knorr's talk, so everyone was seated - but you can see how far the crowds went - all the way to the outfield walls.

  Too bad. I'm sad. It may have been the best moment of my life. Following it was one hour of Knorr's total bullcrap and almost unbearable heat and sun.

  Barbara A - can you see where you were sitting? We were on blankets just in front of the furthest right support pole of the orchestra tent, about 20 rows into the main grassy seating area. Women had to take off their high-heel shoes and if you didn't bring a blanket you had to sit on the grass. Some brought folding chairs.

  JV
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  trujw

  Aaah the glory days of watchtower power. At least I think the talk was interesting. Poor jws now have boring lifeless talks. All the charisma is gone just rules About obeying and talks about tight pants And us apostates sneaking around. I feel so sorry for modern day jws. they are like a Kirby vacuum salesman going door to door still thinking he is relevant in the modern world.
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  im stuck in

  Thanks so much wizzstick for posting this. it brought a flood of emotions back to me as well. I was there as a young man for the whole thing. It saddend me too. I think of all of the lost years of life for my family. The expectations of Armageddon right around the corner, as even the reporter pointed out. :-)