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Rene Shadbolt

René Shadbolt led the only New Zealand contingent to the Spanish Civil War. She and fellow nurse, Isobel Dodds, cared for wounded soldiers, particularly those from the International Brigades, from July 1937 to November 1938.

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Today in History

8 March

1929 First 'talkie' draws huge crowds in Wellington

Moviegoers flocked to see Frank Borzage’s Street Angel, a silent picture with a recorded musical soundtrack, at Wellington's Paramount Theatre. There were also five 'talkie shorts', including an interview with the King of Spain. As silent movies had usually been accompanied by live music, a recorded soundtrack was indeed a novelty.

Street Angel told the story of ‘a spirited young woman’, Angela (Janet Gaynor). Down on her luck and living on the streets, she joined a travelling carnival, where she met a vagabond painter, Gino (Charles Farrell). Gaynor won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.

The first feature-length movie originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in the United States in October 1927. Not all were convinced by the new technology. United Artists president Joseph Schenck announced in 1928 that the new talkies were just a passing fad, but by the following year virtually every American film had a recorded soundtrack. The first New Zealand-made talkie screened in January 1930 and by the early 1930s they were a global phenomenon.

Image: Janet Gaynor in a scene from Street Angel (IMDB)