From the Cutting Room Floor: Fox Movietone Newsreel Outtakes of the Kellogg Arabians

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W. K. Kellogg and friends, late 1920s

As I conduct equine history research, I sometimes find information in unexpected places. 

Recently I discovered that the University of South Carolina's Moving Image Resource Collections Digital Video Repository is a treasure trove of old film footage relating to horses, particularly horses in the public eye.  And some of the horses and their humans lived in California. 

Antez and W. K. Kellogg

The MIRC website describes the Fox Movietone News Collection, Moving Image Research Collections:

The collection contains seven million feet of nitrate motion picture film and four million feet of safety motion picture film documenting the national and global politics and culture from 1919 through 1934 and from September 1942 through August 1944. Paper holdings provide detailed notes generated by original camera crews as well as ephemera related to individual stories.

Within the collection are elements from two distinct newsreel products. One is a silent newsreel, Fox News, which ran from 1919 into 1930. The other is the original sound newsreel, Fox Movietone News, which ran from 1927 through 1963. The majority of films in the collection are outtakes that were not used by the Fox Corporation as part of a released newsreel. The collection does contain over 200 released newsreels from 1942 to 1944.

Fox Movietone camera.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

(Sidebar: What was a newsreel? It was a short documentary film with news stories and items of topical interest, shown at movie theaters between the 1910s and the late 1960s. They were a source of news, feature stories, and entertainment for millions of moviegoers. Before the feature film started, patrons would see a newsreel. Remember, most people didn't have televisions until after World War II, so newsreels allowed people to put moving faces and places to the stories they read in the newspaper and heard on the radio.)

Back to equine history: Among those "outtakes" at the MIRC are three films showing the Kellogg Ranch in its heyday, from 1929 to 1932. Apparently, these film clips were never seen by the public.  But now, thanks to this digital archive, we can.

Shemseh and an unidentified woman
at the Kellogg Ranch

So -- let's go to the movies! While you're making the popcorn and filling up the 64-ounce drink cups, the website for W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center at Cal Poly Pomona provides us with some background information on the Kellogg Ranch:

The W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center was established in 1925 by the cereal magnate Will Keith Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan. In his quest to fulfill a childhood dream, W.K. Kellogg sought out the finest Arabian bloodlines of the day to begin a breeding program at his winter home in Pomona, California. He acquired horses from within the United States and abroad, importing several horses from Lady Wentworth’s famed Crabbet Arabian Stud in England.

The ranch became a popular destination for 1920s Hollywood stars to visit rare Arabian horses, and Kellogg’s horses appeared in several films. The ranch became so popular that a show was established on Sundays in order to better showcase the Arabian horses.

W.K. Kellogg presented the ranch to the state of California in 1932 with the stipulation that the Arabian breeding program and the Sunday Shows be maintained.

The Kellogg Ranch was a major hub of equestrian activity in Southern California, and the blood of the Kellogg Arabians still appears in purebred and part-Arabians today.

And now to the newsreels. Sound on!  You can enlarge the screen by clicking on the lower right corner of the screen. (And remember, you must have Adobe Flash enables on your viewing device.)

The first newsreel footage was shot on April 26, 1929. 

It begins with sculptor Annette St. Gaudens with *Raseyn. (Similar footage of this interview has been shared on YouTube in the past.)

Artist and subject, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 1929

Pomona Progress-Bulletin,  May 1929.

Next, a number of the Kellogg Arabians are led into the stable yard by men in white uniforms, walking counterclockwise. A young woman in riding attire tells the camera crew about each horse in turn. She is only identified as "Miss Edwardson." I did a quick search online and found a couple of references to a Miss Ilean Edwardson, who rode with an equestrian unit in the 1930 Tournament of Roses Parade in nearby Pasadena, so perhaps this is she. The Kellogg Arabians were often pictured for promotional purposes with celebrities and young women during this time. It is interesting that Miss Edwardson was a commentator for the film, rather than just being a "pretty face."  It's also good to hear her pronounce the horses' names.

The horses are:

*Raseyn
Jadaan
Rifla
Ferdin
Amham 
Pep
Antez

Pep welcomed visitors to the Kellogg Ranch on this postcard

Next -- foals! A number of Arabian  youngsters run at liberty around the stableyard, encouraged by adults and two unidentified children.

Finally, the two children, a boy and a girl, talk for the camera about one of the foals.

See it here:  

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A25796
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A film crew returned to the Kellogg Ranch on October 22, 1929).

Antez and *Raseyn

This amazing digitized film shows:

 *Raseyn (misspelled "Racine") under saddle

Antez under saddle

The Kellogg Arabians in their stalls, neighing. (Perhaps it was feeding time?)

Several of the Kellogg Arabians being led clockwise around the stable yard by men in white uniforms. The speaker identifies them as:

*Raseyn (age 6)

Antez (age 8)

Hanad (age 7)

Pep, "a two year old raised on this ranch"

Ferdin, "a two year old raised on this ranch"

Montefik, "a two year old raised on this ranch"

Shemseh, a yearling filly

Then the film cuts to footage of an unnamed harnessed Arabian with a wide blaze and four white stockings pulling a cart.

After this, the newsreel outtake shows *Raseyn and Antez being ridden in a large paddock.

And finally, outtake footage of mares and foals running in a pasture. 

Here's the link:

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A29888?fbclid=IwAR0KlPmUonUutse-ms28kAwntm_jN4HmmUMRcT797CNYIcmBTuprfa8spXw
___

Henry O'Melveny, Will Rogers,
California governor James Rolph, and Captain Banning.

The third and final digitized film provides us with outtakes from the ceremony of W. K. Kellogg turning over the Kellogg Ranch to the state of California on May 18, 1932.

First, Mr. Kellogg, humorist Will Rogers, and others speak briefly in front of several microphones. 

Then, to the accompaniment of a small orchestra, the Kellogg Arabians are paraded before the huge crowd.  We see mares and foals, led by men in costumes.

Next, Jadaan is ridden past the crowd wearing his costume from the Rudolph Valentino film "Son of the Sheik."  (Valentino had died, tragically young, in 1926.)

Jadaan with Valentino

A band plays while officials get out of a stagecoach pulled by four horses.

Then, film shows the Ranch's famous Drill Team with trainer Mark Smith in which eight chestnut horses perform, spelling out the word "Kellogg's."

Mark Smith with the Kellogg Arabians

More of Will Rogers and other speakers. (Disclaimer: Rogers uses a racial epithet common for that era at 10:21. Viewer discretion is advised. If you wish, you can scroll past the footage to get to the next section, which shows more horses.)

And finally, Arabian mares and foals at pasture.

Kellogg Arabians in the Los Angeles Times, late 1920s.

Here's the link to the third film:

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A25220

Jadaan's costume is in the collection of the W. K. Kellogg
Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona.

Seeing these digitized films, shot so long ago, adds depth to our understanding of the importance of the horse in California during the early twentieth century.

The old Kellogg Ranch stables still stand on the Cal Poly Pomona campus.