Watch this excellent archive footage from the America’s Cup heyday, 1934, entitled “THE AMERICA’S CUP – Rainbow (defender) and Endeavour (challenger) in final trails.”
This newsreel has commentary as we watch the crew onboard yacht ‘Rainbow’, America’s Cup defender, sailing with Mr Vanderbilt at the helm passing another yacht ‘Yankee’ who she beats. ‘Rainbow’ is chosen to meet the America’s Cup challenger ‘Endeavour’. There’s footage of the crew hoisting sail on ‘Endeavour’ with Mr T. O. M. Sopwith at the helm.
The history of the America’s Cup, still held roughly every four years, goes back to the 1850s and continues to attract the world’s top sailors, yacht designers, wealthy entrepreneurs and sponsors. The spectacular yachts of the interwar period may be seen as its heyday.
Created at the beginning of the 20th Century by the Pathé brothers, the newsreel was the world’s first televised news platform. Pioneering the technology and methods of cinema, British Pathé stayed at the forefront of filmed news for decades. Releasing three newsreels a week during that period, British Pathé was the way the people of Britain experienced world events until the advent of television.