FOX STORY #4702: SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND FAMILY (Fox News, US 1922)
James Seebach; New York, 24.6.1922; Fox Movietone News Collection, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
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On 9 April 1922 Conan Doyle arrived on the White Star Liner SS Baltic in New York City to give several lectures on Spiritualism. When they boarded the RMS Adriatic for their return sail on 24 June 1922, Fox News cameraman James Seebach recorded the family, as did crews from Pathé News and Kinograms. The official Fox newsreel library number for Seebach’s film is 4702; it was not published in any edition of Fox News. This print was made from the original camera negative, part of the Fox Movietone News Collection at the University of South Carolina.
The opening sequence of the family features, from right to left: Adrian Malcolm Conan Doyle (1910-1970), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lena Jean Annette Doyle (1912-1997), Lady Conan Doyle (née Jean Leckie, 1872-1940) and Denis Percy Stewart Conan Doyle (1909-1955). The family appears to have grown accustomed to waving at adoring crowds, as there is no hint of awkwardness in their gestures, except that Lena Jean likes to wave too much.
The Conan Doyle family made a return visit to the United States in 1923, arriving via the RMS Olympic on 3 April of that year. This time newsreel footage of the family’s arrival was published in Volume 4 Release 54 of Fox News – this film has not survived. Newsreels frequently filmed the arrival and departure of famous personages from New York City, though not everyone had to be famous to be filmed; camera crews sent thousands of feet of film featuring passengers to newsreel editors. The ocean liner beat was so important that Fox News assigned a cameraman to sail with the RMS Aquitania for an extended period of time. Those familiar with experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison’s work will recognize similar Fox News coverage of ocean liners as the principal source for his breathtaking 2007 film, Who by Water.
Helen Dobrensky 
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