# 1947 DOCUMENTARY about COMMUNICATIONS SMOKE SIGNALS to TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE 47354

“Communications: The Story of Communications” is a 1947 20th Century Fox black-and-white production explaining the importance of communication to mankind. Narrated by radio and television announcer Nelson Case, the film opens with scenes of street celebrations at mark 00:50 as residents celebrate news of an unidentified event (though likely the end of World War II). Printing presses run off newspaper copies as newsboys rush into the streets, “shouting a story that everyone knows already.” Scenes of wireless radio sending the news around the world follows at mark 1:50 , and even in the deepest jungles, “centuries are bridged as the story carried by radio is picked up by the sound of ancient drums.” Drums, were are told, were some of mankind’s earliest forms of communication as their sound carried news long distances. Written languages (shown in the form of hieroglyphics) follows at mark 02:52 , as are handwritten Greek scrolls and Roman tablets, until Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century. The film continues to trace the history of communication, including a nod to the use of carrier pigeons at mark 03:45 , cannon shots, and smoke signals. We learn of messages in the Old West sent via stagecoach or the Pony Express until the coming of the telegraph (mark 05:35 ) in 1840 by Samuel Morse. By the early 19th century the telegraph pole was part of the American landscape, stretching from the Eastern seacoast to California. That…

- Kind: Documentary
- Genres: Documentary, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/47354Communications)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/47354Communications?play=1)