Is there someone here who can tell me if those narrators were considered cheesy at the time they were doing these bits that now seem so corny and over the top?
It’s hard to give an example, but you probably know what I mean. If you’ve seen the Monty Python sketch with Queen Victoria kicking around the PM, Michael Palin’s narration is a fine example.
Do you dislike cheese? Just curious; my grandfather was a cheesemaker.
Not cheesy, just square.
-M
Citizen Kane was already doing a parody of those stentorian-toned newsreel narrators in 1941.
From experience: Not so much cheesy as “the norm” with nothing much to compare them with. As often as not, the stories on the newsreels I saw were either 1) weeks old, 2) silly, or 3) oddities or “believe it or not” sorts of things.
The voices used (Lowell Thomas was one) all had that radio announcer authoritative, over-enunciated, phony sound to them, but it was all there was.
The “Pete Smith Comedies” which were often included as some of the “short subjects” (which also included cartoons, previews of coming attractions, other comedies like Three Stooges) had the same type of announcer doing the setup for the bit. I remember thinking he was putting down the dead-serious newsreel guys just by the affected manner of speaking.
I also remember the original cast SNL taking potshots at the “news reporter” types with Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman being the best at it.