Desert Regatta

The motor boat sequences on California's Salton Sea were exciting. Over 70 years after they were shot, these boats setting speed records and engaging in a race provided an entertaining short film. I hope that Pete Smith's inane commentary and wisecracks were a lot funnier to an earlier age - they don't hold up nearly as well as the visuals.

This look into speedboat racing on the briny Salton Sea in southern California is not exactly sports journalism at its finest, and more than one of the spills we see appear staged. It's really just a curio and may not be of much interest to most. I liked seeing it because it was just 9 minutes, had some campiness to it, and I've visited the area, which was once quite a tourist destination, but fell on hard times in the 1980's. If you ever get a chance, check out Bombay Beach, a town of just a couple hundred people which has quite a bit of quirky art amongst its buildings (abandoned or otherwise). As this short film was created a couple of decades before the area's zenith we don't any indication of the luxury resorts that would appear on the shores of the Salton Sea, which is unfortunate. It's just tiny speedboats zipping around, cheesy commentary, and some fun with reversing/slowing motion. Seeing 18-year-old pioneer Loretta Turnbull briefly was kind of cool though - I hadn't heard of her before, but she was apparently famous in the 1930's, appearing on the back of a Wheaties box and various other advertisements. It's too bad there wasn't more meat to her story here or the race she was out there for, e.g. Who even won?

A Smith called Pete narrates this short about a speed race on the Salton Sea. The people who took part were minor sports celebrities at the time, now forgotten. The boats skim above the buoyant waters, and the foley artist uses something to simulate something that sounds like a small, gas-powered lawn mower, while Pete simulates excitement and corny wisecracks, as he would for twenty years of shorts forMGM.

The question is how he got the job in the first place. Most shorts were narrated by performers with polished voices, or at least reputations. Red Grange might narrate sports shorts, but usually the man behind the microphone was an actor, the sort on man who might become a radio announcer. That wasn't Pete. He sounded like a fellow who brought the blue movies to the smoker, slapped you on the back, and pulled out a 'chicken inspector' badge. He was a publicist for MGM, and I guess they thought he would be amusing for a light-hearted short. And so he was, for two decades.

An MGM SPORT CHAMPIONS Short Subject.

Yachtsmen of a very special breed gather from all over America for a most unusual DESERT REGATTA.

This fascinating little film from a bygone era shows the outboard motor speed record races which took place on Southern California's great Salton Sea, where even rocks float. The care & treatment of the small craft under these very harsh conditions is examined. The grueling race itself is shown, with the mood lightened by a dose of camera trickery. Pete Smith is the unconventional narrator.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.