Sherman Grinberg Film Library Joins Footage.net

Preview clips from the Sherman Grinberg Film Library, one of the world’s most revered and historically significant film archives, are available now for viewing through Footage.net. Located in Los Angeles, California, the Sherman Grinberg Film Library is among the world’s oldest and biggest privately held film archives with over 40 moving image libraries.  The archive has over 20 million feet of classic 35mm black and white film with content dating mostly from 1895 to 1957, when the television era began.  

"The addition of the Sherman Grinberg collection greatly enhances the scope and quality of our archival footage offering," said David Seevers, Footage.net CMO. "Sherman Grinberg has done an amazing job restoring the film and digitizing it to 4K, and we're very excited to help them directly market to their end users, the global community of footage users.” 

The Sherman Grinberg collection includes the historic Paramount Newsreels, first called Eyes of the World (silent era) and later Eyes and Ears of the World (the “talkies”). The collection also includes the entire American Pathe’ newsreel library, which is America’s oldest footage collection (1895-1956), the Industry on Parade series, Allied Artist Scenic stock footage, and over 3,000 mid-century television and movie theater and television commercials.  Genres include celebrities, royalty, entertainment (including the Oscars), sports (including the Olympics, boxing, horseracing, baseball, college and pro football, golf, tennis, etc.), World Wars 1 and 2, politics, fashion, science and inventions, natural disasters, culture and daily life.

Sherman Grinberg has undertaken a major renovation of its archival collections, working to upgrade its metadata and digitize much of the collection to 4K on an ongoing basis.  Special orders from its analog holdings can be digitized in-house within 24 hours and delivered electronically. Through new technology Grinberg can also create incredible historic still photographs from the moving images.  

“We are making the famous Sherman Grinberg archive available to production professionals worldwide and instantaneously,” said Karen Clark, president of Sherman Grinberg.  She added, "We are thrilled to partner with Footage.net to directly reach our customers. We are digitizing millions of feet of film, and adding it to Footage.net daily, but if we haven’t yet digitized any particular film clip a customer might need, we can research, locate, digitize and deliver it customers within 24 hours.”  

Sherman Grinberg Chief Archivist Bill Brewington has been with the library for over 40 years and is available for consultation.

Footage.net works with a wide variety of stock footage companies to enhance their visibility across the global production community. Sherman Grinberg clips will be available for screening through Footage.net alongside motion content from other leading footage companies.