Paris Sensation

Newsreel cameras capture huge crowds thronging the Paris streets for the funeral of an assassinated newspaper editor.

Funerals were a staple of early cinema newsreels: this Gaumont Graphic item is an especially lavish example, with huge crowds thronging the rainy Paris street. Gaston Calmette was editor of Le Figaro, which had waged a fierce anti-corruption campaign against Minister of Finance Joseph Caillaux. Caillaux's wife shot Calmette dead in his office, but was later sensationally acquitted of his murder.