The segment from a Degl film production company newsreel captures the 50th anniversary celebrations of laying of the cornerstone of the National Theatre. The celebrations took place on 16-18 May 1918 in Prague, with the participation of representatives of all Slavic nations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The first shots show the festively decorated building of the National Theatre. In the next part, the camera observes the events taking place in the upper part of Wenceslas Square. The staircase and the ramp of the National Museum, where the opening ceremony took place (specifically in its Pantheon), are filled with young people in national folk costumes. Shots of the crowded square. Cultural and political figures, such as poets Adolf Heyduk and Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, writer Alois Jirásek and the head of the National Theatre Opera Karel Kovařovic, are leaving the building of the National Museum. This is followed by the symbolic ceremonial removal of politician Karel Kramář from the building. Afterwards, the Slovenian writer and mayor of Ljubljana Ivan Tavčar is seen leaving the building, as well as Czech actors Eduard Vojan, Marie Hübnerová, Leopolda Dostalová, Marie Laudová-Hořicová, Karel Želenský, writers Ignát Herrmann, František Herites and Jan Herben with his wife Bronislava, poet Bohdan Kaminský, politicians Alois Rašín, František Soukup, Gustav Habrman, Václav Klofáč and other notable national figures.
A segment produced by the Excelsiorfilm-Praha company captures the funeral of Eduard Vojan, an actor of the National Theatre, which took place in Prague on 3 June 1920. The camera captures crowds of mourners on National Street. The funeral procession with Eduard Vojan´s coffin sets off from the National Theatre towards the Vinohrady Cemetery. The route is lined by a dense crowd of onlookers.
The film segment shows music composer Leoš Janáček with musicologist and folklorist Viktor Michajlovič Běljajev, music composer Viliam Figuš-Bystrý, opera singer Marie Calma-Veselá and musicologist Ernest Closson on the deck of a steamboat at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Prague, 1925. Janáček with a composer Karel Kovařovic and a group of unidentified men by the back door to the National Theatre in Prague.
Film footage of Otakar Ostrčil, the head of the National Theatre Opera, standing in front of the entrance to the National Theatre. Shots of Otakar Ostrčil at work in his office and whilst conducting in the orchestra hall. The footage originally comes from an obituary included in the 1935 UFA žurnál (UFA newsreel) No. 35.
The segment from a Degl film production company newsreel captures president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk´s first visit to the National Theatre. Cars with guests are arriving at the side entrance of the building. The president is leaving the theatre and stepping into a car.