Entertaining Britain The Story of British Pathé


Entertaining Britain

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For more than half a century, films produced by the newsreel company British Pathe

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informed cinema-goers about affairs

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of national and international importance.

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But after the First World War, the company diversified.

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Alongside its newsreels, Pathe produced short films

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that took a softer, more light-hearted approach.

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This is news and current affairs that's been sweetened.

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It's nothing that was too unpalatable.

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They're like the colour supplement to the newsreel's news.

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The subjects ranged from handy household hints...

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to fashion and lifestyle items...

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..to the weird, wonderful and utterly bizarre.

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Known as cine-magazines, these films became

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a mainstay of Pathe's output for more than 50 years.

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You would be often shown amusing things about Britain.

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"What are we like, the British?"

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Often overlooked, because of their frivolous tone,

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these films have received little critical attention...

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until now.

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Just because a story has a light tone,

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it doesn't mean that what's contained within it has no value.

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Over six decades, Pathe's cameras captured everyday life,

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turning the man on the street into a film star.

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Sitting alongside celebrated and glamorous Hollywood stars,

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there were Mr and Mrs Bloggs from Accrington.

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By focussing on everything from the marvellous to the mundane,

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Pathe captured an intimate record of social change in Britain.

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Pathe created Britain's first regular cine-magazine

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at the end of World War I.

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Cinema audiences had been shocked and saddened

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by news footage of frontline conflict.

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So the company developed a strand called Pathe Pictorial

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to provide some much-needed light relief.

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Alongside the newsreels, these short and entertaining films were shown

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between the main features.

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Pathe's earliest cine-magazines tended to cover

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traditionally male subjects.

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But soon, the company spotted a new social trend,

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and a gap in the market.

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During the 1920s, the majority of the cinema-going audience was female.

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So, in 1921, Pathe launched Eve's Film Review,

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a weekly cine-magazine specifically aimed at women.

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What they were doing was looking at a part of the cinema-going audience

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and creating something which would address that market.

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In some ways, they were specialising their product.

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These films featured everything from the latest Paris fashions...

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..to the achievements of remarkable women,

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like cross-Channel swimmer Mrs Arthur Hamilton.

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And they showed how Eve was replacing Adam in the workplace.

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There's a reason why

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all these women are sitting in the dark on their own.

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It's because there aren't enough men around.

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The First World War has taken this incredible toll

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upon the male population of Britain,

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and this idea of the surplus woman comes very much to the fore.

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An early Eve's Review item, called No-Man's Land,

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reflected this development

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by documenting the lives and experiences of single women.

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The problem of the so-called "surplus women" did provoke

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a lot of organisations

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to look for ways to make life better for the spinster,

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and they'd all go off and go for pleasant rambles

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and that kind of thing.

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The women, who have moved into the male role,

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have cut their hair short to look more like boys,

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who have flattened their bosoms

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with elasticated corsets and shortened their skirts

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so they've now become more male,

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they're taking up all sorts of athletic activities.

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These films regularly featured women exercising their freedom

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on the sports field.

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When you look at images of men in this period,

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particularly in fiction films,

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they're full of war veterans with immobile legs.

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They're full of emasculated men who've returned from the trenches

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and can't fulfil the proper offices of their sex.

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In contrast, Pathe showed women as fit and dynamic.

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The images seem positive, but in the film titles

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you can read the social concerns of the day.

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If you were a man, in all sorts of ways, you felt threatened.

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You felt threatened politically,

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because the vote had just been granted.

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And you felt threatened financially, because you might feel

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that all these spinsters flooding the market

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would be liable to take your jobs.

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After all, a lot of them had been out

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taking men's jobs during the war.

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There was also a more subtle sexual threat.

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There was this thought that,

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suddenly, if you were a man, perhaps these women didn't really need you.

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Pathe often ended these films

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by re-establishing athletic Eve's feminine qualities.

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Although Pathe was a progressive organisation,

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it remained a very masculine environment.

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And the company made sure Eve's Film Review

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always had something of interest for its male viewers too.

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Any excuse to get a bunch of pretty girls together,

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dressing and dancing around and mucking about,

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showing their beautiful body shapes and tossing their lovely hair.

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I think it's the pleasure of looking at a group of women.

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Of course, there's an element of voyeurism.

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Only 20 years previously, women remained tantalisingly covered up.

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Now, in Eve's fashion items,

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acres of shapely legs were suddenly on display.

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While British feature films of the 1920s were strictly censored,

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Pathe's cine-magazines were categorised as news,

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which meant they were allowed to self-regulate.

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And Pathe's cameramen exploited this freedom to the limit.

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Although male appetites were well catered for,

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Eve's Film Review was essentially aimed at women.

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One of the most popular elements of the strand featured

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handy domestic tips.

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Like this Homespun butter cooler that offered invaluable advise

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to housewives who couldn't afford the latest mod-cons.

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We know Pathe's audience appreciated these films

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because the company had an ongoing dialogue with its viewers,

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who frequently wrote in

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to comment on items or suggest subjects for future stories.

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One box of these letters sent to the company in 1928 still survives.

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"I need hardly say how much I enjoy your Eve's Film Review.

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"They are so educational and so easy to follow.

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"And it is quite a pleasure to watch them, and they only end too soon."

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This is from a woman in Cheltenham

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suggesting a story for Eve's Film Review, written October 30th, 1928.

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"Dear Sirs, I have been wondering

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"if you can make use of the following idea in your Film Review,

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"which so often contains helpful items.

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"Everyone knows the annoyance of being what people describe

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"as a dirty walker, yet some folk can, on the muddiest day,

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"manage to get through without a splash."

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This film, entitled Cheating The Mud Spots,

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shows how directly Pathe responded to the needs,

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interests and passions of contemporary women.

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From her clothes to her leisure pursuits,

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Pathe paints an intimate portrait of the girl it calls The Modern Miss.

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But the days of Eve's Film Review were numbered.

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In 1933, Pathe stopped producing its silent women's weekly.

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The company would now channel its resources into harnessing

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the potential of an exciting new innovation.

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Sound.

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Pathe marked the arrival of sound in British cinemas with a fanfare

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as they launched Pathetone Weekly, a cine-magazine

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dedicated to exhibiting the novel, amusing and strange.

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With particular emphasis on musical items,

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it featured a host of celebrated singers,

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variety acts and novelty performers.

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What Pathe concentrated on,

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which was quite different to its competitors,

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was that they thought the possibility of sound

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should be expressed in music,

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so initially with Pathe Sound Pictorial,

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you had this special studio, Pathe Studio,

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which was done out with the latest technology.

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And they had music-hall artists

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and all the popular names of the time come in and do a session.

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-What are you here for?

-A few minutes. What are you here for?

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A few pence.

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-Well, I'll have 50% of your pence.

-I'll have 50% of your moments.

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-I suppose I'll see you at the seaside?

-If I'm not kept too busy.

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Then I shall see you at the seaside.

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'Most music hall people came and went

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'before the advent of the camera,

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'and indeed before the advent of recording technology.'

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So rather tragically, most of music hall is now lost to posterity.

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Some of Pathe's films contain

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the only known footage of these once-popular performers.

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# If you're feeling fed up

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# And tired of single life

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# There's one thing for you to do

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# Just take yourself a wife

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# You will get rewarded

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# Get everything you like

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# On winter nights, you'll even get

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# Two cold feet in your bag

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# When you're married! #

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These musical stories form a marvellous historical record

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of what popular musical taste was at that time.

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# Now, if you choose a pretty wife

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# You find them hopeless cases

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# While all the ones that sew or cook

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# Have got such rotten faces! #

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Now, of course, the footage of these music-hall performers

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and similar entertainment clips are the kind of thing that we cherish.

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The music-hall veteran Lily Morris was renowned for her risque songs.

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Don't Have Any More, Mrs Moore plays on the double-entendre

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between Mrs Moore having too much to drink

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and the possibility of her having yet another child as a result.

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# Don't have any more, Mrs Moore

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# Mrs Moore, please don't have any more

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# The more you have, the more you'll want, they say

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# And enough is as good as a feast any day... #

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Pathe liked to reflect whatever was

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really popular amongst the population at large.

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And music hall always made a great play of being topical.

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Usually they were trying to make fun of some current trend.

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It was rather like a modern tabloid. It was basically irreverent,

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and so it reflected the broadest concerns of its audience.

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# Don't have any more, Mrs Moore

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# Mrs Moore, please don't have any more... #

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To us, with the benefit of hindsight,

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it's tremendously revealing of the times.

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Oh, it's no laughing matter

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that I should be left an old maid, repenting my sins.

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-You never committed any sins.

-No, that's just what I'll be repenting.

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Oh, well, it's over now. Forget it...

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A glamorous double-act, the Carson Sisters put a comic spin

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on a major preoccupation for many of Pathe's young female viewers -

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how to bag themselves a man, and ideally, a rich one!

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# Just being good to our man

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# Never quite naughty

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# But often quite nice

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# Well, if men are sporty

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# They must pay the price... #

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We're talking about women who'd grown up viewing marriage

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as the crown and joy of a woman's life, as one writer put it.

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They'd grown up thinking of marriage as their absolute birth right.

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And they knew no other identity.

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What became of that other boyfriend of yours?

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Oh, he's a big shot down at the studios.

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He should be. He's been fired often enough!

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What you wanted in life was a man.

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If you were still in the competition,

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if you were still out there,

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then there was a very strong sense

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that you had to work hard to get him.

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# Never say no, the word of love, so refrain

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# Never say yes they'll make you say it again

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# So just keep them guessing as long as you can

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# And dig for your gold by being nice to your man... #

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Competition for audiences was intensifying,

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so it paid to be populist.

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In the 1930s, feature films became longer,

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leaving less room for short cine-magazines.

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So Pathe started to produce films

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to appeal to the broadest-possible audience.

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If you didn't like one item, then you might enjoy the next.

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One of the mainstays of the company's weekly cine-magazines

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would be items featuring the great British eccentric.

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A good idea, hot off the brain, is a world-shattering device

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that'll keep the head dry underwater.

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The secret is in the nifty bit of work at the back.

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And when installed, the apparatus leaves the hands

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as free as a pain in the neck.

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Here's another bright idea.

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Motorcycle goggles with windscreen wipers.

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Mr Haveren, the inventor, says that a speed of 15 mph is sufficient

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to drive the propeller that puts the wipers in action.

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Tom Handcox is an engineer of Beaconsfield, Bucks,

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and for two years he's been working on the idea of a motor-skate

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that would be cheap to run and easy to manipulate.

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He thinks he's found it in his one-horse auto.

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Pathe Pictorial celebrates British eccentricity.

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Different types of innovation,

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and what strikes us now is how non-judgmental they are.

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And partly that's because they have to appeal to everyone.

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A modern inventor follows an age-old tradition.

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Through the centuries, it has generally been the custom

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for men of science to try out their inventions on themselves first.

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And Mr Jack Truro of Devonshire is no exception.

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He's invented a fluid

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that he claims will fire-proof any normal woven material.

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It's very much in the tone of, "Mr So And So has

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"come up with this invention, and good luck to him!"

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Pathe's eclectic programme proved hugely popular,

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enabling the company to dominate the cine-magazine market.

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George is safe, and so is Mr Truro.

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The man who has the courage of his own invention.

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Well, done, Mr Truro. We think maybe you've got something!

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With the outbreak of World War II,

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news footage became increasingly disturbing to watch.

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But it was during this critical moment in British history

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that Pathe's cine-magazines really came into their own.

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Cinema had never been better attended. Even though

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there was the threat of dying in your seat because of the Luftwaffe,

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more people went than had ever been before.

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It's the historical peak of cinema going.

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Ronald Frankau. Scene four, take 56.

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Where shall I put this? Oh, I'll put it over there.

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Pathe responded to the wartime needs of its audience

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with popular music items

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that offered cheerful escapism and boosted the nation's morale.

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A great favourite was the singer Ronald Frankau.

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# They showed me correspondence

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# That's what made me depressed

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# 50,000 letters with the same request

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# Don't let's sing about the war

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# The whole thing's really such a bore

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# Let's sing of love or something similar

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# Not about Goering, Hess or Himmler

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# Don't lets sing about the war... #

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This is 1940, and Britain is just entering

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the serious stage of World War II.

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And Ronald Frankau was making the point

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that if you really want to cheer people up,

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don't sing patriotic songs about how brilliantly the war is going.

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Just take people's minds off the subject.

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Here is the ballet Down Under.

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One quirky film from 1941 captured members of the armed forces

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enjoying some impromptu entertainment,

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and sent a reassuring message to relatives back home.

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It was quite a common thing in these entirely male environments

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for the men to dress up in drag and play the female part.

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Boy, we hope they never crash! We'd hate to kill the fatted calf!

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Nobody at the controls, that's the trouble. Going into a spin.

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Looks as if it's going to full sails.

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Contact! She can't get out of it. She can't get out of it.

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Why should she, anyway?!

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Pathe judged the mood perfectly.

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The company's cine-magazines became

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an integral part of the cinema programme

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and boosted the nation's spirits during testing times.

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People really, really needed it.

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And one of the things they needed it for was that sense of commonality.

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Of an audience bonded together.

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An Englishman's home may be his castle,

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but even castles aren't bombproof.

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So it's a case of "Chins up" with the civilians in the frontline.

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The Hun may do his worst,

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but he can't destroy the dauntless spirit of our people,

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whether young or old. Down may be their homes, but not their hearts...

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I think the great slogan about the war was, "We can take it.

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"No matter how bad things are, we'd go on."

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We didn't really want to take it, but we knew it was the only thing to do,

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so we'd better put a brave face on it, and we tried to play games

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during the Blitz, and we tried to pretend it was all great fun.

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Pathe cine-magazines give us a snapshot of how the British people

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responded to the national call to arms, each in their individual way.

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Hats off to a Manchester piano tuner

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who has been awarded

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The Ministry of Agriculture's Dig For Victory diploma.

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Mr Sharky's blind,

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but he can dig and tend his allotment with unerring skill.

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A good example of "much in little",

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or "multum in parvo", as we Latin scholars put it,

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is Warden Griffin of Millhill,

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now reporting for duty with big buddy Bert.

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Whether on the phone at the post or on the prowl outside,

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the weenie warden is a wonderful worker. He stands three foot 11 in his pullover

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and weights half as much as a man twice his size.

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His favourite hobby, and we can't say we blame him, is first aid.

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As well as its rousing soundtrack

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and morale-boosting messages, Pathe did its bit for the war effort,

0:23:250:23:30

giving cinema-goers a hefty helping of practical advice.

0:23:300:23:35

For a really modern idea, look at this.

0:23:350:23:37

These strips of white sticky paper show up in a black-out,

0:23:370:23:40

and prevent that run-down feeling.

0:23:400:23:43

Another useful tip is a white one on the toe of a shoe,

0:23:430:23:46

with a white heel to match.

0:23:460:23:48

War gave cinema a new role to do. It didn't have to just distract people.

0:23:480:23:52

It had to absolutely inform them of things that they really needed to do

0:23:520:23:57

in the daily business of their lives.

0:23:570:23:59

All's well in the shelter

0:23:590:24:01

if head and feet can be quickly and effectively covered.

0:24:010:24:04

So, out of scraps of rubbers, she creates, first of all, a booty

0:24:040:24:07

that can be slipped on in a jiffy before you slip out to the shelter.

0:24:070:24:11

She's marking out the sole.

0:24:110:24:13

The idea is based on the suggestion of an aeronautical expert

0:24:130:24:17

who claims the best protection against glass is

0:24:170:24:20

to insulate yourself with rubber.

0:24:200:24:22

What you see with Pathe Pictorial is

0:24:220:24:25

one of its fundamental characteristics,

0:24:250:24:29

which is giving practical advice, helpful advice,

0:24:290:24:34

in an entertaining way.

0:24:340:24:36

So down to the shelter they go, the little booties,

0:24:360:24:39

their feet snug and insulated in their rubber casings.

0:24:390:24:42

All's well if the ends are well.

0:24:420:24:45

During the war, Pathe refocused its fashion features,

0:24:530:24:56

showing British women how to make the most of limited resources,

0:24:560:24:59

and turn the grimy into glam.

0:24:590:25:02

There's a real inventiveness, I think,

0:25:170:25:19

in the way that British women engaged

0:25:190:25:21

with making themselves feel good and look good during the war years.

0:25:210:25:27

The "Make do and mend" mentality is something that's associated

0:25:270:25:31

with the great British housewife, and she can turn herself around

0:25:310:25:34

and look good with little expense and in the shortest-possible time.

0:25:340:25:38

And here's a way to go to it for the girl who's tired of ladders.

0:25:380:25:42

The stocking shortage was acute,

0:25:420:25:44

and women resorted to all manner of stratagems.

0:25:440:25:49

You can use a special cream that does the job in the same time.

0:25:490:25:52

And no-one's any the wiser, except yourself.

0:25:520:25:54

That is, unless the boyfriend takes a sly nip to celebrate his birthday.

0:25:540:25:58

As you see, you simply rub it on the palms and then on the legs.

0:25:580:26:01

And you use more cream for two legs than for one.

0:26:010:26:03

It's that sort of cream.

0:26:030:26:05

Women used a solution of potassium permanganate.

0:26:090:26:13

They used wet sand. They used gravy browning, which in the summer months

0:26:130:26:18

attracted hoards of flies to your legs.

0:26:180:26:21

They used camp coffee, if you could get it.

0:26:210:26:24

And these are the finished cream-laid legs.

0:26:240:26:28

We certainly have seen worse.

0:26:280:26:30

If you insist on a seam,

0:26:300:26:31

it's just a low-down trick for the eyebrow pencil.

0:26:310:26:34

Legs or eyebrows, it's all the same. Only a little difference in shape.

0:26:340:26:39

In spite of its upbeat tone, Pathe couldn't ignore

0:26:410:26:44

the devastating impact war was having on domestic life on Britain.

0:26:440:26:49

The flying bombs began to come over.

0:26:490:26:51

First in ones and twos, and then all day long.

0:26:510:26:55

As soon as one passed over, you began to breathe again,

0:26:580:27:02

another would come, and so it went on.

0:27:020:27:07

Throughout the war,

0:27:070:27:08

Pathe expanded its repertoire and reached new creative heights.

0:27:080:27:13

The film A Tribute To Women dramatised

0:27:130:27:17

every woman's wartime experience.

0:27:170:27:20

A well-crafted tear-jerker,

0:27:200:27:22

it responded directly to the needs and concerns of its audience.

0:27:220:27:26

As I stood on the platform, waiting,

0:27:260:27:29

my thoughts went back to that September morning in 1939.

0:27:290:27:33

We were on holiday, and as we strolled past a cottage,

0:27:330:27:37

we heard that fateful news on the wireless.

0:27:370:27:39

'Two hours ago,

0:27:390:27:41

'the Prime Minister announced that we are at war with Germany.'

0:27:410:27:44

Looking at the flowers in that garden,

0:27:480:27:50

I thought what a crazy world it was then.

0:27:500:27:53

After that, it seemed only a few moments, and John was in khaki.

0:27:530:27:58

I remember how brave we pretended to be as we said goodbye,

0:27:580:28:01

but I don't think we fooled each other for a moment.

0:28:010:28:04

I loved the way that it was shot.

0:28:040:28:07

I thought that was poignant,

0:28:070:28:08

because it didn't say this was about individual people.

0:28:080:28:11

It's about everyone who's watching this film.

0:28:110:28:15

"You've all had this happen to you."

0:28:150:28:16

That evening, when the children were in bed,

0:28:160:28:20

I realised how lonely a room can be.

0:28:200:28:22

His chair, his pipe on the mantelpiece.

0:28:240:28:27

Just as if he'd be back in a moment.

0:28:270:28:30

It was about the loneliness, the sitting at home,

0:28:300:28:33

the "How did you get through the long winter evenings?"

0:28:330:28:38

It was about sending their children off to be evacuated.

0:28:380:28:41

The sacrifice that you felt you had to make.

0:28:410:28:43

I think only a mother could understand

0:28:430:28:46

the strange emptiness when children have left a house.

0:28:460:28:50

As I gazed at the cot with the toys strewn around, I made a decision.

0:28:500:28:55

A few days later, I hadn't time to dwell on loneliness.

0:29:040:29:07

Working at the factory, feeling that I was doing something to help.

0:29:070:29:11

Yes, I grumbled sometimes, but I always felt so ashamed afterwards,

0:29:110:29:15

knowing how much more he was having to go through out there.

0:29:150:29:20

I found it very moving. I was touched by it.

0:29:220:29:26

I thought they had captured in that little Pathe clip

0:29:260:29:29

the essence of everywoman's experience.

0:29:290:29:32

My heart seemed to stop beating as I took the envelope,

0:29:320:29:35

hardly daring to read what was inside.

0:29:350:29:38

This was the moment I was living for.

0:29:380:29:41

John was coming home.

0:29:410:29:44

I hurried to the station and stood there, waiting.

0:29:440:29:46

And remembering.

0:29:460:29:48

The role of a wife or mother or daughter was

0:29:510:29:54

to keep the home fires burning.

0:29:540:29:55

To keep something for men to think about and for the soldier

0:29:550:30:00

to want to come back to and to want to rebuild.

0:30:000:30:04

I looked at the faces of the people as they hurried along the platform.

0:30:080:30:12

But I couldn't see any sign of John.

0:30:120:30:15

Then suddenly, there he was. It was us two alone.

0:30:250:30:28

There were so many things I was going to say to him.

0:30:280:30:32

Yet just to hold him again meant more than all of them.

0:30:320:30:36

It's emotional, isn't it, the homecoming?

0:30:360:30:40

The tremendous joy of returning.

0:30:400:30:44

What it didn't enlarge on was, what then?

0:30:440:30:47

Once the victory celebrations were over,

0:30:500:30:52

Britain was left to nurse its wounds.

0:30:520:30:54

And it soon became clear

0:30:540:30:56

that the nation was deeply scarred by the conflict.

0:30:560:30:59

Back from the front,

0:30:590:31:01

to the peace of an English hospital come men who are now convalescing.

0:31:010:31:06

A short while ago, they could not be moved front their wards,

0:31:060:31:09

but today, thanks to skilful treatment and a burst of sunshine,

0:31:090:31:13

they are able to take a little exercise in the grounds.

0:31:130:31:16

And it's easy to see whose side the nurses are on.

0:31:160:31:19

One of the things that you can read

0:31:190:31:21

through the cine-magazines of the immediate post-war period

0:31:210:31:24

is this idea of Britain being a nation of causalities of some kind.

0:31:240:31:28

There's a strong sense

0:31:280:31:29

that there are many broken people in this nation,

0:31:290:31:34

and that they need to be fixed.

0:31:340:31:37

The hospital is situated

0:31:370:31:38

in a stretch of typically English countryside.

0:31:380:31:41

Well wooded and undulating. From the grounds, the convalescents

0:31:410:31:45

can glimpse a lovely bit of the homeland

0:31:450:31:47

that they've been fighting for.

0:31:470:31:48

The convalescent home painted a wonderfully unclouded

0:31:480:31:54

and uncomplicated view.

0:31:540:31:57

It was about sacrifice.

0:31:570:31:59

It was about an England that we were fighting for.

0:31:590:32:02

And it was about the woman as healer, carer,

0:32:020:32:07

nurturer and all-round good angel.

0:32:070:32:10

And the infantilised male.

0:32:100:32:13

Grateful, looked after, cared for. Where he wants to be.

0:32:130:32:20

The bombs had stopped falling, but the rationing continued,

0:32:220:32:25

and people began to realise

0:32:250:32:27

that daily lives were still as hard as ever.

0:32:270:32:30

There was this feeling that the suffering was still going on,

0:32:350:32:39

and I think over the period, let's say 1945 to 1950, 1951,

0:32:390:32:42

there was gradual resentment about all that.

0:32:420:32:45

"Damn it, my husband, my brother,

0:32:450:32:47

"my father went through the Burma campaign and came back,

0:32:470:32:51

"and still we can't get bananas!"

0:32:510:32:54

Responding to the widespread sense of dissatisfaction,

0:32:540:32:57

Pathe ran a series of cine-magazine specials,

0:32:570:33:00

featuring feel-good films intended to create a more positive mood.

0:33:000:33:05

This item, filmed at a nursery in north London, captures a repair man

0:33:050:33:10

giving broken toys a new lease of life.

0:33:100:33:12

Yes, it's a business, happiness.

0:33:120:33:14

It's Jack Burkett's business. The toy doctor at Hampstead Day Nursery.

0:33:140:33:19

His job is making happily ever after a real-life ending.

0:33:190:33:23

His work makes him a partner in that happiness.

0:33:230:33:25

You get a sense of a country kind of putting itself to rights,

0:33:300:33:33

and a country that wants to cure itself of something,

0:33:330:33:37

and is looking forward into a brighter future.

0:33:370:33:40

that it's going to make damn sure happens.

0:33:400:33:43

Rationing in Britain finally ended in 1954,

0:33:460:33:50

and a year later, Pathe's cine-magazines burst into colour,

0:33:500:33:53

reflecting this optimistic new age.

0:33:530:33:56

Throughout the history of Pathe Pictorial, they're constantly

0:34:060:34:10

looking for ways to differentiate their product,

0:34:100:34:14

and in the 1950s, the big competitor is television.

0:34:140:34:19

As TV was still black and white, Pathe exploited its advantage,

0:34:190:34:25

choosing stories that would maximise the impact of colour.

0:34:250:34:28

Coffee houses like

0:34:280:34:30

this one at Kensington are having a new vogue throughout the country.

0:34:300:34:34

Waiters from Trinidad and Marseilles,

0:34:340:34:36

furnishings from Argentina and Hong Kong,

0:34:360:34:38

music from Latin America.

0:34:380:34:40

These exotic touches create an unusual and colourful atmosphere.

0:34:400:34:45

Foods, too, reflect the modern demand for variety and imagination.

0:34:450:34:49

Open sandwiches in the Swedish style

0:34:490:34:51

contain steak tartar or continental savouries,

0:34:510:34:54

and odd mixtures like cream cheese and fresh fruit,

0:34:540:34:57

or cheese marons and walnuts.

0:34:570:34:59

I think we do imagine that,

0:34:590:35:01

literally, Britain went into colour in the '50s.

0:35:010:35:04

Some time during the Coronation, things did switch

0:35:040:35:07

from being in black and white to being in colour.

0:35:070:35:10

Certainly, colour was more prevalent just out on the streets at this time

0:35:100:35:14

than it would have been for the previous decade.

0:35:140:35:16

Britain was looking to a brighter, better future.

0:35:200:35:26

And with this spirit of optimism came a new emphasis on youth.

0:35:260:35:29

The emerging generation that would rebuild a damaged nation.

0:35:290:35:33

And Pathe captured the mood, turning its cameras

0:35:360:35:39

on young Brits at work, rest and play.

0:35:390:35:44

If there are two things that young children always enjoy,

0:35:450:35:49

it's dressing up and pretending.

0:35:490:35:51

Which is once reason why this ballet school at Rochester, Kent, has

0:35:510:35:54

so many enthusiastic pupils. Of course, few will ever graduate

0:35:540:35:59

to the distinguished ranks of the ballet companies,

0:35:590:36:01

but that doesn't stop them giving heart-warming,

0:36:010:36:03

if unprofessional, performances. And, above all, enjoying themselves.

0:36:030:36:07

Everybody was taking youth, childhood, more seriously

0:36:070:36:12

than at any time in our history.

0:36:120:36:14

It was all an attempt to find

0:36:140:36:15

the best way of doing the best thing for the young people.

0:36:150:36:18

Because we were looking to the future rather than the past.

0:36:180:36:21

Over now to Battersea Festival Gardens

0:36:210:36:23

to meet the contestants in a friendly competition,

0:36:230:36:26

with no holes barred. A baby show!

0:36:260:36:30

Throughout the 1950s, Pathe's cine-magazines celebrated motherhood

0:36:300:36:34

and reflected Britain's post-war baby boom.

0:36:340:36:37

Memories of poverty in the 1930s were vivid.

0:36:370:36:41

Children who died of malnutrition. Those were live memories.

0:36:410:36:46

So, chubby, strong babies who didn't die

0:36:460:36:49

in the first five years of their life were so important.

0:36:490:36:54

That, I think, is behind baby shows in the 1950s.

0:36:540:36:59

This is one beauty competition

0:36:590:37:01

where a pretty face doesn't count for too much.

0:37:010:37:03

For the ten judges connected with the medical profession,

0:37:030:37:06

watch out for points like good teeth, or rather, gums,

0:37:060:37:09

and other characteristics of the healthy baby.

0:37:090:37:12

Bringing up your child to a healthy life was a triumph.

0:37:120:37:18

As well as stronger babies,

0:37:210:37:22

Britain was also benefiting from a healthier economy.

0:37:220:37:25

The new prosperity powered a wave of consumerism

0:37:250:37:28

that would revolutionise domestic life.

0:37:280:37:31

The Britain public was determined to put the war years

0:37:340:37:38

and "Make do and mend" behind them.

0:37:380:37:40

They wanted it all, and they wanted it now.

0:37:400:37:46

You can really see this in the cine-magazines of the period,

0:37:460:37:50

which will bombard you with images of things that might want.

0:37:500:37:54

The ingenuity of bed designers is our subject,

0:37:540:37:57

and this particular example underlines the fact that

0:37:570:38:01

we are living in a highly-mechanised age.

0:38:010:38:03

Pathe's cine-magazines pushed an idealised version of domestic bliss

0:38:030:38:07

for the 1950s housewife to aspire to.

0:38:070:38:10

Just push the button and the foot of the bed soars skywards.

0:38:100:38:15

Just the thing after a hard day

0:38:150:38:17

slaving over a hot and fully automatic oven.

0:38:170:38:21

A tape recorder for the career girl to dictate into.

0:38:210:38:24

Or for the non-career girl, a means to play hours of soothing music.

0:38:240:38:29

Really, the cine magazine is embodying that new consumer culture,

0:38:310:38:35

the culture that's going to end with

0:38:350:38:37

Harold Macmillan telling everybody that they never had it so good.

0:38:370:38:41

Items featured women performing everyday chores in domestic settings

0:38:470:38:51

whilst dressed like film stars.

0:38:510:38:54

You didn't let your house show any dirt or any dust.

0:39:020:39:06

Nor did you let your body or yourself show any.

0:39:060:39:09

There's a lot of women for whom

0:39:090:39:11

those ideals of cleanliness and perfection,

0:39:110:39:15

the beautiful child, the perfect home, the impeccable outfit,

0:39:150:39:20

those are ideals to aspire to, and they have a sort of glamour.

0:39:200:39:24

Pathe used one of the great domestic icons of the age to show viewers

0:39:240:39:29

how to make exciting meals from the most mundane materials.

0:39:290:39:33

How often have you gazed enviously

0:39:330:39:35

at the exotic creations of master bakers and chefs?

0:39:350:39:38

Well, you needn't feel envious any more!

0:39:380:39:40

Here are a few professional tips on what can be done

0:39:400:39:43

with the simplest of tools and ingredients

0:39:430:39:46

demonstrated by the husband-and-wife team Fanny and John Craddock.

0:39:460:39:50

I think there's a sense in society as a whole that women need to return

0:39:500:39:55

to more traditional, feminine roles,

0:39:550:39:58

which include dressing up, so you get

0:39:580:40:00

the re-emergence of a glamorous, almost artificial femininity.

0:40:000:40:07

During the 1950s,

0:40:120:40:13

Pathe's cine-magazines presented a prescriptive picture

0:40:130:40:17

of what was considered to be the Ideal Woman.

0:40:170:40:21

Women with an eye for bright colours but not the figure

0:40:210:40:25

are the special problem of today's outsize designers.

0:40:250:40:28

At a West End studio, OS model Linda Lee shows that

0:40:280:40:31

glaring colours are a glaring mistake for her.

0:40:310:40:34

Scarlet and bright red in particular

0:40:340:40:37

should be left to the slimmer women...

0:40:370:40:39

and to bull-fighters!

0:40:390:40:41

In a sense, what the Pathe films do is

0:40:410:40:44

provide an aid to women in how to dress.

0:40:440:40:48

But at the same time, of course, they're pushing forward

0:40:480:40:51

a kind of stereotype of the hourglass figure

0:40:510:40:55

and this highly-feminine woman

0:40:550:40:57

that also puts on an awful amount of pressure.

0:40:570:41:00

But it wasn't just women who were

0:41:030:41:05

under pressure to look their best in this new, post-war world.

0:41:050:41:09

Once something for ladies only,

0:41:090:41:10

fashion and grooming became a male preoccupation too.

0:41:100:41:15

All these men have just got rid of their demob suits.

0:41:170:41:21

They've mainly been in uniform for the whole of the war.

0:41:210:41:23

What are they going to wear? What are they going to wear

0:41:230:41:26

in these new professions that they're taking up?

0:41:260:41:29

And so I think for the first time

0:41:290:41:30

the idea of a sort of boardroom fashion begins to emerge.

0:41:300:41:34

The average business conference is a rather dull affair.

0:41:340:41:37

But we make no apologies

0:41:370:41:38

for taking you behind the scenes of this sales conference.

0:41:380:41:41

Yes, we did say conference.

0:41:410:41:43

In fact, if this is what conferences are really like,

0:41:430:41:45

our cameras will be covering them regularly in future.

0:41:450:41:48

Actually, this sales conference is

0:41:510:41:52

part of a drive to make men more fashion-conscious,

0:41:520:41:55

directed particularly at their taste in shirts.

0:41:550:41:57

And, of course, how better to interest men

0:41:570:42:00

than with this new-style fashion show?

0:42:000:42:03

The idea of the sexiness of business culture is

0:42:030:42:07

something that's very new.

0:42:070:42:09

The nice shirt and collar and tie and the status that that brings.

0:42:090:42:14

Being in a boardroom and pointing at people and making decisions

0:42:140:42:18

about things that are probably very, very boring can

0:42:180:42:22

somehow seem attractive.

0:42:220:42:24

The city type. Well, that's what the programme says.

0:42:240:42:27

The girl is Maria Mellman. Every man's type!

0:42:270:42:31

I bet there weren't many fashion shows with women

0:42:310:42:35

taking their skirts off in the boardroom in reality,

0:42:350:42:40

but Pathe capture some of the fantasies of the time and uses them

0:42:400:42:45

to encourage men to engage

0:42:450:42:46

with new forms of shopping and new forms of clothing.

0:42:460:42:50

A chap who takes pride in his distinctive clothing

0:42:500:42:55

likes to cap it all with a hairstyle to match,

0:42:550:42:59

so he orders the works.

0:42:590:43:01

Pathe's cine-magazines offered a rather traditionalist view

0:43:010:43:05

on these new fashion fads.

0:43:050:43:07

One item filmed at a barbershop in London

0:43:070:43:11

captures an outlandish new hairstyle called the Elephant's Trunk.

0:43:110:43:18

Sometimes, however,

0:43:180:43:20

even a normal head of hair fails to rise to the occasion.

0:43:200:43:23

And when it just isn't long enough,

0:43:230:43:25

a switch of false hair is thrust into the breach.

0:43:250:43:29

Not everyone's cup of tea, but this is no time to split hairs.

0:43:290:43:33

To Cyril, the new style is a work of art.

0:43:430:43:46

To the customer, it's a mark of distinction.

0:43:460:43:49

To other folk, it looks like an elephant's trunk, which is just what it is called.

0:43:490:43:54

We repeat - the Elephant's Trunk.

0:43:540:43:56

What Pathe, I think, are trying to do is to reassure their audience,

0:43:560:43:59

perhaps a middle-aged, middle-of-the-road,

0:43:590:44:02

provincial audience that, although this looks bizarre,

0:44:020:44:06

and possibly threatening to some people, it's all good, clean fun.

0:44:060:44:12

The style may not be a practical one.

0:44:160:44:18

It wouldn't pay to go near machinery, for example.

0:44:180:44:21

But at least it's guaranteed to improve the memory.

0:44:210:44:25

Have an Elephant Trunk and you'll never forget.

0:44:250:44:28

Throughout the 1950s, many British industries embraced opportunities

0:44:280:44:34

created by the new consumer society.

0:44:340:44:36

The rise of advertising didn't go unnoticed at Pathe,

0:44:360:44:40

which was constantly looking for new stories.

0:44:400:44:43

And the company was soon working closely

0:44:430:44:46

with many influential promoters.

0:44:460:44:48

In 1957, Pathe turned its cameras on a publicity stunt

0:44:510:44:55

that saw a tramp transformed into a smart suit-wearing citizen,

0:44:550:44:59

anticipating today's makeover shows.

0:44:590:45:02

The idea is that, as part of our show,

0:45:020:45:05

some of our top stylists should set out to prove

0:45:050:45:08

that grooming maketh man, and that even down-and-out Ted

0:45:080:45:13

can be transformed into a model of sophistication

0:45:130:45:15

with a little expert treatment.

0:45:150:45:17

The film was a collaboration between Pathe

0:45:170:45:20

and a particularly opportunistic entrepreneur.

0:45:200:45:23

A very celebrated hairdresser at the time called Leonard Pountney

0:45:230:45:28

was an extremely ambitious businessman and supreme showman.

0:45:280:45:32

A great self-publicist.

0:45:320:45:33

Leonard goes out and finds a tramp sleeping rough on the streets and gives him a full makeover,

0:45:330:45:38

which sets him on the road to a steady job and full recovery.

0:45:380:45:42

This is pure showbiz from Leonard Pountney

0:45:420:45:45

for the purposes of getting people like Pathe

0:45:450:45:48

to whip up a bit of PR for himself.

0:45:480:45:53

Actually, although most tramps wouldn't change their lives

0:45:530:45:57

for all the tea in China,

0:45:570:45:58

Ted, at 39, has had his fill of adventure and romance on the road

0:45:580:46:03

and welcomed this opportunity of getting back on his feet.

0:46:030:46:07

After this lot, Ted starts job hunting right away.

0:46:070:46:10

The audience is full of likely-looking employers.

0:46:100:46:13

I think it points to one slight difference between then and now,

0:46:150:46:18

in that appearance was everything.

0:46:180:46:20

A man who wasn't clean shaven, who didn't have a suit and tie on,

0:46:200:46:24

a man who didn't have his hair cut short

0:46:240:46:26

could not really expect to be taken seriously

0:46:260:46:28

in the world of white-collar business.

0:46:280:46:30

And the idea that an unshaven man could go into a job interview

0:46:300:46:34

and last more than a few seconds would have been considered ridiculous.

0:46:340:46:37

Undoubtedly, this is what they call living it up!

0:46:370:46:41

But Ted's not sure and thinks, "This is what they call living it up?!"

0:46:410:46:46

But the mood was changing.

0:46:510:46:54

As the 1960s unfolded, traditions were swept away,

0:46:540:46:57

and a new spirit of rebelliousness emerged.

0:46:570:46:59

Powered by Britain's dynamic youth culture,

0:46:590:47:02

the country embraced new fashions, tastes and values.

0:47:020:47:06

Youth, the swinging youth who have given staid and sober old London

0:47:060:47:10

its recent swinging metaphor.

0:47:100:47:12

And it's the voice of youth which is decreeing change

0:47:120:47:16

in this city of increasing contrasts.

0:47:160:47:18

Exuberants, extroverts, exhibitionists.

0:47:180:47:21

Not even the gay young things of the 1920s could make

0:47:210:47:24

such an impression on the capital as this generation.

0:47:240:47:26

Swinging London, changing London. Down with the old, up with the new.

0:47:260:47:32

Although Pathe tried hard to reflect the changing world around it,

0:47:320:47:35

the company was one of the old guard,

0:47:350:47:39

and it found itself out of touch with an increasingly-youthful audience.

0:47:390:47:43

This became particularly obvious in items covering the new pop culture.

0:47:470:47:53

Its 1963 film Beatnik Beauty features a girl that epitomised "new cool"

0:47:530:47:58

being turned back into "old school".

0:47:580:48:02

Look at that Beatnik girl, she's passing a Mayfair beauty parlour,

0:48:020:48:05

where smart, chic women pretty themselves up. No place for her!

0:48:050:48:08

Or is it? Go on! See what they can make of you, because it so happens

0:48:080:48:12

they specialise in teaching teenagers

0:48:120:48:14

how to make the best of themselves.

0:48:140:48:17

You look as though you could do with a good, square meal,

0:48:170:48:21

as well as a wash and brush up. But no. Those eggs are only there

0:48:210:48:24

to provide a lather that will condition your hair.

0:48:240:48:27

Relax, and they'll make a gracious lady out of you yet.

0:48:270:48:31

It's all part of the deception of a modern woman's life.

0:48:310:48:34

This is what film stars

0:48:340:48:36

and fine girls about town go through daily at great expense

0:48:360:48:39

to convince the world that they really are beautiful.

0:48:390:48:42

It's a hard, hard life.

0:48:420:48:43

Cinderella's ballroom. Can this really be our Beatnik?

0:48:480:48:55

Have we witnessed a grand transformation scene,

0:48:550:48:57

with a modern Cinderella switched from

0:48:570:48:59

her leather jacket to genuine elegance?

0:48:590:49:01

It's hard to remember what this modern girl looked like

0:49:010:49:04

when we persuaded her to look in.

0:49:040:49:07

Many of the cine-magazines Pathe produced during the 1960s lacked

0:49:070:49:11

the creative energy of its early years.

0:49:110:49:14

By the time you come to the 1960s, there is no competition.

0:49:140:49:18

They've effectively got it sewn up.

0:49:180:49:21

In this age of progress,

0:49:230:49:25

man's intrinsic ingenuity can be expressed in a variety of ways.

0:49:250:49:29

Model making is a pastime with its own numerous permutations,

0:49:290:49:33

depending on what you model and what you model with.

0:49:330:49:37

Whereas before you would see them changing and innovating,

0:49:370:49:40

they don't have to try anymore.

0:49:400:49:42

If you look at their product throughout the 1960s,

0:49:420:49:46

it doesn't change, and everything around them does change.

0:49:460:49:50

They can fashion anything with a few expert squirts of royal icing.

0:49:500:49:54

This is one of their standard designs, St Paul's Cathedral.

0:49:540:49:58

Very tasty, they say.

0:49:580:50:00

What you get in films like this is the slightly kind of second rate

0:50:010:50:05

which is what's so delicious about them really.

0:50:050:50:10

There's that rubbishness that you often find about British things,

0:50:100:50:14

which is something that actually becomes intoxicating with age.

0:50:140:50:19

The scene is a big, gay holiday camp at Bognor.

0:50:210:50:24

During the 1960s, Pathe collaborated with several large businesses

0:50:240:50:27

including a well-known leisure brand.

0:50:270:50:30

The accent at this Clacton holiday camp is on fun. This is a spaghetti eating race.

0:50:300:50:38

But it proved hard for the company to reconcile their editorial values with their commercial interests.

0:50:380:50:44

And they're off! These girls at a holiday camp in Clacton

0:50:460:50:50

aren't allowed a machine. Not even a needle. Only string and a pile of oddments.

0:50:500:50:55

Butlins, the holiday camp, we had a contract with them to produce six items every year.

0:50:550:51:00

Now that's pretty hard going because there are only so many times

0:51:000:51:05

you can cover a beauty contest or a donkey race.

0:51:050:51:09

The judge has a problem too. In fairness to everybody, he has to ignore the foundation

0:51:090:51:13

and give all his marks to the creation.

0:51:130:51:15

Anybody who can do that in the circumstances deserves a prize himself!

0:51:150:51:20

I came up with the idea of sticking plaster on the backs of bathers

0:51:230:51:30

so that as the sun shone on them, words appeared on their backs.

0:51:300:51:34

She's dreaming about Fred. And everyone's read about Fred.

0:51:340:51:42

She's dreaming of nobody. But she can't resist the latest seaside craze of sun-signs.

0:51:430:51:51

Here at Bognor, the craze began.

0:51:510:51:55

It soon spread. Everyone's walking round with sticking plaster on their backs,

0:51:550:51:59

waiting for the sun to leave a white tattoo.

0:51:590:52:03

We pretended it was a great craze and amazingly, it became one afterwards.

0:52:030:52:07

Although we aimed to make it a family entertainment, it was a male orientated environment

0:52:130:52:19

and we all liked pretty girls in bikinis.

0:52:190:52:23

While in the real world, a new generation of feminists were demanding equality for women,

0:52:250:52:30

Pathe featured the leggy lovelies from London's Windmill Theatre at every possible opportunity.

0:52:300:52:37

We had Windmill Girls demonstrating everything from ten-pin bowling to how to cure hiccups.

0:52:370:52:42

All wearing hardly any clothes.

0:52:420:52:45

As some of you may know, the basic cause of hiccups is an irritation of the diaphragm.

0:52:450:52:49

The thin sheet of muscle separating the chest and the abdominal cavity, so that you need something to sooth

0:52:490:52:55

the diaphragm and give it a chance to get back into rhythmic operation.

0:52:550:53:00

Grated raw potato sometimes helps, they say.

0:53:000:53:03

I look back now and I think, "God, how did we get away with this?"

0:53:060:53:10

I mean, it was so sexist in many ways because the only women working there

0:53:100:53:14

were secretaries and they typed the scripts.

0:53:140:53:17

SHE HICCUPS

0:53:220:53:24

We were looking for fun stories and we had fun looking for them.

0:53:270:53:31

The world had changed irrevocably since Pathe produced its first cine-magazines.

0:53:330:53:39

Unable to change with the times, the company fell back on the tried and tested themes

0:53:390:53:44

that had served it well for half a century. Titillation, technology and eccentricity.

0:53:440:53:51

Some of the world's most dramatic scientific discoveries had unusual origins.

0:53:520:53:57

A fact that may have inspired teenager, Malcolm Pickard,

0:53:570:54:01

when he spend two pounds on electrical equipment and built a snog-ometer.

0:54:010:54:06

Britain is supposed to be the centre of the sexual revolution

0:54:060:54:09

and here you've got this wonderfully suburbanised version of it,

0:54:090:54:15

where this boy has invented this contraption in his bedroom

0:54:150:54:19

and he's hooking people up to it to sort of test their lustiness.

0:54:190:54:23

Hold tight... Just testing!

0:54:230:54:26

And it's all going on in this rather wonderfully awful 1960s living room with his mother watching.

0:54:320:54:39

There! Just sitting in the corner of the room

0:54:390:54:41

looking like she could freeze the permissive society with one glare.

0:54:410:54:45

Mother's got nothing to worry about because it's all child's play.

0:54:450:54:48

But see what happens when someone just that much more mature gets to grips with the problem. Holy smoke!

0:54:480:54:53

It all looks highly dangerous. They seem to be wired up to the mains with their mouths pressing together.

0:54:530:54:58

I think he's quite lucky he didn't kill anybody frankly!

0:54:580:55:01

By the end of the decade, Pathe's distinctive take

0:55:100:55:14

on contemporary culture seemed out of tune with the times.

0:55:140:55:19

These clips of hippy lifestyle

0:55:210:55:23

or swinging London suggest to me

0:55:230:55:26

are a sort of Carry On stereotype of the fashionable life.

0:55:260:55:30

Short of a complete makeover,

0:55:330:55:35

I don't think Pathe quite knows the way forward from this point.

0:55:350:55:39

Cinema audiences had come to expect one continuous and often spectacular feature.

0:55:390:55:46

Pathe's idiosyncratic cine-magazines, like this film, entitled, Stolen From Men,

0:55:460:55:50

no longer had a place in the cinema programme.

0:55:500:55:54

Look at this girl, and in particular, look at the nail varnish she's got on.

0:55:550:56:00

White and pink.

0:56:000:56:03

Where did she get it?

0:56:030:56:05

This is where she got it...

0:56:070:56:10

She stole it from men!

0:56:100:56:12

From a real, true, he-man's motor accessory shop.

0:56:120:56:15

The cine magazine was more or less made redundant by television

0:56:150:56:19

which found that it could do exactly the same thing.

0:56:190:56:22

It seems now to us a very televisual form.

0:56:220:56:24

All to often, students get into hot water.

0:56:300:56:34

But obviously, they're not such a shower as some people like to make out.

0:56:340:56:37

In fact with ingenious ideas like this literally on tap,

0:56:370:56:40

these industrial designers of tomorrow are going to make a devil of a splash.

0:56:400:56:47

Pathe stopped producing cine-magazines in 1969.

0:56:520:56:57

But for more than 50 years, the company's cameras

0:56:570:57:01

had captured everything from the banal to the bizarre.

0:57:010:57:04

From the 1920s, when Pathe's trailblazers created Britain's first, ground-breaking cine-magazines.

0:57:080:57:15

Through its glorious heyday in the war years.

0:57:190:57:22

To its swan song in the 1960s.

0:57:220:57:25

Pathe created a rich repository of images that documented a period of tremendous change in British culture.

0:57:250:57:33

Nobody in those days had any idea really how valuable

0:57:340:57:38

and how interesting this material would be to future generations.

0:57:380:57:41

So we owe a great deal of gratitude to organisations like Pathe,

0:57:410:57:45

firstly, for recording this stuff and secondly, for preserving it.

0:57:450:57:50

It's an incredible body of work and it's profoundly influential too

0:57:500:57:55

because they founded and articulated this form

0:57:550:58:00

that really is visible absolutely everywhere in TV culture today.

0:58:000:58:04

Turn on your TV in the afternoon or the early evening

0:58:040:58:08

and you are watching the ghosts of the Pathe cine-magazine parade before you.

0:58:080:58:13

Pathe's films reflected the hopes, fears and values of the British people.

0:58:160:58:23

Often quaint, usually quirky, these cine-magazines are an entertaining, enlightening

0:58:230:58:30

and intimate record of a changing nation.

0:58:300:58:34

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:59:000:59:02

E-mail [email protected]

0:59:020:59:04

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