Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 10250 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
REDCAR FOR HOLIDAYS | 1935 | 1935-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 7 mins 50 secs Credits: Individuals: Tom H. Brown Genre: Home Movie Subject: Travel Seaside Fashions Family Life |
Summary Produced by Middlesbrough dentist and amateur filmmaker Tom H. Brown in 1935, the film captures the variety of leisure activities and entertainment found at the seaside resort of Redcar. The film documents seaside attractions such as a commercial 'head-through-the-hole’ beach photographer, the Society Palmist shop front, Fleets Punch and Judy Show, ... |
Description
Produced by Middlesbrough dentist and amateur filmmaker Tom H. Brown in 1935, the film captures the variety of leisure activities and entertainment found at the seaside resort of Redcar. The film documents seaside attractions such as a commercial 'head-through-the-hole’ beach photographer, the Society Palmist shop front, Fleets Punch and Judy Show, decorative Victorian swings run by showman Victor Vernon and his family, and a ventriloquist. The extensive scenes of a swimwear fashion show...
Produced by Middlesbrough dentist and amateur filmmaker Tom H. Brown in 1935, the film captures the variety of leisure activities and entertainment found at the seaside resort of Redcar. The film documents seaside attractions such as a commercial 'head-through-the-hole’ beach photographer, the Society Palmist shop front, Fleets Punch and Judy Show, decorative Victorian swings run by showman Victor Vernon and his family, and a ventriloquist. The extensive scenes of a swimwear fashion show at Redcar’s outdoor pool provide a fascinating insight into changing styles from 1882 to the present. The film concludes with scenes from the 102nd Cleveland Agricultural Show, first held in 1882. Shot on Dufaycolor film shortly after it went on sale to the public in September 1934, this is one of the earliest surviving amateur colour films in the region.
Title: Movie No. 16 Title: Redcar For Holidays
Title: Redcar Caters For All Tastes
Title: You May Go For A Flight
A brief shot of a light airplane overhead.
Title: Or You May Prefer a Ride
Two men ride horses through the surf on Redcar beach.
Title: Perhaps You Believe In Safety First?
Children are led along the beach on donkeys. Three boys follow the donkeys.
Title: How About A Spot Of Bathing? First, however, tents must be erected.
A group of men and women are erecting tents or windbreaks on the beach.
Title: Into The Sea
A group of women play in the sea.
Title: A Quick Rub Down
Overhead shot of a large group of men, women and children drying themselves on the beach.
Title: A Little Exercise
A man in shorts performs a high kick on the beach.
Title: Sunbathing. For those who like it. And who doesn’t?
Shot of two women on the beach wearing fashionable beachwear. One sports a bobbed haircut. The other woman reclines on her front in a green pants suit with white belt, and is reading. A striped windbreak is placed to their rear.
Title: The Children. Can build sandcastles.
High angle shot of an elaborate architectural sandcastle on the beach.
Title: Or Try The Swings
Children play on decorative Victorian swings on Redcar beach, whilst a group of men and women watch.
Title: The ventriloquist is very popular.
A ventriloquist performs with his dummy in white suit in a windswept wooden hut on the beach. A small girl stands near by and looks towards camera. People can be seen on the beach in the background. The film cuts to a large group of children, men and women watching the show. A child holds a red setter dog at the front of the audience, which pulls away from her.
Title: The Punch and Judy entertains young and old.
Shot of Fleets Punch and Judy show booth with puppets performing in the booth window. A shot of the audience of children laughing follows. Close-up of children in the audience, some shouting at the show.
Title: Mother may prefer to gossip.
Kate Brown stands talking to a man on the beach.
Title: Or pay a visit here.
View of the shop front of a Society Palmist
Title: You must have a photograph to send home.
A commercial photographer who specialises in ‘head-through-the-hole’ comic portraits popular at seaside resorts is pitching for trade on the beach. The photographer stands behind his camera and tripod with a selection of carnival style photo cut out boards behind him. A boy walks past and pauses with interest. A bearded man in a bowler hat walks by, followed by a small child skipping.
Title: Alas, regardless of their doom, The little victims play! No sense have they of ills to come, Nor care beyond today. Gray
Children are paddling and playing with model boats in a shallow boating pond in the area known as the Coatham enclosure. Various family groups are sitting by the pond.
Title: This is more in Father’s line!
The film documents a swimwear fashion parade by an outdoor pool. There are five short sequences of women models, parading before a large poolside audience. Several short sequences demonstrate a range of styles in 1930s swimwear that include halter and backless swimsuits.
Title: How fashion has altered!
A series of the women model styles of swimwear from the Victorian era through to the 1920s, illustrating how fashions have changed. Each woman carries a sign that identifies the year of her swimsuit. These are shown in sequence as 1900, 1910, 1915 or 1925.
Title: 1936 - Cellophane
A thin woman with fashionable bobbed haircut models the new figure-hugging swimwear fashion with scooped out back and high cut legs.
Title: A visit to the Cleveland Show interests townsmen as well as countrymen.
There is a shot of an RAC signpost for the Cleveland Show, an annual agricultural event.
Title: Safety First
Shot of a trestle table with a number of silver cups of different sizes for prize winners. A policeman guards the cups.
Title: Richard III. ‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’
A horse and trap ride around an arena whilst a crowd watches. White marquees appear in the background. A groomed horse awaits the judge. Two owners lead their horses forward during judging for the competition.
Title: Bulls
There is a close-up of a tethered bull. Two men are holding their bulls on leads whilst a judge assesses the animals.
Title: The Coldstream Guards Band helps out the lunch interval.
The Coldstream Guards Band in uniform are playing music on a raised stage. A small group of children are watching.
Title: The Cheapjack throws away £1 notes and picks up a huge crowd in no time.
A traveling salesman drums up business at the Cleveland Show by throwing away one pound notes to the small crowd. A young boy and an older boy lighting a cigarette are interested and two more men head towards the salesman.
Title: The shoeing contest
Close-up of a hammer placed on an anvil. General view of horse shoeing tools and a row of horses in the background. Men dressed in brown suits and bowler hats walk by. The film cuts to a group of busy farriers engaged in various tasks in the process of shoeing. These include bending and hammering the hot metal into shape on an anvil. Shot of a farrier driving nails into a horse’s hoof wall.
Title: These are only a few of REDCAR’s amenities so you see REDCAR can be very interesting as well as enjoyable.
End credit: Photography by T. H. Brown
End title: The End
Context
This is a beautiful home movie advert for the popular seaside resort of Redcar and the bucolic charm of the 102nd Cleveland Agricultural show held at Redcar racecourse. The latest sunbathing fashions - halter tops are all the rage - along with local beach traditions of Fleet’s Punch and Judy, a ventriloquist and the showman Victor Vernon’s Victorian swings are captured in a glorious mosaic of Dufaycolor by Tees-Side Cine Club filmmaker, Tom Brown.
Redcar was known as ‘Teesside’s Mecca’ and...
This is a beautiful home movie advert for the popular seaside resort of Redcar and the bucolic charm of the 102nd Cleveland Agricultural show held at Redcar racecourse. The latest sunbathing fashions - halter tops are all the rage - along with local beach traditions of Fleet’s Punch and Judy, a ventriloquist and the showman Victor Vernon’s Victorian swings are captured in a glorious mosaic of Dufaycolor by Tees-Side Cine Club filmmaker, Tom Brown.
Redcar was known as ‘Teesside’s Mecca’ and lured record numbers of day-trippers until the eve of the Second World War, boosted by its Whitsuntide races. Many were from Teesside’s industrial hinterlands. By 1936 there were an estimated 30,000 trippers on August Bank Holiday Monday, 12,000 travelling by rail. Produced in a pioneering ‘natural’ colour, this 16mm Dufaycolor film stock was popular amongst well-off amateur film-makers like Tom Brown, eager to experiment after its launch by Ilford in 1934. When Ilford unveiled their new product trade press of the day enthused: ‘Never before had such exquisite beauty been brought to the screen…’ |