Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 10468 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
HELEN'S LIFE | 1935-1958 | 1935-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 14 mins 1 sec Credits: Tom H. Brown (Junior) Tom Brown (Senior) Genre: Home Movie Subject: Women Travel Sport Family Life |
Summary Home movie compilation made by Middlesbrough dentist and amateur filmmaker, Tom H. Brown, that focuses on the life of his first child, Helen, as she grows into adulthood and marries. The film spans the 1930s to the 1950s and features family life in Middlesbrough, trips to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Tees Valley, Durham, Llandudno in Wales, Holland and ... |
Description
Home movie compilation made by Middlesbrough dentist and amateur filmmaker, Tom H. Brown, that focuses on the life of his first child, Helen, as she grows into adulthood and marries. The film spans the 1930s to the 1950s and features family life in Middlesbrough, trips to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Tees Valley, Durham, Llandudno in Wales, Holland and Switzerland. Footage in Durham shows Helen rowing on the River Wear as a member of a university women’s boat crew.
[Dufaycolor footage]
The film...
Home movie compilation made by Middlesbrough dentist and amateur filmmaker, Tom H. Brown, that focuses on the life of his first child, Helen, as she grows into adulthood and marries. The film spans the 1930s to the 1950s and features family life in Middlesbrough, trips to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Tees Valley, Durham, Llandudno in Wales, Holland and Switzerland. Footage in Durham shows Helen rowing on the River Wear as a member of a university women’s boat crew.
[Dufaycolor footage]
The film opens with Kate Brown holding Helen Brown in her lap as a baby. Helen sports a sun visor.
Title: Feeding Time
There are several sequences of Kate sitting in a garden whilst feeding the baby Helen from a milk bottle. Kate talks to camera whilst Helen is feeding.
Title: "A mother’s pride, a father’s joy." Scott
Close ups of Helen as she is helped to walk through a garden. The film shows her as a young child combing her own hair.
Title: "Let Me Do Yours."
Helen tries to comb her father's hair. Close up of Helen holding and kissing a doll. A brief close up of flowers follows.
Title: The Young Idea
Kate climbs into a public swimming pool with her daughter in her arms. Helen wears a rubber safety ring and swimming hat. Kate helps her daughter float in the water.
Title: Vitamins For Helen At 4 yrs
Helen eats fruit, wearing a red beret.
Title: Berwick on Tweed. Georgian Walls
A four-year-old Helen climbs on a cannon guarding the River Tweed by the city walls at Wellington Terrace, Berwick Upon Tweed. Helen waves at the camera.
Title: Boomps A Daisy In Flushing 1939
Kate dances the "boomps a daisy" with a very young Helen, and the two then waltz down the street in Flushing, Netherlands.
Title: The Curtain Goes Up
Helen plays with her younger brother Tony on a toy telephone in the garden of their home.
Title: Llandudno. Scoota Boats. 1946.
Helen gets into a Scoota Boat fairground ride with her younger brother Tony. There are shots of them on the ride with other visitors. The seafront at Llandudno can be seen in the background. Helen waves to the camera.
Title: Low Force 1951
Kate is sitting in sunshine dangling her feet in the water at Low Force waterfalls in Upper Teesdale There are sequences showing visitors at the falls. The sixteen-year old Helen dangles her toes in the water. She shows off the wet patch on her dress.
Title: Winch Bridge
Helen and Kate walk across the Wynch Bridge at Low Force waterfalls.
[Kodachrome footage]
Title: Ladies’ Fours Novices Race, Durham
The next sequences show Helen with a young women’s boat crew for the Ladies’ Fours Novices Race. They walk along a path by the River Wear. There is snow on the grass verges beside the river. Helen meets up with her mother. The women's crew carry their boat down the steps and on o the river. There are sequences of the women rowing on the river. The women return to land. Her mother Kate Brown waves to the camera.
An old sign reads: "Poste & Telegraphe Grand-St-Bernard" Portrait shots of the Brown family in the Great St Bernard mountain pass in Switzerland.
Title: 27.8.58. The Wedding of Malcolm D. Ash And Helen M.C. Brown, BDS
The final sequence features shots of Helen and the Brown family, the groom, guests and bridesmaids in gardens as they prepare to attend Helen Brown’s wedding in Middlesbrough. Guests walk through the site of a new housing estate to reach St Mary’s Church, West Acklam in Middlesbrough. The view beyond church gate shows the new housing development at the corner of St Mary’s Walk and Church Lane.There is a shot of Helen and Malcolm with bridesmaid at the door of the church.
Guests then leave the church. The bride and groom pose for photographs with family members and guests in the church grounds. There are several shots of Helen posing solo in her wedding gown for photographs. The wedding party stand outside St Mary’s Church Hall at the junction of St Mary’s Walk and Green Lane. The back of the Civil Defence building on Green Lane (now demolished) appears in the background.
The final shot is a still of the family crest with Latin motto: "Cogito Ergo Sum."
Context
The film titled ‘Helen’s Life’, is a compilation of films from the 1930s to 1950s by Tom H. Brown following the life of his daughter from when she was born to the day of her marriage. Tom H. Brown was a dentist and amateur filmmaker from Middlesbrough, making many films during his life, most of which are home movies or travelogues.
The film compilation ranges over approximately twenty years following the life of Helen from 1935 to 1958. Throughout this period, the Brown family visit several...
The film titled ‘Helen’s Life’, is a compilation of films from the 1930s to 1950s by Tom H. Brown following the life of his daughter from when she was born to the day of her marriage. Tom H. Brown was a dentist and amateur filmmaker from Middlesbrough, making many films during his life, most of which are home movies or travelogues.
The film compilation ranges over approximately twenty years following the life of Helen from 1935 to 1958. Throughout this period, the Brown family visit several destinations within the United Kingdom and in Europe. When the family visit Berwick-Upon- Tweed, Tom H. Brown films the Elizabethan walls and the cannons placed around the fortification. The walls were initially built for the purpose of keeping Scots away from the city as they often tried to claim it. These defences were built to an Italian design with bastions which are built at an angle to allow gunfire in several directions. Also, on a holiday to Llandudno, there is a film of Helen and her younger brother on scoota boats with other tourists. The Pier Pavilion, originally built in 1877, held a variety of entertainment which bought in holidaymakers with several popular entertainers, like Cliff Richard, performed. The pier also has political significance as it often hosted political rallies and held the conservative party conference in 1948. When Helen is at university, she partakes in the Ladies’ Four Novices race in Durham. For women to be involved in sport was rather uncommon and only reached widespread popularity towards the end of the decade. This is significant in showing the changing attitudes towards the role of young women not only regarding sport but also as Helen was at university, it displays the broadening diversity in female acceptance and attendance in higher education. The church filmed at the end which Helen gets married in, was originally very small. With the growing population of Middlesbrough and consequently the building on new housing estates, the church needed development. Once the church could accommodate the growing population, the building was declared sacred by the Archbishop of York, Dr Michael Ramsay in 1957, just a year prior to Helen and Malcolm’s marriage in 1958. This type of film is a home movie compilation. The purpose of this genre of film is to record and preserve personal memories with the intention of sharing with close family members and friends. The compilation also shows some travelogue style films from family holidays to Wales, the Netherlands and Switzerland, showing the filmmakers interest in travelling around the United Kingdom and to different countries. The film itself contains a compilation of shots of Helen from when she was a young child to the day of her marriage to Malcolm D. Ash. Initially the film starts with Helen as baby being fed by her mother and follows milestones of her learning to walk and happy memories of playing with dolls, learning to swim, and going on family holidays. The family holiday to Berwick-Upon Tweed shows a young Helen sitting and playing on the canons on the historic Elizabethan walls, in Flushing (now known as Vlissingen) in the Netherlands playing “Boomps a daisy” which was children’s song and dance, with her mother, in 1939. When Helen was a teenager, her and her family visited the pier pavilion in Llandudno which was a popular holiday destination for many. As a family, they also travelled to Europe and visited Holland and Switzerland. In her early adulthood, Brown films his daughter in Durham at the Ladies’ Fours Novices Race as a member of a university women’s boat crew. Drawing close to the end of the film compilation there is a series of shots Helen’s marriage at St Mary’s Church in Acklam, Middlesbrough. The family is filmed preparing in the garden at the family home and walking through the estate to reach the church. Wedding guests are filmed leaving the church and gathering outside whilst photographs are being taken of the Helen with her young bridesmaids and her now husband. The film finishes with the ending title showing the family crest and the Latin phrase “Cogito Ergo Sum”- I think, therefore I am. |