This Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA) compilation consists of miscellaneous commercial and amateur film, offcuts and outtakes, and short productions shot between 1933 and the early 1950s. There is one brief sequence of archive footage of a fairground ride from the early 1900s. The amateur sequences include a sports event and silver wedding presentation in the seaside town of Whitby in 1948; a Northumberland Lawn Tennis County Open Championship in Jesmond,...

This Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA) compilation consists of miscellaneous commercial and amateur film, offcuts and outtakes, and short productions shot between 1933 and the early 1950s. There is one brief sequence of archive footage of a fairground ride from the early 1900s. The amateur sequences include a sports event and silver wedding presentation in the seaside town of Whitby in 1948; a Northumberland Lawn Tennis County Open Championship in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, during the 1930s; a Newcastle & District ACA short comedy about a packet of Brand X cigarettes; and a Newcastle & District ACA picnic outing. [Reversed black and white footage] The first sequence included in the compilation is actuality footage of a fairground switchback ride and the crowd in the early 1900s. [Reversed black and white footage] Title: Outing to Whitby 1948 Title: Departure Exteriors of stores in Newcastle upon Tyne open this section of film, including Browns. A steam train moves off from a platform at Newcastle Central Station. Title: Arrival Passengers get off a train at Whitby Station. A group of men gather outside the station, dressed in winter raincoats. Title: A look around General views of West Cliff in Whitby, the harbour, a rainy day on the seafront, and Whitby Church of St Mary on the East Cliff overlooking the North Sea. A car drives away (Newcastle upon Tyne Registration No. HVK154). Title: The Sports A jokey tug of war contest takes place at a small sports ground in Whitby, with a big crowd filling the covered stands. Men run around the pitch (all in trousers with braces). More shots follow of the tug of war. Men compete in a high jump competition, some wearing their everyday clothes. A women’s sack race is underway, followed by a men’s sack race. Both women and men compete in an obstacle race. Title: Presentations to Mr and Mrs Newton on the occasion of their Silver Wedding A public presentation takes place at the sports ground. Mr Newton makes his thank you speech at the microphone. The stands are quite crowded so the couple may be well-known locally. Title: The End [Reversed black and white footage] The following dramatic sequence is from an unidentified Newcastle & District ACA film production. A woman answers the door to her friend, who is wearing a pair of (fake?) leopard skin mittens. The two women sit down in the living room with a cup of tea. The guest takes a biscuit. She then reads a card she has and pops it back in its envelope and into her handbag. They continue their chat, then leave the house together. Both women are dressed in 1940s style coats. Walking down a terrace, one of the women peers through the window of a house. They continue on their walk along a back lane to the houses. As a man and woman are working in an office, two men burst in and startle them. One of the men wields a gun and the other has a knife. The two workers are manhandled into their chairs. One of the men rifles through the papers on the office desk, looking for something. The young male office worker puts his hands up. Secretly, he presses the alarm in the floor beneath his desk with his foot. One of the criminals becomes threatening, twisting the woman’s arm to make her colleague talk. He moves a hanging display on the wall and slides out some papers hidden behind. The police suddenly burst in and shoot one crook, injuring him. The two women friends arrive there just as the police are bundling out the criminals. Next, there is a group portrait of the film’s actors and production crew. Amateur filmmaker George Cummin is in the back row. [Colour footage] This film sequence opens with a shot of a sign for ‘Northumberland Lawn Tennis Ground Limited’, the club located at North Jesmond Avenue, Newcastle upon Tyne. A County Open Championship is taking place there in the 1930s. A male tennis player walks by with his racket, smiling to camera. A woman examines a table full of trophies. A woman tennis player is escorted through the ground. General views of the match action follow with a good crowd in the stands, including men’s singles, women’s singles and men’s doubles. Portrait shot of an elderly, well-dressed man and woman, probably in the grounds of the Northumberland Club. Two young women tennis players walk through the tennis club. Spectators and players arrive and stroll past the club pavilion, two men enjoying a cigarette together. More match action follows, including women’s doubles and singles intercut with shots of the sports crowd and people requesting autographs from players. Portrait shot of a woman player who winks at camera. [Black and white footage] Title: Cine Magazine Title: Do you remember? Documentary footage of a location shoot near Hexham, Northumberland, for the Newcastle & District ACA production ‘Eyes in the Night’, first screened in 1938. The sequence featured centres around a staged gipsy encampment. General view of Newcastle & District ACA members at a picnic. Some members enjoy a game of cricket. A dart board hangs from a tree, a man enjoying a game outdoors. Women wash picnic plates in a stream. Some of the friends play at balancing cricket wickets after the game. A woman swings a tree branch, smiling at the camera. George Cummin pretends to drink from a teapot. The picnickers wander off. Two girls play leap frog. A mother and her son are gathering wild flowers. One car drives off. The other friends prepare to leave. George Cummin hands a friend an almost empty bottle of spirits. The following brief sequence is a scene from an unidentified Newcastle & District ACA production, which also features on another ACA compilation of outtakes. An inflatable kayak is floating in a rock pool by the sea. A man (ACA member Ian Davidson) performs the stunt of falling into the sea and struggles with a cardboard box. He flounders around and clings to the inflatable kayak. A general view of him swimming with the box follows. [Black and white footage] The next sequence is a comedy short produced by Joe Clark, member of the Newcastle & District ACA. A man is at his work bench. He hammers his hand accidently and hurts himself.  Portrait shot of him jokily re-acting to his injury. He comically takes careful aim with his hammer. The man, still in overalls, takes a break. He takes out his Brand X cigarettes. He taps his cigarette onto his hand, but it grossly disappears into a wound. Close-up of the Brand X cigarette packet. He lights his cigarette. He starts to cough in an exaggerated manner after he takes a drag from the cigarette. He throws the cigarette down in disgust. Trick film effects follow as he tries to flatten, then stamp on the packet. Each time the packet moves out of his reach, until it slowly disappears outside the room. Close-up shots follow of his face as he attacks the packet, then continues to stalk it. Included next in this compilation is a commercial sound film for Bell & Howell, with instructions on how to thread a projector. Next up, there are brief documentary shots filmed in Newcastle upon Tyne and the port of Harwich in Essex. Trams are running outside Newcastle Central Station on Neville Street.  Close-up of a station sign for ‘Newcastle’. A steam train arrives at a platform. Title: Harwich A car is winched onto a ship at Harwich Dock. A train pulls into Wallsend Station, North Tyneside. There’s a shot of the station sign. A train pulls out of the station. Exterior of the station, a poster on an outside wall advertising the film ‘I Lived With You’ (1933) at the Welbeck Cinema. The following sequences are a variety of Newcastle & District ACA offcuts and outtakes. Title: Newcastle & District ACA Presents Two working class women stand at a doorstep. A man walks through an arch at Newcastle University with a view of the Church of St Thomas the Martyr in the background. Possibly filmed in February 1941, a gang of men are shovelling snow from the Great North Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, after a heavy fall. A horse and cart trot by on the road. Children are playing on a ‘witches hat’ roundabout, watched by parents, in a park in Newcastle. [Colour footage] Close-up of a sign for a Traction Engine Rally at Lambton Castle Residential College in County Durham. Various general views record the display of steam traction engines and people looking around. A jazz band plays at the rally. Traction engines drive around the circuit at the rally, including two owned by Alma Bates of Iveston. [Kodachrome footage] Various general views follow that document central Newcastle upon Tyne, including the Castle Keep, a tram on a central street, the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas, the Swing Bridge and Tyne Bridge, Redheugh Bridge, a tram driving towards the Tyne Bridge, and ships moored at the Quayside. This sequence ends with dark footage of the River Tyne and surroundings. [Black and white footage] Next, there is a commercial travelogue of London, which formed part of a number of reels released around 1951 by Peak Film Productions of London. This footage may have previously been a Clapa Minifilm release. It features the following intertitles: Title: Peak Film Productions Present A “Gem” Release Title: No. 1 London West Title: The West End of London – where the daily round provides an everchanging scene Title: Oxford Street Title: … and Regent Street are constant attractions Title: Speakers’ Corner Hyde Park – the orators’ paradise Title: Hyde Park Corner Title: Buckingham Palace Title: It’s a great day when the King and Queen drive through London Title: Peak Film Productions Present A “Gem” Release