A man wins a pair of kitsch china dogs on a Bingo game at the Hoppings on Newcastle’s Town Moor and has trouble getting rid of them. This comedy short includes documentary footage of the travelling fairground rides, and show booths such as Ron Taylor’s Excelsior Pavilion boxing booth, at an annual city event held in late June. This film was a Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA) production. Credit: Newcastle & District ACA Film Unit Presents Title: Bingo...

A man wins a pair of kitsch china dogs on a Bingo game at the Hoppings on Newcastle’s Town Moor and has trouble getting rid of them. This comedy short includes documentary footage of the travelling fairground rides, and show booths such as Ron Taylor’s Excelsior Pavilion boxing booth, at an annual city event held in late June. This film was a Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA) production. Credit: Newcastle & District ACA Film Unit Presents Title: Bingo A business man with briefcase and umbrella leaves his office in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, and walks down the busy Great North Road, which is filled with cars and yellow-liveried trolleybuses during rush hour. A policeman directs the traffic.  When he reaches a bus stop, the businessman spots a helter-skelter on the Town Moor, one of the rides at the Hoppings travelling funfair. He heads to the fair instead of going home. The Hoppings is extremely busy. People stroll past the ghost train and the helter-skelter towers over the crowd. Parents watch their children riding on a novelty roundabout. Teenagers slide down the helter-skelter. People enjoy some of the rides at the fairground including a Caterpillar switchback ride, Chair-O-Plane, and the Big Wheel. There are many young women on the Lifting Paratrooper ride. And a young woman happily arrives at the bottom of the helter-skelter on a coconut mat. A customer shakes a coconut and pays a stallholder for a go on his coconut shy. In the background there are advertisements for freak animal shows. The businessman walks through the hurly-burly of the Hoppings fair. People surround the Golden Gallopers roundabout. On the stage of one show booth hung with multiple light bulbs, show women are dancing and shaking their tasselled bikinis and costumes to publicise a show. Some of the men in the audience have hair slicked back with Brylcreem. A show woman performs her patter to microphone at a striptease show booth advertising “Les Girls”, whilst the performers in glitzy purple costumes dance on the stage to attract customers. Shot of the audience of mainly men and children. Ronnie Taylor plies his trade in an immaculate white dinner suit and black bow tie at his Excelsior Pavilion boxing booth, and draws a sizeable crowd. One of his fighters stands on the stage, along with another boxer (or possibly a wrestler) wearing a red stocking on his head. Inside the boxing booth, the show is lit with multiple ceiling light bulbs and there are murals in the background, including a painted scroll that reads “from Booth to World Champion”. A boxer shadow boxes with a punch bag as he waits for challengers in the crowd to join him in the ring. The fighter in red stands nearby in the ring. The business man spots a Tombola and Bingo stall as he makes his way through the crowd. He then buys a Bingo card and starts to mark off his numbers. He calls “full house” and wins a pair of china dogs from the flamboyantly dressed female stall holder. He tries to change prizes but she’s adamant. Mechanical laughing clowns, all in a row, appear to be mocking him. He continues through the fair, clutching his briefcase and kitsch china dogs. People are enjoying a ride on John Codona’s Jets. The businessman heads towards the ghost train. Two Sikh men stroll through the Hoppings. Two fathers and sons emerge from the ghost train, the men happier than the children after the ride. The businessman buys a ticket for the ghost train, and rides out in a happy mood. As he gets out of his car, two women in the car behind are unhappily holding the two china dogs. The two women run after the businessman as he strides off through the Hoppings. They catch him up and insist he take back the china dogs. People continue to ride on the Big Wheel. The businessman rests against a ride, unhappily cradling the two china dogs. A gang of young women, wearing novelty cowboy hats, light up cigarettes as they stride through the fair. The businessman strolls through the fair with his unwanted prize. He stops at a fast food stall. He places the two china dogs on the grass. Two young women in novelty cowboy hats are drinking from coconuts. The business man has a cup of tea at the stall. He walks away swiftly, (deliberately) leaving behind the china dogs. A young girl points somewhere off-camera. A small boy runs after the businessman to return the two china dogs. Failing again to get rid of the awful ornaments, he raises his eyes to the skies, but gives a few coins to the boy as a thank you. The businessman now looks totally demoralized.  Close-up of a fairground sign: “Believe only what you see.” The business man looks up at another sign pointing the way to the trolley-bus terminus. He heads off to the bus stop, and waits there with his two china dogs. He boards the first bus that comes along. The bus moves off. The two china dogs are stuffed into a litter bin at the stop. The trolley-bus drives off into the distance. Title: The End