Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 22086 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| VAUX COMMERCIAL: PENNYWELL COMRADES CLUB SUNDERLAND | 1965 | 1965-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 35mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Sound Duration: 42 sec Credits: Organisations: Vaux Breweries, Erwin Wasey Ltd Individual: Kent Walton Genre: Advertising Subject: Sport |
| Summary A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at the Pennywell Comrades Club in Sunderland. On stage, Tyneside comedian Frankie Burns performs while ITV sports commentator Kent Walton sits in the audience. Frankie comes off stage and enjoys a pint of Vaux beer with Kent and members of the audience. |
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Description
A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at the Pennywell Comrades Club in Sunderland. On stage, Tyneside comedian Frankie Burns performs while ITV sports commentator Kent Walton sits in the audience. Frankie comes off stage and enjoys a pint of Vaux beer with Kent and members of the audience.
Title: Pennywell Comrades Club, Sunderland
The film opens with an audience inside the Pennywell Comrades Club watching Frankie Burns on stage. A man in the audience takes a sip...
A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at the Pennywell Comrades Club in Sunderland. On stage, Tyneside comedian Frankie Burns performs while ITV sports commentator Kent Walton sits in the audience. Frankie comes off stage and enjoys a pint of Vaux beer with Kent and members of the audience.
Title: Pennywell Comrades Club, Sunderland
The film opens with an audience inside the Pennywell Comrades Club watching Frankie Burns on stage. A man in the audience takes a sip from his pint of Vaux beer. In the audience Kent Walton sits next to a young blonde woman; both smiling and chatting.
Behind the bar, a pair of hands pulls a pint of Vaux beer. The film changes to show a man drinking from a pint glass. On a metal Vaux tray sits a bottle of Vaux beer which is then poured into a glass. The film cuts back to the man finishing his pint.
Frankie Burn’s comes and sits beside the blonde woman drinking a pint of Vaux beer while Kent speaks with another member of the audience off screen.
The advertisement ends on a tankard of beer with the Vaux logo on the front and male voices singing “Vaux beer brewed in the North by people who love good beer”.
Context
This is an example of a cinema advertisement for Vaux Brewery, one of ten commercials sponsored by the brewery in the mid-1960s preserved at North East Film Archive. Vaux Brewery operated in Sunderland from 1806 up until 1999 when it was closed due to advice from London based financiers.
The founder of the company was Cuthbert Vaux, who produced the company's most infamous drinks, the Vaux’s Stout and the Double Maxim, both of which are featured in the advertisements and were the most...
This is an example of a cinema advertisement for Vaux Brewery, one of ten commercials sponsored by the brewery in the mid-1960s preserved at North East Film Archive. Vaux Brewery operated in Sunderland from 1806 up until 1999 when it was closed due to advice from London based financiers.
The founder of the company was Cuthbert Vaux, who produced the company's most infamous drinks, the Vaux’s Stout and the Double Maxim, both of which are featured in the advertisements and were the most common drinks they brewed. The first brewery location for the company was on the corner of Matlock Street and Cumberland Street. However, they were forced to move when the land was purchased for the Central Railway Station, their second location on Castle Street from 1875, where they would stay until the company’s dissolution. They also held another brewery in Union Street for thirty years from 1844 until the 1870s. The Vaux & Co. brewery was a family owned business. After Cuthbert Vaux died in 1878 the company was passed on to his sons, John and Edwin. John Vaux’s sons, named Cuthbert and Ernest, would go on to join Edwin in the brewing business after their father’s passing. Even parts of management were family members. Frank Nicholson, who joined as a manager in the late 1890s, married the daughter of John Vaux, Amy, and became director. Upon becoming director, Frank Nicholson oversaw a variety of big changes for the brewery. Vaux expanded into a bigger company under Frank; he organised a union with North East Breweries Ltd., creating the second largest brewers in England, with Vaux and Associated Breweries Ltd. Brewing companies were also purchased in Sheffield, and in 1972 Vaux expanded overseas, with the acquisition of Fred Koch Brewery in New York, but this venture only lasted three years. In the 1990s they also made their fatal expansion into hotels, which would ultimately lead to the end of Vaux Breweries. The Vaux breweries were closed in 1999 and the company then turned to focus on its investments in hotels and restaurants, under advice from London financier Alex Brown. This was a shock to many in the area, even some within the company itself, as the brewing sector was very successful with profits of £50 million. The Chairman of the company, Paul Nicholson, was so displeased with the news that he resigned from his post. Ultimately the closure would leave 700 out of a job and a hole in the spirit of the city. After rebranding as Swallow Group Plc. the new company did not last very long on its own. In 2000 the company was taken over by Whitbread. From here the Swallow Hotels became Marriott hotels and the pubs were turned into brands such as Brewers Fayre. In 2003 the Swallow brand itself was purchased by London Inn Group, however, by 2006 this went into administration. In 2014 the last hotel located in Glasgow had closed. The Vaux Breweries were closely linked to the culture and community of Sunderland. They served as the team shirt sponsors for Sunderland AFC from the mid-1980s until the brewery’s closure in 1999 and the headquarters on Castle Street in central Sunderland, played a big part in its architectural landscape. This headquarters was demolished in 2008 and as of 2014 it has been a discontinuous construction site for a new base for Sunderland City Council. Their advertisements were made firstly to promote their products, but also served to highlight their chain of local pubs and bars around the North East. Their adverts commonly featured their trademark dray and horses, appealing historical symbols of the Vaux Brewery, which spoke to the tradition and trustworthiness of the company. At the end of the adverts the company jingle would play out, ‘Vaux Beer brewed in the North- for people who know good beer’. These beer adverts were narrated by, or featured, famous sports commentator Kent Walton, who became famous for commentating on tennis, football, and most notably on wrestling coverage on ITV’s ‘World of Sport’. Usually the adverts would also feature other celebrities enjoying their drinks with the locals, showing that everyone could enjoy a Vaux beer. Walton can be seen in the crowd, watching Tyneside comedian Frankie Burns performing at Sunderland’s Pennywell Comrades Club in South Hylton. Burns was still performing at venues such as Balmbras Music Hall in the Cloth Market, Newcastle, in the 1980s. The Pennywell Comrades Club is (in 2019) still operating as a social hub and venue in the area. The spirit of Vaux Brewery was continued by two of its former directors, who would go on to form the Maxim Brewery, buying the original recipes of their classic drinks, including Double Maxim. More recently, as of Easter 2019, there has been a revival of the Vaux Brewery name. An attempt to open another Vaux Brewery with a more modern take on the Vaux name is trying to fill the void left in Sunderland by the original closure. References: https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/legendary-vaux-brewing-name-set-for-sunderland-return-1-9590081 https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/timeline-the-history-of-sunderland-s-vaux-brewery-as-it-prepares-for-city-rebirth-1-9590412 https://boakandbailey.com/2015/05/gallery-vaux-beer-mats-1970s-80s/ https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/former-vaux-breweries-boss-will-be-delighted-if-new-sunderland-brewery-succeeds-1-9591489 https://www.sunderlandecho.com/our-region/sunderland/1960s-vaux-beer-advert-shot-at-once-popular-sunderland-pub-released-in-search-for-lost-film-gems-1-9333908 https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/17521521.those-were-the-drays-memories-of-vaux-brewery-20-years-after-its-closure/ https://wearsideonline.com/vaux-brewery/ https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/sunderland-council-vaux-civic-centre-15262298 Related Collections: http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-shepherd-and-shepherdess-beamish http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-copper-beech-darlington http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-fairfield-arms-stockton http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-middlesbrough-co-operative-club http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-beresford-arms-whalton http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-thorney-close-sports-club-sunderland http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/vaux-commercial-windmill-cowgate |
