Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 22090 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
VAUX COMMERCIAL: THORNEY CLOSE SPORTS CLUB SUNDERLAND | 1965 | 1965-01-01 |
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 Thorney Close sports club in Sunderland where ITV sports commentator Kent Walton plays dominoes with the locals and ordering a pint of Vaux beer from former professional footballer Wilf Mannion who is standing at the bar. |
Description
A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at the Thorney Close sports club in Sunderland where ITV sports commentator Kent Walton plays dominoes with the locals and ordering a pint of Vaux beer from former professional footballer Wilf Mannion who is standing at the bar.
Title: Sunderland
The advertisement opens on an exterior view of the Thorney Close sports club in Sunderland.
Inside Kent Walton sits at a table playing dominoes with a number of locals. He takes a...
A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at the Thorney Close sports club in Sunderland where ITV sports commentator Kent Walton plays dominoes with the locals and ordering a pint of Vaux beer from former professional footballer Wilf Mannion who is standing at the bar.
Title: Sunderland
The advertisement opens on an exterior view of the Thorney Close sports club in Sunderland.
Inside Kent Walton sits at a table playing dominoes with a number of locals. He takes a drink from his pint of Vaux beer.
Title: Wilf Mannion
Kent looks across to the bar where former professional footballer Wilf Mannion stands. The film cuts to show the two men standing and chatting together at the bar while behind them the barman pours a pint of Vaux beer. Wilf takes a deep gulp of beer while another is being pulled. A second man takes a drink from a pint.
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, sports commentator Kent Walton, who became famous for commentating on tennis, football, and most notably on wrestling coverage on ITV’s ‘World of Sport’. In this advert the professional footballer Wilf Mannion stars alongside Kent Walton. Mannion was called the ‘Golden Boy’ due to his long blonde hair and is remembered as one of the best players to come out of Middlesbrough. Playing for his home team he scored 110 goals in 368 appearances. He also played for England, scoring another 11 goals in just 26 appearances. His team mates were some of the all-time greats, including Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Jackie Milburn and fellow Teessider Raich Carter. At one time Wilf Mannion almost became the highest paid player in the world when a rich Colombian club offered him a very lucrative contract. However, this would have stopped him for playing football in any FIFA organised football, preventing him from playing for his nation ever again. Mannion was being paid £500 a year at Middlesbrough, but was offered the same fee per month at Bogota, plus a £5000 signing free. He did not take the move, a difficult decision for the Ayresome star who grew up in South Bank, an industrial working class district of Middlesbrough edged by the Dorman Long steel works, now redundant. In marked contrast to the absurd figures earned by today's star footballers, Mannion and fellow sportsmen of the time were little more than bonded labour and played for a small capped fee (£10 a week), despite their iconic status. Like many others of his generation Mannion was called up and served in the Green Howards during World War Two. However, he returned to football shortly after the war ended. By 1954 Mannion had retired, and Middlesbrough had been relegated to the Second Division. In the world of advertising and celebrity endorsement, the influence of sports personalities and athletes has a long history. Fans were always a profitable target for the ad man. One bizarre confluence of product and sports star was the use of Muhammad Ali to sell d-Con roach traps in America. The north east's famous brands have not been slow in attracting new customers through celebrity sports men (and some women), as the Vaux commercials show. Newcastle-based Scott and Turner registered Andrews (Liver Salts) in 1909, and moved into screen advertising during the boom-time 50s to capitalise on their worldwide market. The brand used a variety of marketing techniques including celebrity endorsement – the 1953 Footballer of the Year Stanley Matthews promoted Andrews on film in a commercial which also featured match footage from the 1953 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium contested between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers. After its demise, 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 https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/golden-boy-wilf-mannion-became-12823763 https://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/halloffame/wilf-mannion/ 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-pennywell-comrades-club-sunderland 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-windmill-cowgate |