Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 3101 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| RAMSDEN NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTIES | 1950s | 1950-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Sound Duration: 34 mins 23 secs Credits: Cyril and Betty Ramsden Subject: Family Life |
| Summary Made by Betty and Cyril Ramsden, this film captures the festivities of New Year's Eve house parties. The couple were semi-professional filmmakers filming both for pleasure and taking on commissions from companies such as the Yorkshire Evening Post. Five New Year's Eve parties are filmed both at the Ramsden's home as well as Betty's sister's Freda. ... |
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Description
Made by Betty and Cyril Ramsden, this film captures the festivities of New Year's Eve house parties. The couple were semi-professional filmmakers filming both for pleasure and taking on commissions from companies such as the Yorkshire Evening Post. Five New Year's Eve parties are filmed both at the Ramsden's home as well as Betty's sister's Freda. Party guests include Betty's parents, (Mr and Mrs Howarth) her two sisters and their husbands; Freda and...
Made by Betty and Cyril Ramsden, this film captures the festivities of New Year's Eve house parties. The couple were semi-professional filmmakers filming both for pleasure and taking on commissions from companies such as the Yorkshire Evening Post. Five New Year's Eve parties are filmed both at the Ramsden's home as well as Betty's sister's Freda. Party guests include Betty's parents, (Mr and Mrs Howarth) her two sisters and their husbands; Freda and "Bunny" Heywood, Eunice and Leslie Fear, and old friends Mary Day and Joan Valentine. During the parties they play many games together with both Betty and Cyril filming the events.
Title-A Ramsden Film
Title-Christmas Crackers
Film opens with one of the women eating a stick of celery and pretending to be surprised by the camera.
Four of the women and one of the men stand at a microphone and sing.
There is a brief shot of Freda and some of the others singing on their own.
Betty's parents sit in armchairs and smile at the camera.
Freda holds a stick of celery and dances around the microphone while she is singing. There is a brief shot of Mr Howarth and then another shot of Freda playing the celery stick as if it was a trumpet. One of the women in another armchair with celery roars laughing.
Cyril and the other people sing at the microphone, and then he sings into an item in his hand and jokes about. This is followed by Freda doing a dance and using her hands to move around.
Cyril and another man sing into the microphone while he holds a tankard of beer; he then drinks from it.
Title-Festive Frolics
Freda is sitting down. She smiles at the camera and makes other expressions. The other women in turn all sit down and act as if they are having a conversation with the camera man. When it is Cyril's turn, he claps and makes funny faces.
In the next shots, the group dance around while wearing party hats and some of them sing. Freda jokes about with Cyril, dancing around him, and he pretends to be going mad. The guests all take turns wearing the hats and posing in humorous ways.
They stand in a group singing while one of the women pretends to conduct them.
Title-Frivolity at Freda's
A calendar date of Monday 31 December comes up on screen over the image of a snowy garden.
Cyril ties balloons to bunting strung up around a sitting room.
There is a brief shot of Mr. Howarth and then a of a programme on television. Three of the women sit and watch it while Cyril mixes drinks on a tray.
Four of the women stand around the piano and sing while Cyril pretends to conduct them.
Cyril has a scarf tied around his head and dances beside another woman with a trilby hat on her head.
Title-Feeding the Famished.
All of the guests sit around the dining room. Freda brings a tray of sandwiches around and offers them to people. Then she offers a tray of small desserts. This is followed by a shot of all of the empty plates and trays.
The calendar date of Monday 31 December fades into Tuesday 1 January.
Freda gives Cyril a kiss, and then there are shots of all of the guests kissing each other on the mouth and having a drink as the New Year begins.
They play party games including throwing playing cards into a hat.
Title-Conversation Piece!
Cyril and one of the women talk at each other while Mrs Howarth laughs in the background. They end up laughing too. Cyril tries the game with another two of the women.
Title-The Subject Is?
Title-`Nitting!'
The guests play charades and they all laugh.
Title-`Shoeing a Horse'
They all pretend to shoe a horse.
Title-One for the road
Freda brings out pots of tea and pours it out for her guests. They all drink their tea in comical ways.
Finally, one of the guests leaves the house and goes out into the dark, snowy street.
Title-Hogmanay High spots.
The scene opens with Freda playing the piano and some of the guests stand around and sing. In the next shot one of the men plays a saxophone as they sing beside the piano.
One of the women plays the piano, and the woman beside her puts a stick in her hair.
They party-goers play another game. It is a race to see who can blow a ping pong ball from glass to glass.
All the guests sit around and sing, but they are all doing the same specific hand movements to the song.
There is a shot of a clock reading midnight and then a brief shot of the mechanism inside of the clock striking the bell.
Freda opens the front door to Cyril who enters and gives her some items from his pocket. Again the guests all kiss each other on the mouth to celebrate the New Year and hold hands as they sing `Auld Lang Syne'.
Title-Eat, Drink and Be Merry New Year's Eve 1952
Zoomed in shot of a card with a snowman on it; it reads `greetings'.
Freda enters the room with a Christmas cake and places it on a table laden down with food.
All the guests sit down and eat the food. In the next shot, they all have paper and pencils and are writing things down as they appear to play some sort of party game.
Cyril measures drinks into glasses as the others eat sandwiches, sweets and joke about with the camera.
Betty has a celebratory drink with one of the other women and smiles at the camera.
They all pretend to sleep.
Title-Careless Rapture.
The table is laden with food. One of the women pours tea, and Betty helps to pass the food around. They all smile for the camera.
Freda jokes about with a celery stick in her mouth, and then in the next shot, Betty stands in front of all of the women as they all read a copy of the `Evening Post'. They all search for something in the paper, and the camera zooms in to their legs as they all cross them at the same time and in the same direction.
They all play another party game where they try to walk along a line on the ground while looking through binoculars. This is followed by yet another game involving match sticks and party hats.
Cyril gives Betty some items from his pocket and they kiss. The rest of the guests all kiss each other in celebration and sing `Auld Lang Syne'.
The final shot in this scene is a picture of the "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys with the title-`Boy! What a party!
Title-New Year's Eve 1954
All the guests are sitting around.
Cyril enters the house and gives Freda some items from his pocket.
They all link arms and sing `Auld Lang Syne'
Title-The End
Context
This film was made by a husband and wife team of filmmakers from Leeds, Betty and Cyril Ramsden. They began making films in 1945 and continued into the mid 1960s. During this time they made over 50 films, mostly in 16mm film kodachrome. The films are remarkable for their technical quality, composition and broad subject matter. As well as family and holiday films, there are a wide range of documentary type films and some fictional films done with a light humour. Their film collection was...
This film was made by a husband and wife team of filmmakers from Leeds, Betty and Cyril Ramsden. They began making films in 1945 and continued into the mid 1960s. During this time they made over 50 films, mostly in 16mm film kodachrome. The films are remarkable for their technical quality, composition and broad subject matter. As well as family and holiday films, there are a wide range of documentary type films and some fictional films done with a light humour. Their film collection was made the subject of a BBC/Open University television programme, Nation on Film, made in 2006, narrated by Sir David Jason. Cyril worked as a dentist, and was the original owner of the dental practice now known as Far Headingley Dental Care. Betty was a teacher before working full time doing the administrative work for the dentistry practice.
They both made films, together and individually. Although not professional filmmakers they took their hobby very seriously. Cyril was a founding member in 1945 of the Cine Group of Leeds Camera Club and Chairman until January 1952 when he resigned upon being elected President of Leeds Camera Club. As members of the club – becoming Leeds Cine Club in 1965, and later renamed Leeds Movie Makers – they won many certificates for their films –see also the Context for Humber Highway. They both appear frequently in this film, most recognisably about three quarters of a way in, in 1952, when they are seen together – which doesn’t happen that often as usually one would be behind the camera – kissing and raising a glass at midnight (Betty in the white fluffy jumper and Cyril with a trimmed beard). The film is a great source for social historians, providing a wonderful glimpse into the professional middle class world of the 1950s. Although the years 1952 and 1954 are provided in subtitles, it may well cover other years. An audio recording on a reel-to-reel tape of these New Year celebrations during the 1950s has been attached to the films. Although it is difficult to determine if any of these audio recordings match up exactly to the footage in the film, they nevertheless provide a fascinating sound accompaniment to the revelry seen in the films. These get togethers of Cyril and Betty’s friends and some family members were clearly a regular event throughout the decade. Although confined in time and place – they all seem to be at Freda’s and at New Year – there are many interesting aspects of life at that time on display: the fashions, the food and drink, the party games and the customs, especially the singing of Auld Lang Syne, the Robert Burns poem set to the tune of a traditional folk song. Another custom which features several times is first footing, with Cyril as the ‘tall dark and handsome man’ arriving on New Year’s Day with the lump of coal, a coin and a piece of bread (or is it salt he gives?). Hopefully, someone watching this might recognise some of the splendid party games that our revellers partake of. It may be that some of them are of their own devising, while others look like versions of charades. Apparently charades originated in 16th century France, and later joined other popular parlour games enjoyed by the Victorians and Edwardians, and which clearly remained until well into the twentieth century (charades of course is still played today). There is as well the singing around the piano, seen also in the Kenneth Raynor film also of seasonal celebrations, Christmas 1940-1943. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the film is the great fun that everyone is clearly having. In fact the playful antics and play-acting suggest that some at least of those present might have been involved in amateur theatre. Note the take-off, early in the film, of the popular comedian of the time Bud Flanagan, with his trademark hat. There were certainly plenty of amateur dramatic societies in Yorkshire at that time, and Leeds Civic Theatre was one of the few that was used more for amateur productions than professional ones. This popular hobby really took off after the First World War, with the founding of the British Drama League in 1919 – Leeds Art Theatre was formed in 1922. The YFA has some fascinating film of performances, and the life, of Huddersfield Amateur Operatic Society from this same period, made by local filmmaker Ernest Taylor. At the very least, the seeming lack of self-consciousness of anyone indicates a social circle that were very much at home with letting their hair down and larking about. Social historian Selina Todd, talking on the Nations on Film programme, makes the point that the film challenges the cliché that the middle class after the war were very reserved. Yet despite the self-made entertainment, having a TV in 1952 made this one of only 14% of households to own one in this year. Even so, notice that the TV is only one on one occasion – perhaps not surprising given the limited broadcasts at that time: on Christmas day that year TV in effect stopped at 10.30 pm, leaving just the weather and news bulletin, without a picture. In fact the rest of the 1950s fared little better, with the Christmas Day TV schedule ending with a church service each year. It wasn’t until 1957, with the coming of the much derided White Heather Club, with Kenneth McKellar, Moira Anderson and Andy Stewart, broadcast from Glasgow, that there was a specialised show to see the New Year in. On the audio tape, towards the end, there is a discussion of New Year resolutions. Interestingly, what is generally expressed by those contributing is simply a feeling of wanting to look to the future. It may be that the experience of the recent war, and the years of austerity that followed that (still partially in force in 1952) – not to mention that those gathered would have grown up during the First World War – helped to foster a mood for enjoyment particular to those times. Or, it may be that having a standard of living well above the average, as the Ramsdens clearly had, meant that they were cushioned from the harshness of a period in which Prime Minister Harold Macmillan declared, very misleadingly, that ‘most of our people have never had it so good.’ Whatever the reason, the free spiritedness of these folks of an older generation show that having fun isn’t confined to the young, and is an inspiration to us all to follow suit. References George Taylor, History of the Amateur Theatre, White Horse Library, 1976. Doreen Wood, 40 with Leeds Movie Makers, 2005. Selina Todd, Did They Ever Really Have It So Good? TV Listings Carlene Thomas-Bailey, Charades - the all-time classic |
