This is glorious - and final proof that the 1950s did not take place in black and white.
The British Film Institute site explains:
One of the most memorable - and fondly remembered - of all British Transport Films was this promotional paean to the joys of holidaying in Blackpool. Unlike the vast majority of BTF's travelogues, commentary is kept to a minimum, with just a brief scene-setting opening and a slightly longer interlude to mark the early afternoon siesta.
The film derives its reputation and appeal, from the two wordless passages that constitute a masterclass by editor Ralph Sheldon - the first person mentioned in the end credits, and with ample justification.
Marrying unstructured Blackpool footage to a series of jazz standards recorded by the Chris Barber Band, Sheldon devised a series of immaculately timed gags that wouldn't shame the great silent comedians.
1 comment:
Thanks. Aside from haircuts and clothes, the beach and Pleasure Beach scenes are pretty much like the early 1970s. UK seaside resorts were not hit too much by the package holiday industry which emerged in the late 1960s, but the UK economic environment gave them a kicking a few years later. Glasgow Fortnight and big breaks at other industrial areas kept Blackpool alive and changes to the holiday offering were incremental.
Suitcase boys with home made barrows? It would be fascinating to learn what the young entrepreneurs became. There was something in Blackpool and the Fylde which required people to have many talents. As a teenage bingo caller, I worked with men and women who worked the travelling fairs for a few months, others with a trade skill which they could only tolerate for the winter.
G-ACEJ, a de Havilland Fox Moth, the bi-plane shown at South Shore, is still extant. Apparently it offered trips from Blackpool and Southport over the Ribble estuary, but I think those would have finished when I was in nappies.
The sand yacht scenes were filmed at St Anne's-on-the-sea. In the background you can see the Ormerod Home, where children 'convalesced'. According to the logic of the times, sick and recovering children lived out of town in the only brick building on the beach side in that area. Sadly the buildings were demolished 35 years ago.
Another convalescent home, Thursby, a quarter of a mile up the road still exists on the beach side.
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