Old Festive movies: Alastair Sim & Crew

Miracle on 34th Street originally came out in 1947. Oddly in UK saw it named "The Big heart". It shows how great the story is that it seems timeless, even today I can watch one of the various versions and still enjoy it. It was initially given a morally objectionable rating as there was a divorced mother in the story. Oh how times change.

 It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 film that again I love watching every year. A cracking story and family movie that at its time had a huge production budget of $3.3 million, only breaking even at the theaters. Not initially critically acclaimed it seems bizarre that this was not a huge hit! Over time of course this has changed into a classic!

We have all watched A Christmas Carol but my favorite version is Scrooge a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's story. Alastair Sim is so ideal for his role as  Ebenezer Scrooge. Maybe until my kids are a little older the muppets version will have to do!

Central Park & Paris 1900s

 Central Park early 1900s. Bowler hat, cap seems attire of the day. Must have been a fantastic space in those days to walk or even ride around.

Paris early 1900s with flooding in the center of the city. Is the boat in the middle generally being used to help people about and get them to dry land? Semi flood defense walls protect the onlookers but I would like to hold my breath it keeping them dry. Maybe this was 1910 and the great flood?

A trip to Niagara Falls & Walls of Books

What makes a 63 year old women go over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Well Annie Edson Taylor made history as the first person to live after going down the falls in a barrel, a few days after making sure her cat survived it.

A man browsing for books in Cincinnati’s main library. Demolished in 1955. Looks at the amount of books compressed into such a small space. You can still find older Libraries that look like this, many untouched for 50 years.

Lifeguard 1920s & the Snowball fight from hell

 1920's lifeguard. Looks American to me, not sure on the hat, military? I like the fact he looks very tanned! Not sure they had sun cream/protection back in the day. I see the rope in the water to prevent people from going too far out to sea. They still do that in some Yorkshire coastal beaches.

Princeton students after a freshman vs. sophomores snowball fight in 1893. Was this taken as evidence that the fight took place against the students wishes? looks like that's the case. I have seen happier people in my time that's for sure. It must have been some snowball fight, boxes suffer less facial damage than these three students. The velvet looking clothes look rather fetching too..

1940's Self Tanning & the importance of Malaria drugs

Suntan vending machine, 1949. I have never seen this machine before, I am surprised it ever existed. I always thought it was cool to be pale in the 40s and 50s and the self tanning phenomenon was a modern thing. Based on the size of it and the likelihood it was very expensive I am guessing it never really took off, maybe people mistook it for a gas machine.

Advertisement for Atabrine, an anti-malaria drug. Papua, New Guinea during WWII. I assume the person/organization who wanted to get the message across thought this would do the trick. New Guinue one believes was horrendous for bugs/viruses of this sort and soldiers going in had no real clue of the ramifications of catching these. My Grandad contracted Malaria in WWII, it would come and go throughout his life, many times he would be bed ridden from it.

Xmas past: Toy sellers, Prince Albert, banning Xmas trees

 Vendor of Christmas toys, 6th Ave, New York. Early 1900s. Not sure what the toys actually are? maybe handmade soft toys.

 The  Christmas tree was introduced in England by Prince Albert, who in 1839 bought a tree from his native Germany as a courtship gift to Princess Victoria. Soon Christmas trees became popular in the entire country.

In the 1900s, over-harvesting of evergreens began to alarm conservationists and 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt tried to ban Christmas trees from holiday celebrations.

Around the same time, the first Christmas tree farm was started in New Jersey and the first artificial trees appeared in the United States, manufactured by the Addis British company, makers of toilet bowl brushes. In 1950, the aluminum tree was patented.

Iconic Gangster movie images

 

We all like a good gangster movie, for the last 100 years or so there have been some cracking movies that let us delve into the underworld. Edward G. Robinson above was one of the first actors to embrace this genre of movie.

Gangs of New York gave us a slice of like for immigrant gangs in early New York history. No one can forget the meat cleavers for weapons in alot of the fight scenes.

 

Take away the very famous God Father trilogy of films and Scarface an often underrated and overlooked gangster move is Once upon a time in America. Set around the time of prohibition it follows a young gang making its way in New York. De'Niro, Sergio Leone, James Woods, Joe Pesci along with Ennio Morricone providing the music what more would you wish for?!

A modern gangster film that was both popular and a critical success was the Untouchables. An excellent cast provided us with yet another prohibition themed gangster movie.

Leeds canal through the ages

Leeds Liverpool canal going through Leeds. This is on the corner of the Royal armories museum that would be built 50 years later. In the distance we can see Mount St Marys high school and church on top of the hill. With Saxton Gardens flats being developed. Much of this area would remain untouched until the 80s and more so in the 2000's where huge blocks of expensive flats and hotels would take the places of the small business that were popular at the time.

Very close to the railway station going through the heart of Leeds city center. A canal lock and barge making its way through the water. Even with all the modern developments a lot of the building have been left and updated into flats and places of work. The architecture remains the same and has a old feel about it. The only boats/barges that come down the canal now are for non commercial reasons.

Leeds in the 40-50s: Trams, University and pubs

Photos of old Leeds. We can see this one has the tram line still active going past the University. The Eldon Hotel/Pub still exists today as well as the clock tower Library / Pub in the distance.  The left side of the street has now changed completely, no individual buildings are there now just one long University structure. Right up until the late 60s this area was residential terrace housing, back to backs and such. A lot of these have been demolished and student flats taken their place.

Leeds in the 50s. Adelphi hotel / pub in the background that still is there today. Tram line going out to Hunslet Leeds. I like the milk poster, claiming it can make you a muscular fit athlete if you drink it. Most of the old buildings in this part of Leeds are being knocked down, the Tetley headquarters being the latest to go. The pub still proves popular with football fans before games.

Winter Warmers: How Chaplin did it?

Lots of talk in the news regarding fuel poverty. One would like to say this is nothing new. As Charlie Chaplin shows there are lots of ways to keep warm over the cold winter months. Got a bog cooker/oven? Keep close to it and spend time in the kitchen, no need to turn on the central heating. Did he really need his Kane sat down?.

 

I have always been a fan of silent movies, more so the Marx brothers but some of the first ones I watched were of Charlie Chaplin. Never realized until recently he was British. I guess that's another fine export from out shores. Remarkable photo of him stripped of his movie attire and makeup. This was taken from 1916.

Kes: Too Yorkshire to make it good

For those that don't know, Kes was a film set in South Yorkshire. It was pretty good, reading the history of the film its amusing how the broad Yorkshire accents put off most people from bothering to watch it.

One of the all time classic scenes from the film was with Brian Glover. a PE teacher educating the boys on the finer arts of footy! Hilarious how its so close to the truth in so many schools at the time. Man Utd top and' all.  Our hero goes in goals and has a reet time of it I tell thee.

 A lot of the film is centered around the relationship of a troubled boy and his kestrel to escape the crappy world he finds himself in.

The school scenes are funny even today, punishment in those days revolved around long sticks and fear!

Ken Loach really has done some brilliant films over the years, a master of his craft. The grim reality of Barnsley in the 60s was excellently portrayed in Kes, just not sure the world was ready for it then.

The American Civil War: The ruins of Richmond, 1865.

Just one of the many Matthew Brady photos of the civil war. This one interested me because it looked like a scene from a bombing more associated with ww2 than the civil war. It is nice to see the cannon balls are all neatly stacked and remain in place to use if and when needed.

WW1 Propaganda Poster: Make 'um feel guilty!

I have seen a lot of Propaganda posters while doing this blog, this one made me chuckle. How to make the average man who has not enlisted yet feel guilty! 

Great stuff. Are you satisfied with what you are doing? as apposed to traveling for months to get shot at in some awful hell hole in Europe.  Are you happy walking the streets seeing men in Uniforms? What are the consequences of staying at home? 

Canada played a big part in the War and I guess in no small part to posters like this.

WW1: Planes in battle

 Standard German Hannover CL which seems to have had a slight problem landing. One thing I did notice looking at photos of planes used on all sides in WW1 that most were tiny! Barely room for a gunner and pilot.

It seems really hard to find an actual photo of planes taking part in a battle. Most of them showed crashed, burnt out or simple static grounded planes with men posing next to them. Here I assume is an unaltered photo a perfect example of planes used in trench battles. Can you image 3-4 planes machine gun or small bombs pounding your trench just as the other sides soldiers where making a charge?

Jack Johnson: Boxing History

Jack Johnson was an American boxer in the early 1900's.

A pretty amazing story of how Johnson become the most famous African American on Earth! The above photo was taken from his fight in Cuba vs Jess Willard in 1915. Just lasting the 26 rounds, Johnson won virtually every round up until his knockout and defeat in the 26th. Jess was hailed as the "Great white hope".

Unable to find boxing opponents after beating Jeffries (dubbed the fight of the century and resulting riots across the country) he turned to racing cars.

Ken Burns made a fantastic documentary "Unforgivable blackness. The rise and fall of Jack Johnson" which is well worth a watch. How times have changed? right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-y7bdeRDLI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQqpjYGPUwQ