Sophia Loren in the British Pathe film archive, now viewable on iPhones and iPads.

Due to the increasing popularity of British Pathé we thought it was time to build a better website for you, and so we are thrilled to announce today the launch of our new online archive. Take a look at these exciting new features:

Surf British Pathé on the move: The entire archive can now be watched on iPhones, iPads and other smart devices using our improved video player.

A newly enhanced search facility: All 90,000 reels are now dated and correctly tagged, and so an extra 20,000 reels are findable using the new timeline search tool.

Editorial sections: including thematic stills galleries and archive features. New content will appear each week! Amongst our first batch of galleries is British Pathe’s Guide to Etiquette, Hollywood Goddesses and even a gallery about startling pairs of teeth from yesteryear!

Exclusive programmes: Online series that are free to view. First up it’s ‘Hall of Fame’ and ‘A Day That Shook The World’. Look out for rare British Pathé series from the past such as Secrets of Nature and Feminine Pictorialities.

Comments: That’s right – we are going to let you leave comments on our videos now! You can add details and facts, point out people you know, share your thoughts in general and perhaps be reunited with old chums!

Workspaces: You can now publish and share your own mini collection of reels within the archive, selecting clips of a certain theme or topic that interests you.

We’re really excited to have this new site which is now live, and proud to say that it is entirely free to use. No login is required but if Your British Pathé login details will still work just the same.

Check out the new archive now: NEW BRITISH PATHÉ ARCHIVE!

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Here is an embedded version of the video and beneath it is links to the full length versions of each video used with the original Pathé title, dates and the length of the original reel (which you can watch for free by following the link).

And now for the videos used in this compilation:

“Aerial Merry Go Round” (1921) – 1 minute 24 seconds

Shots of very large propellers slowly turning, we see an early helicopter taking off in a rather meandering fashion and men diving out of its way!

“The Helicopter” (1921) – 1 minute 38 seconds

An early helicopter sporting a giant oblong balloon (as used in the thumbnail for the YouTube video) hovers and sways unsteadily with men rushing about beneath it and directing it along a field.

“New Era In Flying” (1922) – 1 minute 22 seconds

Mr. Pescara, a key individual in the history of the helicopter, is seen with one of his first machines. The helicopter is much lighter than previous models and has four rotors.

“Vertical Flight Soon” (1923) – 1 minute 14 seconds

Mr. Pescara appears with an improved version of his helicopter. The helicopter’s flight is still a rather higgledy-piggledy affair and the vehicle lands nose first.

“Perseverance Rewarded” (1924) – 1 minute 41 seconds

The final video of Mr. Pescara used in the YouTube compilation. We see him in an open cockpit flying in his new and improved helicopter!

“Helicopter Demo” (1940) – 1 minute 34 seconds

Various shots of helicopters (possibly Sikorsky helicopters) flying over factory rooftops and in group formations.

“U.S. Air Force Tests Helicopter” (1943) – 1 minute 43 seconds

A great clip that didn’t make it into the YouTube edit, this video shows men jumping out of helicopters from a height of several metres, and good close-up shows of a man manoeuvring a helicopter a little bit like an arcade game!

“Mass Flight” (1948) – 1 minute 45 seconds

Shots of photographers on the ground filming the helicopter as it takes off. Nine helicopters seen flying in formation and flying over water.

“Welsh Airlift” (1949) – 1 minute 51 seconds

A Sikorsky S-51 helicopter is seen hovering over the Welsh hills in Croesor Valley, Festiniog. The YouTube edit uses a clip of the helicopter crashing and pilot Dennis Bryan leaving the vehicle seemingly unharmed before explaining what went wrong.

“Helicopter Service For BIF” (1950) – 1 minute 56 seconds

A great clip showing the first ever public helicopter service, like a bus service. We see a sign with information about the service and then footage of people waving the helicopter off into the distance.

For more helicopter clips please do conduct your own search in the British Pathe film archive. We recommend going to the homepage www.britishpathe.com and typing in “helicopter” into the search bar and then selecting the Sort By: Year option.

You can ask us any questions by joining our Facebook page, or by chatting to us on Twitter, or via the contact page on www.britishpathe.com

The first Pathe News Special announcing Donald Campbell's death. The reel has some great (if not eerie!) footage of Coniston Water.

Today is the 45th anniversary of daredevil speed engineer Donald Campbell’s tragic death on Coniston Water in the Lake District, Great Britain. Campbell was only 45 years olds, he was attempting to break the landspeed record by breaking the 300 mph barrier. For decades Donald Campbell was a childhood pin-up to boys in Britain and around the world, and he had been a popular subject for British Pathé who filmed many of his world record attempts.

So popular was Campbell that when he crashed his vehicle Bluebird at Coniston Water British Pathé rushed to push a newsreel out to cinemas as soon as possible, and so they issued a Pathé News Special simply announcing the news of his death. They then followed this up with a more dramatic piece showing the crash itself.

In the Pathé News Special from 1967 the narrator announces “Donald Campbell the man who lived for speed is dead… his love for speed has cost him his life. During the past few weeks he was dogged by misfortune. Early engine trouble forced him to hold off a record attempt, then the weather was against him.. Pictures of the last tragic moments at Coniston are being rushed to this theatre!”

And here is that footage, a second newsreel issued by British Pathé called Fate Stepped In:

The second Pathe reel shows the crash itself. Here we can see Bluebird just seconds before it flips across the lake.

The macabre newsreel has an unusually shaky start as we hear the final words and sounds of Donald Campbell over the top of a blank screen, a rather sensationalist move on Pathé ‘s part. The Pathé narrator then explains how the conditions were actually quite smooth, but the night before Campbell “drew the Ace and Queen of Spades, the deadly shadow of remorseless fate – he was a superstitious man”.

It’s bizarre now to see a newsreel that is so speculative and melodramatic in its tone, but this style of news delivery has maintained itself partially across the decades. Although newsreaders are more regimented and factual today it is still quite common to see an on-location news anchor rounding up a reports with a relatively creative ending, perhaps incorporating a literary quote or an epigram. British Pathé was a forbearer of that emotive style.

Leading up to the crash scene we see incredible close-up shots of Donald Campbell’s vehicle bluebird setting off across Coniston. From 01:45 the lead up to the crash is shown, Bluebird speeding across the surface of the lake when suddenly it lifts into the air, flips and smashes down.

The narrator talks of Donald Campbell’s legacy as the newsreel ends with shots of the Bluebird K7’s wreckage and Campbell’s family and friends collecting pieces of debris.

To see British Pathe’s collection of all 16 Donald Campbell newsreels, including footage of his many fantastic world records, see below:

The Donald Campbell Archive

You can view all 90,000 British Pathé newsreels for free on www.britishpathe.com

Last week a lady got in touch with us via the archive’s Facebook page saying that she had discovered a film in our archive of her mother winning the Miss France beauty contest in 1949!

Veronique Tissier’s mother Juliette Figueras won the contest in 1949 before going on to win Miss Europe in 1950 (the contest was held in Sicile, Italy). We are thrilled to say that Juliette lives near Antibes on the Cote D’Azur and is healthy still at the age of 82. You can watch the video by clicking on the image above.

 Here are some more recent photos that Veronique sent us of her mother:

A recent photgraph of Juliette - still looking great for her age!

Here is Juliette with her grandaughter (Veronique's daughter), and her mother. So all in all, including Veronique, that's four generations - fantastic!And here is Juliette being crowned Miss Europe in 1950!And here Juliette is being crowned Miss Europe in 1950!

Juliette’s sister will be visiting her from the Beaux de Provences soon and so Veronique is going to organise a surprise screening of the British Pathé video for her! Before discovering the video in our free online archive www.britishpathe.com Veronique had no idea that the British Pathé clip even existed and only had photographs of the contest.

If anyone can locate footage or photos of the Miss Europe contest in Sicile, 1950 then please do get in touch. The British Pathé film archive sends its best wishes to Juliette and her family, we hope you all enjoy the surprise screening and enjoy life in the south of France!

There are lots of videos of beauty pageants and contests in the archive, so do have a rummage, you could start with these four videos, or just go to the homepage www.britishpathe.com and start searching!

Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/britishpathe

Click to view the fantastic new video on War Archives' YouTube channel

Today is the 70^th anniversary of the attack on the US naval base Pearl Harbor, a surprise attack conducted by the Japanese that led to America’s entry into World War 2.

Hollywood movies, books, essays and endless documentaries have been made on the topic of Pearl Harbor, a day that Franklin D. Roosevelt announced at the time “will live in infamy”, and still a hotly-debated military subject today.

However, like all history, nothing is better than watching footage of the actual events themselves if possible. In the British Pathé Film Archive we have a copy of the first newsreel to report on Pearl Harbour, and this footage was later used for a British Pathé documentary series entitled A Day That Shook The World.

This morning, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, we uploaded these scenes onto our YouTube channel War Archives. Click on the screengrab above to view it now.

Less than a minute’s footage of the actual surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was recorded, and that was by accident by a local doctor trying out his new camera, but remarkably he managed to capture the blowing up of the Arizona – and so this features in our reel. The rest of the footage was recreated by John Ford in Los Angeles at Fox Studios immediately after the attack. The American War Department directed him to recreate the scene so that it could be issued around the world as a key piece of reasoning in why America had declared war on Japan and entered WWII.

Ford’s original feature was called 7^th December and ran eighty-three minutes. However the War Department were worried about showing the full-length film because Ford did such a good job of depicting how unprepared the American troops were for such an attack, and were concerned therefore that the movie might damage morale.

Of course, as with all sensational moments in history, ambiguity gave way to conspiracy and some have claimed that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor never actually happened, or worse still, was conducted by American forces, and was used as a mechanism to trigger and kick-start America’s entry into the war.

To add to the confusion many news groups since, including CNN, have confused the recreated scenes for the real thing.

Pearl Harbor was made into a successful Hollywood film 60 years later, starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale.

Today is the 70^th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

www.youtube.com/wararchives

View all 90,000 British Pathé newsreels for free online at: http://www.britishpathe.com

British Pathe visited the Maunsell Sea Fort site in 1944 and received a warm welcome from the soldiers who lived there.

We enjoyed Shortlist’s feature this week on “Britain’s Hidden Architectural Gems” by Simeon de la Torre and were thrilled to see Maunsell Sea Forts in the top slot. Built in 1942 eight miles off the Kent coast in the Thames estuary these six alien constructions were visited by British Pathé in 1944.

The reel is called “England’s 1940s Sea Wall” and gives a good insider tour to the towers, explaining how they were built, the role they played in WW2 and offering some great shots including one of soldiers playing ludo out on one of the top decks!

Over 100 men lived out on these forts, each tower having three floors. Boat trips occasionally give tours too, more information can be found here.

Another hidden architectural gem in Simeon de la Torre’s feature was the Cruachan Dam up in Argyll & Bute, Scotland. We have some lovely videos of this in the archive too, including The Queen officially opening the dam in 1965.

The Queen opens Cruachan Dam in 1965.

We’ll have a rummage in the archive soon and pull out our own hidden architectural gems. But in the meantime, enjoy these two:

“Italy In Wales” – A lovely 1962 report on the idyllic ornamental village Portmeirion in North Wales, made famous by the cult TV series The Prisoner.

“Hexagonal Houses” – State of the art new homes are built near Coventry in 1964, we wonder if they’re still there today?

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Not only are these travelogues an important document in that they capture Greece over 50 years ago in colour, featuring some of the first high quality colour footage of that nation, but they are also a brilliant piece of social history – an insight into the 1960s, not only the fashions and decor but also the beginning of something arguably more colossal than any of the temples – the beginning of the tourist industry.

Click on the stills to watch each video. Enjoy the retro swimwear!

INTRO:

1960s hotel in Rhodes

‘Island of The Sun’ is an introductory video to British Pathé’s 1960s tour of Greece. It focuses on the luxury airline service (Sabena airlines!) that gives Greece-bound holidaymakers traditional Greek dishes and even dolls. Upon landing we see some scenic shots of Rhodes, the Parthenon and ruins at Lindos.

We are shown a state-of-the-art 1960s Greek hotel which looks rather like a British council flat block, and Pathé focuses its attention on a lady showering and bathing in the hotel pool! At the end of this clip a boy commands a host of black and gold butterflies by whistling, much like the community of whistlers that Joanna Lumley visited in Episode 1 of her documentary series.

ATHENS:

The Acropolis, Athens

We start off with Gaye Ashwood (the daughter of legendary British Pathé journalist Terry Ashwood) walking up the steps of the Acropolis. There some lovely shots of a neat and tidy 1960s aeroplane landing scene. The 1960s transport on the streets is fantastic too!

APOLLO:

Greek Ampitheatre

Here we are at Cape Kennedy, visiting the temple of Apollo. British Pathé compare Apollo the Greek God to Apollo the space rocket. We see shots of the famous amphitheatre that Joanna Lumley also visited in the first episode of her documentary series.

MYKONOS:

A couple in Mykonos, 1965

In this 1965 video on Mykonos the island is described as “a short sea trip from Athens, yet there’s a Dutch flavour about the water windmills which twirl in the Mediterranean breeze. There are tourists, but not enough to completely commercialise the old fishermen who make their souvenirs with pride and patience”

Whether Pathé were aware that Mykonos was a gay island we cannot be sure, they don’t acknowkledge the fact explicitly in the video but they do offer some strange pieces of narration that could be seen as metaphors running in tandem with gay culture such as, “Nothing seems to shake the islanders out of their leisurely stride.” The camera then follows a domesticated pelican who becomes a sort of mascot for Mykonos, described as being “no ordinary pelican”, he is “liberated” and has “no interest in settling down”. It speaks volumes that Pathé decided to focus so much of their Mykonos travelogue on an estranged pelican bird! Were the cameramen a little reluctant to capture the real Mykonos?

HYDRA and DELPHI:

Ruins at Delphi in the 1960s

Although this footage of Hydra and Delphi is mute it offers beautiful and colourful shots of an unspoilt Greece in the sunshine. Lots of healthy and glamorous holidaymakers and young couples sunbathe, swim in the sea and potter about the harbour’s edge. It’s quite romantic to think that this almost 50 years ago. It is most interesting too to study the holidaymakers’ faces, one can really sense the nature of their relationships with each other, and the conversations and arguments that are having, a time capsule of one sunny afternoon by a Greek harbour. There are good shots of the ancient Greek ruins at Delphi and some art students sketching them.

 THE GREEK ISLANDS:

The video shows unspoilt Greek islands in the 1960s

“The Greek islands hang like an enchanting necklace around the throat of Greece. One of the loveliest jewels in the necklace is Aegina.” Pathé follow couples taking donkey rides from the shore up into the hills. The travelogue also covers the island of Poros. The narrator tells us that there are 1,800 Greek island, with almost half of them unoccupied! We visit the National School of Fine Arts, and see a boy sketching holidaymakers in Hydra.

 THASOS:

A loved-up couple holiday in Thasos.

Thasos is described here as an “undiscovered Greek island bypassed by the holidaymaking throngs”. With some lovely traditional music the reel takes us on a tour of Greek villas in Thasos. The video discusses a “breeze of change” and the sense that tourism will change Thasos (which is ironic considering British Pathé have sent themselves out there to record everything!)

CRETE:

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1652

The British Pathé Crete travelogue kicks off with a couple waterskiing. There are fantastic shots of the cliffs and some seashore caves that remarkably double up as holiday accommodation (is this still the case today?). The narrator talks about forgotten civilisation and sunken ports, suggesting that the ancient Cretans travelled to England in the past which is why Stone Henge shows a few similarities. We see ancient Greek laws carved out in rock, including references to adultery and adoption, before seeing the ruins of Knossos where legend states the Minotaur used to live.

CORFU:

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1267

If you’ve actually got this far, then well done and thank you! In this clip we see more of the same really, but if you’re enjoying the retro fashions, holidaymakers of yesteryear and fabulous details – then go ahead and have a garner at Pathé’s video of Corfu in the 1960s!

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=963

This finally video depicts some beautiful local dancing, set at the Castello Mimbelli, once a retreat of King George II of Greece and now a luxury hotel.

So, there we have it, British Pathé’s 1960s tour of Greece!

Still from 'Pyjama Peeps' from British Pathé (1921) click the still to watch this clip.

“The seaside became the world’s most glamorous stage on which all who visited it could play whatever role they fancied for a brief space of time”

As the new season collections begin the rounds in New York, a recent Vogue guide to pyjama dressing is a reminder that one of summer’s biggest trends is far from dead. Pyjama dressing, while sounding like something dreamed up on the pages of fashion magazines never to see the light of day, actually ties in with the Chinoiserie trend and also the 70s revival that was prevalent all over the catwalks and High Street last season. So much so that it has found favour everywhere from Harpers Bazaar to Refinery 29 and Fur Coat, No Knickers, while an influential Style Bubble post saw Alfie’s Antiques Market swamped with requests for similar pyjama sets. Even Ryan Gosling and Rachel Roy have picked up the mantle. My own minor obsession unfortunately doesn’t reach the lofty heights of Marc Jacobs or Louis Vuitton but does feature three different pyjama sets from three different eras.

Pink 1940s pyjama set that I acquired from an antiques market while staying with friends who run the vintage store Another Man's Treasure; green suit from my mother, circa 1972, she guesses it was from Bourne and Hollingsworth department store; yellow Topshop pyjama suit bought this summer.

The main inspiration behind this trend is the beach wear of the 20s and 30s. According to Sun, Sea and Sand: The Great British Seaside Holiday, beach pyjamas first surfaced in 1927, worn over swim suits by the smart set at the Riviera and then became a common sight throughout the 30s on the beaches of Britain. The Art Deco craze meant they often had geometric prints, and the Depression-era interest in creating synthetic fabrics ensured that the modish new beach suits could be made of silk but were more often made from crêpe de chine, éponge (early towelling) or jersey. Perfect examples of this chic beachwear are shown in this fashion show on the Thames from 1932 from British Pathé:

Click to view on YouTube!

‘Father Thames’ Daughters’ from 1932 also found here

The newsreel clips at British Pathé are the perfect way to explore these inter-war fashions on the screen. As you will know if you’ve been following The Story of British Pathé, ‘Eve’s Film Review’ was a weekly cine-magazine series aimed at women that ran from 1921 to 1933 which often featured the latest fashions from around the globe. Due to losses during WWI, the majority of cinema attendees at the time were women, so the glamour and glitz of holiday retreats and styles were given ample exposure on the big screen before the main feature films began.

Click to view on YouTube!

‘Nautical Naughties’ beach fashion show from 1933 also found here

By the end of the 1930s beach pyjamas were typical sights along the coast, as you can see in these stills from this ‘Why the Waves are Wild!’ clip (1939) – Click the still to watch this video

“The seaside holiday was a marvellous opportunity for dressing up, especially for the young. Holiday makers could leave behind their drab office suits or factory overalls and go to the sea looking like movie stars” – from Sun, Sea and Sand: The Great British Seaside Holiday

But flamboyance at the beach was nothing new. The beach has always been a site of fashionable spectacle since spa towns first gained popularity for their health-giving qualities in the 18th century. By the mid-Victorian period, a growth in the number of public holidays along with a rise in wages led to an explosion in the number of holiday makers and a trip to the coast became essential for maintaining a fashionable lifestyle. Promenading had such social significance that you could even say that the pier was the first catwalk. (You can see my favourite Victorian beach exaggerations from Punch right here.)

Pyjama dressing - the current trend: ‘Maid in China’ fashion shoot in the Telegraph by Hilary Alexander (Click still to read this piece), Sonia Rykiel Resort 2012 and Lanvin Resort 2012 found at New York Magazine

Pyjama styles found this summer at Topshop (Click on still to see the trend on Topshop's site)

The beach has long operated as a site of transgression. Throughout the 19th century the coast was a public arena for private leisure; leisure that maintained the appearance of fashionable life but often subverted the more rigid rules and customs that operated in urban centres. Social and class boundaries were reinvented in this more relaxed atmosphere, and as such jokes were rife about the itinerant ‘Lords’ you could meet who might turn out to have considerably less links to the nobility than was initially implied. The ambiance of coastal towns – reliant on glamour and fashion as selling points – ensured that a certain extravagance in dress was allowed at the beach that would have been condemned as tasteless in urban fashion centres, and the seaside promenade was the perfect platform upon which to perform one’s fashionability. Piers became increasingly important at resorts as architectural innovations and centres of pleasure and fashion, and were regularly used to parade the season’s finest attire across the water.

Racy back-baring 1930s beach pyjamas, found at "Curves, Patterns and Pins" (Click the still to visit CPP's blog)

An air of danger co-existed alongside the glamour and fashion. The theme of many popular music hall songs hinted at the physical pleasures that could be found at the beach and the voyeuristic nature of the seaside space. Marie Lloyd is the perfect example of this, a late-Victorian and early Edwardian music hall star who was well renowned for her risqué themes, many of which focussed on the temptations of the beach. You can listen to Marie Lloyd singing her risqué number When I Take My Morning Promenade from 1908 here, which features such suggestive lyrics as: When I take my morning promenade/Quite a fashion card, on the promenade/Oh! I don’t mind nice boys staring hard/If it satisfies their desire… (you can read the rest here).

The oriental influence on pyjamas

‘Oriental’ influence: pyjamas are often associated with Chinese and Japanese-inspired lounging apparel from the 20s and 30s. Anna May Wong in 1928 found here; Far Eastern-inspired Vogue cover by Helen Dryden from 1917, from The Art of Vogue Covers 1909 – 1940 by William Packer; and this Tatler cover from 1923 shows pyjama suits were also in fashion for bohemian men on holiday. Josslyn Hay at an Italian resort, from The Bolter: Idina Sackville – The Woman Who Scandalised 1920s Society and Became White Mischief’s Infamous Seductress by Frances Osbourne.

It's this louche, 'Oriental'-inspired decadence that the Louis Vuitton S/S 2011 collection drew on. You can read more in my previous post on Chinoiserie (click on the images above to see this post)

Beach holidays grew ever more popular throughout the 1920s due to the aspirational Riviera culture that was growing in popularity, as advocated by Coco Chanel and the smart set she partied with. The ballet ‘Le Train bleu’ – staged by the Ballets Russes in 1924 – gently mocks the superficiality of this leisured life, and also happens to read like a ‘who’s who’ of Modernism: it was masterminded by Diaghilev, written by Jean Cocteau, costumed by Chanel and featured a stage curtain painted by Picasso. The ‘blue train’ was the colloquial term for the train that rushed rich English tourists to the Côte d’Azur for the season, and Cocteau’s idea was to recreate a series of living picture postcards, so contemporary crazes like sunbathing and snapshots mixed with gymnastics and Cubist-inspired sets to provide a perfectly stylized look at 1920s beach life (you can see pictures here). But the exclusive and artistic milieu of the Riviera wasn’t within reach of everyone, and so Billy Butlin brought his unique vision of luxury on a budget to the nation in the 1930s with the idea of replicating film star holidays as depicted in fan magazines: the holiday camp was born.

Beside the Seaside: Monte Carlo postcard found at Encyclopaedia of the Exquisite; Plummer's department store ad from Hastings in 1933 and saucy postcard from Sun, Sea and Sand: The Great British Seaside Holiday by Braggs and Harris

While 1920s and 30s beachward bound leisure-seekers were aspiring to seasons by the Riviera, fads for keeping fit and sunbathing also attracted visitors to the coast. The keep-fit craze in the UK and Germany was featured in BBC4′s series The Story of British Pathé; growing from late-Victorian interests in cycling and walking it had blossomed into  more robust athletic prowess by the 1920s. Hollywood stars were often photographed exercising and fan magazines were full of tips on how to work out just like your favourite star. Sunbathing was an entirely new phenomenon in the 20s. Previously the association of tanned skin with agricultural and other outdoor work led to aristocratic woman in courts across Europe striving for a lily white pallor (a glance at Elizabethan lead poisoning shows how dangerous this obsession could be). But, according to fashion legend, an accidental tan acquired by Coco Chanel as she was yachting sparked a trend that has continued through to the heady orange heights of TOWIE and Geordie Shore today.

The keep fit craze: 'And So to Play' article from Picture Play magazine March 1930 shows film stars in pyjamas to exercise; starry beach pyjamas (click the image to see) ; dog and hoops from "Letters From Home""

 Below: An amusing idea for decorating that beautiful bare brown back” – sun bathing tips from “Why the Waves are Wild!” from 1939:

Why The Waves Are Wild!

The transgressive nature of the seaside ensured it was easier to make outlandish fashion choices that might have been less acceptable back at home. The beach pyjama trend of the 20s and 30s is notable as it allowed women to wear bifurcated clothing at a time when the idea of women in trousers was still fairly shocking. Until the Land Girls of WWII made it a more common site, bifurcated clothing for women remained somewhat taboo; admissible only within the confines of the domestic sphere (lounging pyjamas) or at the liminal site of the beach. Initially associated with eccentric clothing revolutionaries like Amelia Bloomer or the Rational Dress Movement in the 19th century, women in trousers in the  early 20th century were linked with all sorts of daring activities from tantalising beach holidays to smoking. Before the beach pyjama fad really gained ground in the 1930s, many 20s pyjama suits were advertised for smoking as you can see below. This serves to connect bifurcation with modernity, as although the New Woman of the 1890s was partial to the odd cigarette, smoking for women only become acceptable (if still somewhat daring) for the Flapper of the 1920s.

Bifurcated clothing for lounging and the beach from as early as 1929. This image is from the 1929 British Pathe reel "Suits to Suit". Click on the still to watch the video.

Smoking: Santa Proud fashions, 1928 from 1920s: The Hulton Getty Picture Collection; 'Smoking' by S. Chompre from Art Deco Fashion Illustration; Smoking Suits from The Twenties by Alan Jenkins

And so ends our seaside odyssey. But if your thirst still isn’t quenched, you can see lounging pyjamas disrobed to reveal a swimsuit in this Pathé clip from 1930, and more poolside fashions from British Pathé here from 1932, a clip which also features the wonderfully androgynous Houston Sisters. Susie Bubble featured the inspirational blog La Mode Pyjama as well as some of the pyjama posts on Painted Woman, and you can see more pictures of beach pyjamas at the Painted Woman here and here. But in case you were wondering, the 1930s certainly didn’t signal the end for pyjama suits. They were revived throughout the 1960s and 70s and it was these reinterpretations of 20s and 30s trends that the Marc Jacobs S/S 2011 collection referenced. As ever, the fashion cycles keep spinning.

 www.youtube.com/VintageFashions

www.TheatreOfFashion.co.uk

www.britishpathe.com

Who knew there used to be cinema carriages on trains? Or “saloons” as they were called…

Today we came across this exciting poster on the National Archives’ Flickr stream which reads – “There is a Comfortable & Luxurious Cinema Attached to this Train” -  “Special Programme Compiled Exclusively For This Train by PATHE GAZETTE”, Commencing Monday, May 16^th, 1938.

The poster is for an LNER train, which is the London North Eastern Railway service, so trains going from Kings Cross to places like Edinburgh. We can just picture the classy and demure travellers as they relaxed in the “Pathé L.N.E.R. Saloon”, the countryside silently sliding past them as they tucked into a feast of the latest British Pathé reels.

The films shown on the train were actually issued only 7 days before the scheduled event, so it was pretty hot off the press. It’s interesting to see that Ireland is quite well covered, and also that boxing appears to be the most highly-sought sport.

The train’s cinema carriage wasn’t free – it cost 1 shilling – so it would have been a bit of a treat, but think about it – people didn’t have televisions in the 1930s and they had to go to a cinema house to see moving footage.  We love that the poster tells customers that the Pathé saloon is non-inflammable too! Of course earlier newsreels were made out of nitrate, and almost everybody smoked, so you can understand the concern.

ANYWAY. We were delighted to see that the poster then lists each reel that would feature in the screening. Using the date as a guide and searching the titles in the British Pathé film archive we’ve managed to find 32 out of 34 of the items on the trains bill, and we’ve put online links to each below so that you can pick and view the ones that interest you, or perhaps even re-live the experience and watch them all!

HERE WE GO:

Their Majesties In Lanarkshire

New Berth For Bananas

Hitler In Italy

Training For Royal Tournament

French Liner Ablaze At Le Havre

Rugby League Cup Final At Wembley

Demonstration of Kay Autogyro at Southampton

Ninety-Four Year Old Mrs. Anne Budd Takes Her First Flight

New German Ambassador in London

John Tussaud Celebrates His 80^th Birthday

Fire Brigade Chief Retires

Boxing At Theatre Royal Dublin

Mille Miglia Car Race

US Thoroughbreds Prepare For Match Race

First President Of Eire

Boston Marathon

Blessing The Lambs in Italy

Dublin Spring Show

King Tours RAF Stations (Mute)

New Defence Balloons

Markham Pit Disaster

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Boys Boxing Comedy  

Plane Safety

How To Make Money

Cineviews In Brief No.73

The Emotion Machine

Al And Bob Harvey Famous Radio And Variety Stars

“Order To View” – Cannot Find

Model House – Cannot Find

Troy Town

Ted Andrews Canadian Singer And The Girl Friend

London In The Provinces

Novelties – Cannot Find

Suzette Tarri – Character Comedienne

Courtesy of www.britishpathe.com

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“However much they try the English can’t get that goal, the Welsh defence resist all attacks!”

Wales defeat England 2-1 (1955): http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=39923

It was the first times Wales has beaten England in over 17 years. An exciting piece of 1950s football footage with great crowd shots conveying the anxiety and ecstasy of the fans, in the hectic match Welsh centre-forward John Charles even scores an own-goal with his head at one point.

“Even the war hasn’t affected the billiard table smoothness of the Wembley grass… Wales are buzzing around the English goal like bees round a honey pot”

Wales defeat England 1-0 at Wembley (1940): http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=25137

Bryn Jones scores the only goal in this match, good shots of England missing a penalty and a very jolly brass band soundtrack from Pathé mixed in with the live cheering.

“Every minute the fight is getting tougher! Then England fade away and give Wales another win”

Wales defeat England 4-2 in Cardiff (1938): http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=20773

After a fairly equal start Wales suddenly smash Britain with goal after goal. A brilliant 1930s football reel from Pathé with great quality close-up shots for the period. Some of the details are fantastic too – look out for the giant cigarettes advert on the stadium’s roof!

Wales defeat England (1926): http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=24695

A mute clip of course as we’re now way back in the 1920s! Lovely shots of the teams coming out of the tunnel, and of players congratulating and cordially shaking hands with the Welsh player upon scoring a goal.

MORE WALES Vs. ENGLAND FOOTAGE:

There are considerably more reels of Wales being defeated by England, and so rather than go into them individually we’ve put them all together for you on this page here:

http://www.britishpathe.com/workspace.php?id=13811

ALSO:

General Welsh history enthusiasts might also like this archive footage collection of Wales: http://www.britishpathe.com/workspace.php?id=6079