DAVID RAYNER

Thinking back to my years as a cinema projectionist in the 1960’s, I often think about two wonderful British short films we used to run every week, Rank’s Eastman Colour “Look at Life” and Warner-Pathe’s Technicolor “Pathe Pictorial.” They ran about nine minutes each and were gems of a kind we never see today.

Each week, a different fascinating subject, beautifully photographed; scored; narrated and edited. The reels were given a number, such as Look at Life number 163 or Pathe Pictorial number 380, which ensured they were booked only once. The reels were brand new; run only for a week and went back to the distributors after the last showing in the same pristine condition, never to be seen again…which I always thought a bit of a waste.

Look at Life was narrated by Tim Turner, but I can’t remember who narrated Pathe Pictorial. I remember a superb Look at Life called “For the Record”, which took us into the EMI recording studios in 1961 to see Helen Shapiro recording “Walkin’ Back To Happiness” and, if I remember correctly, the reel took us from recording to pressing the record to distribution to the record shops, all in nine minutes of screen time. A gem, never seen again.

Another weekly short, also only shown once per issue, was called “Mining Review”. This was in black and white for years and went into colour around 1970. I often wonder what has become of all these shorts and why no one has ever issued them on video or DVD.

David Brent

Yes Dave I remember seeing those featurettes when i was a young boy in Birmingham. They were a great part of the cinema experience. Add to that the occassional cartoon and more than likely a B film to accompany the main feature.Great value!
Australia had it's own version of the cinema newsreels & quite often used to incorporate features from the latest Brit Pathe news.
In Sydney there is the famous State Theatre which was also once a cinema. Adjoined to this large theatre there once was a smaller cinema called the State Theatrette which you had to go downstairs to enter. It was like a small basement cinema but never showed main features only latest newsreels and featurettes.
Back in 1968 I made a special visit to that cinema to see newsreel highlights (only about 10 minutes) of that year's F.A. Cup Final between my team West Brom. and Everton.
In those days there was no live coverage on television over here and I had to wait all week to see Albion's winning goal.It was fabulous because it was also in colour (we didn't get colour television until 1974.)
I've noticed that parts of the Australian cinema newsreels have been used on cable's HISTORY CHANNEL as time filler's between programs.Short as they might be they show perfectly how most people used to view the news in the old days.Most are very interesting to view again.
Must say a lot of the early newsreel coverage of Football matches in the UK left a lot to be desired.Many goals were missed and the coverage was very jumpy with more coverage of the flat capped supporter's with their rosettes and rattles than the action.
Can anyone else remember those smaller cinema's that used to show only newsreels all day?

Dave.

paulsroom

The cinema programme of the 1960s was certainly good value for money, and you could even get into the cinema in the middle of the programme, then watch it until you came to where you had started (some people used to watch the programme twice!). Some of those 'B' films were almost a series like 'Fabian of the Yard' and the various Edgar Wallace stories. Some of the 'B' pictures would be better than the main feature, so at least you never had a wasted trip even if you didn't like the film that you had originally gone to see! I used to go about three times a week and the prices of the tickets varied between the cheap small independent cinemas and the more expensive Odeon, ABC, Gaumont and Essoldo chains (plus where you sat - stalls were cheaper than the circle). And to see a film on the big screen - and I mean big. Not the enlarged lounge size that's around today. The Odeon where I lived had an almost Cinerama size screen where they showed all the epics - plus stereo sound.

And talking of short films. Does anyone remember the News cinemas that had a rolling one hour programme of short films, newsreels and lots of cartoons? Most big cities had these, where you could kill an hour while waiting to go on to your planned activity. There were several in central London - Marble Arch, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, etc. and even one in Waterloo Station. The best one was at Marble Arch where they also had a very smart café. A real treat and one that didn't break the bank!

DAVID RAYNER

“Ahrrrrrr, them were the days, matey…smart as paint, they were”, as Robert Newton may have said in his best Long John Silver accent. A look at one of my old film dispatch books from 1962, shows the variety of films we were running on one programme back then, continuous from 4:30 pm until 10:10 pm. Damn good value for 1/3d (6p) admission.

Thursday, November 8th, 1962 (for 3 days):

THE INSPECTOR (CinemaScope) Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart.
THE LONG ROPE (CinemaScope) Hugh Marlow and Lisa Montell.
RACOON DAWG (Walt Disney cartoon)
LOOK AT LIFE number 164.
PATHE PICTORIAL number 381
ADVERTS AND TRAILERS
BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE (Saturday Matinee feature) Robert Newton and Linda Darnell.
YOUNG EAGLES Episode 10 (Saturday Matinee serial)

Real value for money, eh? Oh, yes, the admission prices for the Children’s Saturday matinee were 7d and 9d (about 3p and 4p in today’s money) Doors opened 1:30 pm. For the price, the children got a main feature (usually from CFF, but sometimes, as with the above, from other distributors); a couple of cartoons and a serial. No grown up patrons allowed in to the children's matinee

I never went into any of the newsreel only theatres, as we didn’t have anything like that where I lived.

Rob Compton

So, taking your point David, does anyone know if any of these two series (Look at Life and Pathe Pictorial) are available anywhere. What fascinating social history they would present!

I do know about the Pathe archive, but am I right in thinking that for some peculiar reason I have to be a library or something before I can look at them?

Are there any other relevant websites?

rgds
Rob

DAVID RAYNER

No, Rob, I’m not aware of any more websites. Pathe News has a website and edited versions of Pathe News newsreels have been issued on a set of videos. But as for Pathe Pictorial, which, being a magazine reel, was an entirely different reel to the newsreel, I don’t know what happened to them all. Probably all incinerated, along with Rank’s Look at Life reels. If so, it was a terrible waste.

glyn horton

There's a video company called Video 125 that specialises in transport subjects which has released some of the Look at Life and Pathe Pictorials but only the ones dealing with railway and aviation subjects. Worth a look though.

Try - www.video125.co.uk

DAVID RAYNER

An intersting site, Glyn. I can't see any reference to Look at Life or Pathe Pictorial on there, but maybe that's because clips from both reels are used to make up a transport DVD. If so, then the full reels must still exist somewhere.

Wetherby Pond

Mining Review is now owned by the British Film Institute, and several complete examples are available on Screenonline (the relevant page is here. They can't be viewed at home for copyright reasons, but if your local library has the right equipment (fastish PC with broadband connection and headphones), they can apply for a free licence.

It's not entirely inconceivable that they may be more widely available in the not too distant future, but various rights issues need to be resolved first.

glyn horton

Hi David

When you go on Video125 site, click on 'Products' and then select 'ARCHIVES' - the titles are on there - titles are : LOOK AT LIFE IN THE 60s, LOOK AT LIFE ON THE RAILWAYS and PATHE RAILWAY PICTORIAL.

Hope this helps!

Glyn

DAVID RAYNER

Thanks, Glyn. I followed your directions and found them this time. Those DVD's look very interesting and well worth the price.

fantomas 2

I really don't think that British-Pathé "incinerated" their old "one-reel" little movies. Some years ago (1992) I was working on an article on Tod Slaughter and wrote a letter to British-Pathé, asking for a video copie of Tod's appearance in "Pathé Pictorial # 131", made in 1938. This title was the only one-reeler in Tod's filmography at the time. Some days later, I got a kind letter and a videotape with not only the title above, but they told me that they were ignorant (before getting my letter) of Tod's presence in one of their titles, and they made additional research among the archives and found also ANOTHER Tod appareance, in "Pathétone Weekly # 314", made in 1936. The tape contained the two titles, free of charge. So, it seems dubious that they "destroyed" their archives... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/eek.gif[/img]

Dave C

I actually appeared in one of the 'look at Life' in the mid 60's. The short was about a day in the life of a policeman, and the company came to Albany Street. They filmed an officer from his getting up in the morning right through to finishing his shift. During part of the day he was controlling traffic and was called away to deal with a theft. I stepped in to control the traffic and was on screen for all of 3 0r 4 seconds!!! I took my fiance to see the film but I think she blinked and missed it. I was a lot younger then and would love to see this episode if anyone has a clue how. The cinema in those days was great, good value, customers who behaved and lovely(some) buildings with big screens. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be!! David

julian_craster

A selection of LOOK AT LIFE films (16 x 10min) titles relating to the theme of SWINGING LONDON) has just been issued on DVD in the UK by DD Video.
See the Amazon and Mr Benson's (cheaper prices ) sites for details.....

theuofc

Welcome to the Forum, David

I'm so glad you found this excellent earlier thread. It has some wonderful film memories I wouldn't have missed but might have had you not recusitated it. Thanks also for your anecdote. Someone ought to compile a book of these.

All the best,

Barbara