The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

[Steve Crook]

Great stuff, thanks Freddy.

Now maybe you can tell us what Baby Face Fitzroy is writing on the steamed up window of their carriage as he waits outside the gymnasium with Edith as the duel takes place inside.

He writes it on the inside of the window and we see it from the outside so we're seeing it in "mirror writing", and then he wipes it off as soon as he's written it.

There's been a long standing debate & discussion as to what it might have been, but we welcome new suggestions

Steve

[Steve Crook]

Did I mention...
The digitally restored print of Blimp will be shown in Seattle, WA in March

Tickets are now on sale for several events at Seattle Art Museum. Thelma Schoonmaker, Oscar-winning film editor (and currently a nominee for "Hugo"), will visit SAM to present the newly restored version of 1943's "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", directed by Michael Powell (Schoonmaker's late husband) and Emeric Pressburger, on March 6. She will also, on March 7, introduce Powell's 1960 thriller "Peeping Tom". Tickets for both films are $18 ($14 for SAM, SIFF, NWFF and TheFilmSchool members).

See their web site for details & tickets


Also in Berlin in February
The Berlinale Special is showcasing 18 features and documentaries, including U.S. entries "Side by Side," by Chris Kenneally, and Alison Klayman's "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry."

Additional screeners include a restored version of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 British drama "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp".

They're also showing Mark Cousins' documentary "The Story of Film: An Odyssey" - all 15 hours of it

The Berlin Film Festival runs Feb. 9-19.



Empire magazine reports that it will be seen in the UK from 18 May

Steve

[Freddy]

Great stuff, thanks Freddy.

Now maybe you can tell us what Baby Face Fitzroy is writing on the steamed up window of their carriage as he waits outside the gymnasium with Edith as the duel takes place inside.

He writes it on the inside of the window and we see it from the outside so we're seeing it in "mirror writing", and then he wipes it off as soon as he's written it.

There's been a long standing debate & discussion as to what it might have been, but we welcome new suggestions

Steve

Looked at the mirror writing, a benefit of having Apple is that if you highlight an image before capture the area is shaded a slight blue which highlighted the letters, using this and a mirror to give correct writing.

It is confusing at first as he uses full stops, three capitals and one lower case but with the aid of the above imo it is

T. d A. F.

The small d was the most difficult to work out



Anyway over to you to wonder what they stand for if correct


Freddy

[Freddy]

Going back to the Bradford Telegraph the 'Khaki Looms' story could well be about bridal gowns not needing to be made out of used parachutes anymore and the story on the far right about seaside trains according to my Yorkshire friend refers to the specials which were laid on to carry the mill workers to the east coast, though some went to Blackpool and even the Isle of Man.

[CaptainWaggett]

Going back to the Bradford Telegraph the 'Khaki Looms' story could well be about bridal gowns not needing to be made out of used parachutes anymore and the story on the far right about seaside trains according to my Yorkshire friend refers to the specials which were laid on to carry the mill workers to the east coast, though some went to Blackpool and even the Isle of Man.

Presumably it's a real issue of the paper with some cutting and pasting - just like the issue of Picture Post they used for the Home Guard article

[Freddy]

Many thanks for the above Capt. I am now able to read more of the 'Liverpool Murder' and it is clear that it is not about the murder I referred to. This murder is about a Margaret Murphy of Vine street which is in the mount Pleasant area but at the moment I can't find anything on the murder of M. Murphy so we are back to square one on whether the paper is a real issue or not.

We know there was a murder in June 1919 in Liverpool.
We know there were violent strikes in Paris in June 1919.
The Bradford trains are real enough.

The British Newspaper archive sadly does not have the Bradford Telegraph so other approaches and more digging will be needed.

Paul

ps. The first pop up toaster was invented in 1919 by Charles Strite

[Steve Crook]

Looked at the mirror writing, a benefit of having Apple is that if you highlight an image before capture the area is shaded a slight blue which highlighted the letters, using this and a mirror to give correct writing.

It is confusing at first as he uses full stops, three capitals and one lower case but with the aid of the above imo it is

T. d A. F.

The small d was the most difficult to work out



Anyway over to you to wonder what they stand for if correct


Freddy

Yes, well done. That's the best estimate that the Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society could come up with
Or possibly even T d'A. F.

But what could it stand for?

We only know him as "Babyface" Fitzroy, so the F is probably for Fitzroy

Could his middle name be d'Arcy? Or is he a d'Alton?

And what about his first name? Terence? Timothy? Theobald?

Steve

[Steve Crook]

Presumably it's a real issue of the paper with some cutting and pasting - just like the issue of Picture Post they used for the Home Guard article

Quite possibly. Does anyone have access to the Telegraph & Argus archives? Do they go back that far?

Steve

[Steve Crook]

Many thanks for the above Capt. I am now able to read more of the 'Liverpool Murder' and it is clear that it is not about the murder I referred to. This murder is about a Margaret Murphy of Vine street which is in the mount Pleasant area but at the moment I can't find anything on the murder of M. Murphy so we are back to square one on whether the paper is a real issue or not.

Shame, I thought that was another interesting connection.

As the good Captain said, they did take an existing issue of Picture Post about training the Home Guard and modified it to include a picture of Roger Livesey as Clive Candy.

That was the edition dated 21 September 1940 which included an article titled "The Home Guard Can Fight"
See the PaPAS site

The page from the magazine (I have a copy)


How we see it in the film



The man whose picture they replaced was Tom Wintringham. He was the WWI and Spanish Civil war veteran and Communist Party member that set up this Home Guard training school. Red Tom talked staunch conservative owner of the Picture Post (and of Upton Park), Edward G. Hulton, into supporting his ideas for the defence of Britain in those perilous days.

Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

Quite possibly. Does anyone have access to the Telegraph & Argus archives? Do they go back that far?

Steve

I doubt they'll be onlne so these folks would be the people to contact

West Yorkshire Archive Service - Bradford

[Freddy]

Yes, well done. That's the best estimate that the Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society could come up with
Or possibly even T d'A. F.

But what could it stand for?

We only know him as "Babyface" Fitzroy, so the F is probably for Fitzroy

Could his middle name be d'Arcy? Or is he a d'Alton?

And what about his first name? Terence? Timothy? Theobald?

Steve

I prefer Tristan who was a knight of the Round Table and as Fitzroy means son of the king then that's quite fitting.



Paul

[Steve Crook]

I prefer Tristan who was a knight of the Round Table and as Fitzroy means son of the king then that's quite fitting.



Paul

Fitzroy usually means bastard son of the King

Steve

[Steve Crook]

I doubt they'll be onlne so these folks would be the people to contact

West Yorkshire Archive Service - Bradford

Thanks, I've asked them

Steve

[Steve Crook]

I doubt they'll be onlne so these folks would be the people to contact

West Yorkshire Archive Service - Bradford

The very helpful Sarah Powell (good omen with a surname like that), the Customer Support Assistant at Bradford Local Studies Centre says:

Yes, we do have archives of the Telegraph and Argus, and its predecessors, the Bradford Daily Telegraph and Bradford Daily Argus.

The ‘back page’ (which was in fact the front page, with national headlines) of the Bradford Daily Telegraph shown in the film is a modified version of the actual newspaper, as you thought. There are some changes in content, so perhaps our copy was from a later edition – the first column is headed ‘Discussions with Germans’, for example – but it is definitely the Bradford Daily Telegraph.

She's sending me a copy of that page

Aren't librarians wonderful

Steve

[Freddy]

Fitzroy usually means bastard son of the King

Steve

Some of us are

[Freddy]

The very helpful Sarah Powell (good omen with a surname like that), the Customer Support Assistant at Bradford Local Studies Centre says:


She's sending me a copy of that page

Aren't librarians wonderful

Steve

Excellent and thanks for contacting them, and yes they are.

[Freddy]

Looking at deaths there was a Margaret Murphy who died in Apr/May/June 1919, she was born in 1888.

[Steve Crook]

Presumably it's a real issue of the paper with some cutting and pasting - just like the issue of Picture Post they used for the Home Guard article

Well the lovely librarian from Bradford has photocopied the real newspaper from their archive and sent it to me. I'll scan it in as soon as I can get to my local internet cafe (I run a paperless office with no printer or scanner)

The ads and the title are the same. The article about The Paris Strikes is the same, The "No More Khaki for Looms" article (which is the one the film focuses on) replaced the article below it titled "Labour Alliance" and below that (in this real edition) is a story titled "Manslaughter Charge: Woman Bangs Man's Head Against Wall". Bradford seems to have been a rough place in 1919.

But I do wonder if there were different editions through the day. The one I now have doesn't mention its being the early or late edition. But instead of the Liverpool Murder the one I have reports on "Nationalisation: Mr. Joe Terrett's Views. 'A Greater Curse Than Blessing'".

Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

Well the lovely librarian from Bradford has photocopied the real newspaper from their archive and sent it to me. I'll scan it in as soon as I can get to my local internet cafe (I run a paperless office with no printer or scanner)

Guess what today is

[Freddy]

Happy National Libraries Capt

.