KEYWORDS: HOUSING, POLITICIANS

The main "social issue" of the Pathe era was housing. Particularly between the wars endless stories concerned themselves with either the destruction of old slums or the creation of new houses. Often the events were presided over by the most powerful dignitaries of the day, keen to associate themselves with such good work; Harold McMillan, Queen Mary, Princess Alice, Edward VIII, George VI and his wife, the then Duchess of York.

Housing was also an obsession generally with the newsreels. Habitats featured included tree houses, futuristic houses, thatched railway carriages, cliff top houses, prefab houses, bus houses, cave houses, rotating houses, Tudor houses, penthouses, DIY houses, and all forms of "new" housing.

Other political "hot potatoes" covered in great depth during the Pathe era include Ireland, India, Suffragettes, Suez, transport, Cold War, exports, poverty, fascism, communism, commonwealth and empire, defence, race relations, health, and unemployment.

Government personalities were also covered in great depth, particularly during elections and by-elections, conferences, summits, foreign tours, ceremonies, state visits, funerals and weddings. Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Harold MacMillan, Ramsay McDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Harold Wilson were covered in depth, as was the first female MP, Lady Astor.

Party leaders regularly made appeals to the electorate through the newsreels decades before what became known as "Party Political Broadcasts".

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

"GREAT CRUSADE" (1930s documentary about slums)
"WORKHOUSE WARD" (1950s documentary about to "grumpy old men")
CP241: "NEW TOWN" (Stevenage)
EP 242: "YESTERDAY'S HOMES AND TODAY'S"
33/100: "SLUMS ARE A DISGRACE" (the famous quote from Edward VIII)
32/89: "IT'S A TOPSY TURVEY WORLD TODAY" (a look at the US depression )
G 1584: "WORKLESS" (a look at 1920s unemployment).
"CHURCHILL THE MAN"
G 1053: "OUR 8 LADY MPs" (Female Members of Parliament parade outside in 1924)
"IRISH REVOLUTION" (short documentary from 1922)
"THE MOTHER OF ALL PARLIAMENTS" (a short 1950 documentary)
48/39: "EUROPE UNITE" (Churchill's ground breaking speech at The Hague in 1948).
G 1293: "GENERAL STRIKE" (1926)
31/69: "THE CRISIS" (Labour resign and Ramsay McDonald forms first "National " Government)
40/7: "DIG FOR VICTORY"
58/53: "THE POUND DOWN HOUSE" (buying a house with a one pound deposit)
68/15: "MILLIONTH HOUSE" (a Glasgow family are moved into their shiny new high rise building!)
50/17: "BRITAIN DECIDES" (Good coverage of the 1950 General Election)
55/28: "SIR WINSTON RESIGNS"
57/36: "CHANNEL TUNNEL - YES OR NO?" (Pros and Cons, 1957 style)
60/31: "SOUTH AFRICA - WHAT NOW?" (a look at apartheid in 1960)
60/41: "SUMMIT SENSATION" (Khrushchev insults Eisenhower at the peak of the Cold War)
66/27: "LABOUR ROMPS HOME" (last Election covered by Pathe)
66/98: "RHODESIA CRISIS"
69/71: "CALLAGHAN IN IRELAND" (one of the last political stories covered by Pathe in 1969)

KEYWORDS: HOUSING, POLITICIANS