British Pathe

High angle shot of the factory floor of a printing works. We see men at work. C/U of paper dropping from a machine. High angle shot of women workers putting the sheets together by hand. The comedian George Robey steps in. He walks over to one of the workers and takes off his hat. (He has trademark dark...

High angle shot of the factory floor of a printing works. We see men at work. C/U of paper dropping from a machine. High angle shot of women workers putting the sheets together by hand. The comedian George Robey steps in. He walks over to one of the workers and takes off his hat. (He has trademark dark bushy eyebrows.) He condescendingly pushes the young man out of the way and commences to mess things up by getting pages in the wrong order, throwing bits away, ranting at the camera in C/U then walking off with his hat and stick. We are shown various machines which cut the leaves of the book and put them in order. The various processes involved in making a book are shown. Good C/Us and M/Ss of the workers and machines. George has a go at gluing the books and gets pieces of paper stuck to his elbow and fingers. More of the processes are shown including the printing of the cover and the pasting of the books into the cover by hand. George carries a large stack of books through the factory and manages to drop them all. C/U of him picking them up and trying to balance them on his head. He takes a place on the production line but instead of working he eats some of the glue. He then feigns disgust. A machine which puts covers on is shown. The books are stacked very neatly in a large press. George has a go and hurts his finger. He then slaps a young worker and throws books at him. High angle shot of women workers inspecting and wrapping the books. C/U of the dust cover being put on the book. George decides to try this. He plays it coy and girlie because he is surrounded by women. Intertitle reads: "Oh! Desist!"as he fools around with a very embarrassed woman worker. Story ends with George taking a comedy fall into a large vat of glue which happened to be in the way of his trip through the factory with books in his hands. C/U of him emerging from the vat covered in white viscous glue. Workers behind him laugh and intertitle follows: "!!!X-X-??!X=X!!!?" He scrapes the glue off his face - iris in. Cut to man holding an open book in front of his face - it is "The Prince of Wales Book." Book is lowered to reveal George without his make-up. Intertitle reads: "Now, dear reader the men at St. Dunstan's for whose benefit our Prince has collected these wonderful pictures, will never see them - Let us be thankful we can, and each help by getting a copy." He opens the book and shows the photographs. He mouths what seems to be the words of the intertitle. Iris in. Was a Pictorial item.