Titles read: 'GILDING the LILY (Revised Version!)'.
Various locations of events, including Pathe Studio, London.
Several shots of women applying make-up - lipstick, eyebrow pencil, powder. A woman wearing a baseball guard applies powder to her face with a hanky.
Shots of the pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt. Drawing of a box of lotions and cosmetics dating from 1,400 BC that was found in the graves of Egyptian Kings. Drawing of Egyptian figures and hieroglyphics on rocks. Live shots of a woman dressed as Cleopatra applying make-up to her eyes, then looking seductive as she reclines beside a flaming torch.
We then see women acting as ladies of the court of Nero in Rome, 54 AD, applying white powder to their faces and bodies. C/U of a handbell being rung. A man dressed in 1770s town crier costume opens a scroll and starts reading out a notice that says women wearing scents, paints, artificial teeth, false hair, iron stays, high heels (etc) will incur the penalty of the law against witchcraft.
C/U of a woman wearing stage make-up - it looks very harsh and heavy. We see the girl being made-up with special cosmetics for the camera - foundation and powder. C/U of the girl with more natural make-up.
Great shots of a woman applying mascara. Animation lists the ingredients in this "eye black" as lamp black and soap! "Red Nose Lotion" (some kind of early concealer?) contains peroxide and eau de cologne and costs 1/2 D to make. C/U of a bottle of 'Beako' red nose lotion (must be a joke!) costing 10'6. A girl in glasses puts some on. C/U of woman putting on lipstick. Animated list of ingredients of lipstick. Girl coming out of a swimming pool looks in her bracelet compact to apply eyebrow pencil (from PSP 849 - After The Bathe Is Over).
WW2 accounted for over 60m deaths and innumerable lives shattered. Pathé cameras took to land, sea and air to record the bloodshed. Here are the 10 bloodiest battles that were caught on film.
The great politician and orator Winston Churchill left behind a sea of humourous quips and discerning quotes. We remember some of his finest epigrams and witty ripostes.
The death penalty has been carried out in almost all societies and although these images from WWI and WWII are unsettling, they still provide a raw account of events from a certain time.
The images taken from inside Buchenwald Concentration Camp after its Liberation show us what it was like; it tells us what happened and forces us to remember.
10 telling images selected from British Pathé's extensive WWI footage. 'The war to end all wars' was a war without parallel: over 70 million military personnel were involved and over 17 million people died.
British Pathé filmed the 20th Century's biggest names, some of them before they even became famous. Click through and guess who these soon-to-be celebrities were when first captured by our cameras.
Private UFOs, flying bicycles, motorised wheels - Pathe's archive is awash with fabulous films of canny and creative transport inventions.Take a look at some of the more unusual but ingenious ideas that people have had to beat the traffic.
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