British Pathe

This copy has been transferred from print - neg transferred on tape PM2869 - neg version will be better quality.

Pathe retrospective. This reel is about musicians. Library material used should be found in more complete versions elsewhere.

Reel 5.

01:00:02 - Clarice Mayne,...

This copy has been transferred from print - neg transferred on tape PM2869 - neg version will be better quality.

Pathe retrospective. This reel is about musicians. Library material used should be found in more complete versions elsewhere.

Reel 5.

01:00:02 - Clarice Mayne, Ralph Lynn and Harry Welchman are seen in the audience at the Pathe cinema laughing and reminiscing. This section shot sometime around 1955. "Their yesterdays are our brightest memories" states the narrator. A cinema audience is seen and the camera pans up to the screen. Two men sitting at the back of the cinema are seen in semi darkness as the film begins.

01:00:34 - 1930s nightclub sequence starts with a mixed race band playing "Happy Feet" a tune from Tin Pan Alley . Morton Downey plays the piano and sings Stormy Weather at the Cafe de Paris. Black performer "Hutch" sings "Trees" at a small select nightclub.

01:02:38 - Beryl Davies sings Room 504, she is accompanied on the piano by the song's composer George Posford. Charlie Kunz plays a waltz on the piano - various shots. Moreton and Kay play a jazzed up version on the twin pianos.

01:04:33 - The Harry Lime theme (from film The Third Man) is played by Anton Karas on a zither. Some very serious women sit and listen in an intimate dining club setting.

01:05:18 - The lights go up in the Pathe cinema and the audience including Charlie Kunz, Victor Silvester, Jack Payne and Henry Hall laugh and chat. Jack Payne (?) speaks French and conducts the band in a rendition of "Tiger Rag" - includes L/S and C/Us of the band. Jack Hylton is seen recording one of his hits in the studio, he conducts his band. Geraldo conducts his band. Joe Loss takes his boys through their paces.

01:07:44 - The wild men of Archer Street Harry Roy and his band are shown cavorting around and being generally bonkers - quite funny! They play a version of "Run Rabbit." Roy Fox leads his smoothie band in a tune. Felix Mendelssohn's band play a Hawaiian melody as a beautiful girl in a lei sings "Sophisticated Hula". Henry Hall leads the BBC dance orchestra. He speaks into a microphone then rounds of the performance with a little "Auld Lang Syne".

01:10:47 - C/U of Henry Hall in the Pathe cinema audience laughing uproariously. The audience all chat and laugh amongst themselves. The projectionist puts the last reel back in the can and we see the woman seen earlier returning it to the large stacks of cans. We then see the mood and rhythm of today. An elaborately dressed African band play a tribal style dance song and a woman dances in a trance like style - some sort of voodoo going on.
01:11:45 - The narrator states: "Pathe Pictorial goes on, in colour now, recording our ways and our own times. Tomorrow, this will be our yesterday."

Note: documentation file exists for this film. Included in this file is the "Treatment" written by Howard Thomas for the programme. It was made to be shown on the BBC.

Note; apparently the correct spelling of the singer's name is Beryl Davis