British Pathe

Reel 1.
Featuring Eileen Joyce at the Royal Festival Hall, Natalie Krassovska of London's Festival Ballet, the Old Vic Company including Claire Bloom and Michael Hordern. The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The Crazy Gang. Nervo and Knox. Bud Flanagan. Naughton...

Reel 1.
Featuring Eileen Joyce at the Royal Festival Hall, Natalie Krassovska of London's Festival Ballet, the Old Vic Company including Claire Bloom and Michael Hordern. The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The Crazy Gang. Nervo and Knox. Bud Flanagan. Naughton and Gold. With the John Tiller Girls by courtesy of Jack Hylton. Tessie O'Shea, "Monsewer" Eddie Gray, Max Bygraves at the London Palladium by courtesy of Val Parnell. Hattie Jacques at the Players' Theatre. Jean Carson by courtesy of Emile Littler at the Cafe de Paris. Boscoe Holder and his Troupe at the New Churchill's Club. With the Co-operation of the British Travel Association. Original music composed by John Addison. Music Director Muir Mathieson. Introduced by Leo Genn.

01:42:54 - L/S of white cliffs of Dover. Large ocean liner coming into port with two tugs escorting it. Aeroplane taxiing on runway. Passenger liner. Aeroplane's door opening and steps being moved towards this exit and the exit of the liner. Low angle shots of visitors disembarking from the liner. A couple climb into a coach which has a sign: "To Airways Terminal Victoria Coach No. 1" by the door. High angle shot of steam train moving past at speed. British European Airways bus moves past camera. Waterloo Air Terminal - low angle of top of building with British European Airways flags flying in front of the building.

01:43:27 -The lights of Piccadilly at night advertising Bovril, Atlas Insurance, Gordon's etc. Animated sign with two wine glasses clicking together as if in a toast. Neon B.O.A.C. sign. Guinness Time, Change Your Luck, Wrigleys, No Right Turn, Osram, Cinzano, animated Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse in lights. Traffic lights changing. This "lights of London" sequence set to jaunty music. Narrator tells how the call of London is almost irresistible to visitors to Britain. Various couples - tourists - walk past the camera looking like they are enjoying being in London. One man walks between two women talking animatedly. L/S of Warner Brothers cinema in Leicester Square. The Conquest of Everest is advertised above the entrance. Short shots of signs for the Palladium, Drury Lane Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre.

01:44:19 - Theatre Royal Haymarket, Saville Theatre, Coliseum, Her Majesty's Theatre, Arthur Askey in The Love Match, Alec Guinness as The Prisoner, Jean Carson in Emile Littler's "Love from Judy", Sadler's Wells Opera and Ballet, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in the Sleeping Prince by Terence Rattigan with Martita Hunt. A queue of people wait outside a theatre - they are seated. Man plays an accordion - we see him from behind. M/S of three girls sitting at the mirror in a dressing room in their underwear putting on their make-up and brushing their hair. One of the girls lights a cigarette. Doorman takes tickets from smartly dressed theatregoers, camera pans up to sign over the door: "Orchestra Stalls." High angle of the orchestra in the pits. Backstage, several girls in their underwear apply make-up. In a corridor backstage two women in Elizabethan costume walk past the camera. Theatregoers walk up stairs. Actors in the wings. Sign pointing to the Gallery. M/S of ballerina - Natalie Krassovska? - tying the ribbon on her shoe. Other ballerinas in the background test their points and pliés.

01:45:20 - Chorus girls get ready in the wings. Lighting man switches on a spot. M/S of Elizabethan actresses putting on their ruffs. C/U of man turning switches to dim the lights. Man pulls on cords to open curtains. Accordion player counts his money and walks away. Chorus girls do "can-can" in green and white dresses - the John Tiller Girls? Various angles of their dance including C/U of their legs. Shot of the audience looking quite serious. Audience applaud and smile. American voiceover states how he is a tired businessman on holiday in London with his daughter. He says that he didn't have to look far for the "cure for a man with Wall Street on his mind". His daughter speaks slightly disparagingly of the "leg show" we have just seen. Seems she prefers something a little more cultured.

Top shot of Eileen Joyce walking out to the piano at the Royal Festival Hall. She curtsies to the audience who we see applauding in the background. Various shots of her playing a Chopin piece including C/Us of her hands. Trafalgar Square fountains at dusk - two short shots. Natalie Krassovska dances the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" various shots including a C/U of her feet.

01:49:04 - Stratford upon Avon. Shot of swans swimming in the River Avon - pan to Shakespeare's Memorial Theatre (?) Bridge across the river. American narrator sings the praises of Stratford, being "out of this world". L/S - two women recline in a punt whilst a man propels them along the river. Closer shots reveal them to be actors - Marius Goring and Yvonne Mitchell preparing for "The Taming of the Shrew." C/U of Yvonne reading the script in the punt while she pets her bulldog. Other woman is not identified. Marius sits down in the punt and the unnamed woman opens a cigarette case and Marius takes one. L/S of the jetty for punts. C/U of programme for Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" performed by the Old Vic Company. Various shots of some of the actors performing a scene from the play including good C/Us of Claire Bloom dressed as a boy and of Michael Hordern. C/U of the programme with a sparkly handbag and opera glasses case lying across it.

01:51:30 - Sign for the "International Festival of Music & Drama Edinburgh." ( Edinburgh Festival ) Princess Street - many people walk along. Narrator states: "Nearly every American I know claims Scottish ancestry." Two women look into a shop window. Posters for the following shows: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, The Highland Fair and Glyndebourne Opera. Pan across facade of the Lyceum Theatre. Two women stand and look at the poster for "The Confidential Clerk." C/U of the poster. Driver opens a car door by putting his hand out of the window. Margaret Leighton and Denholm Elliot climb from the car and are met by autograph hunters - they sign some books. C/U of one of the books with Margaret Leighton's autograph.