British Pathe

Reel 1. Wembley Exhibition. Views of various pavilions including pavilion of the West Indies. King George V and Queen Mary in open horse drawn carriage inside Wembley Stadium. Crowds enter the Palace of Arts at Wembley Exhibition. The Queen's dolls house is seen in a large glass case. The outside of...

Reel 1. Wembley Exhibition. Views of various pavilions including pavilion of the West Indies. King George V and Queen Mary in open horse drawn carriage inside Wembley Stadium. Crowds enter the Palace of Arts at Wembley Exhibition. The Queen's dolls house is seen in a large glass case. The outside of the dolls house is lifted up mechanically so that the rooms inside can be seen. C/U shots of the open rooms and the garden of the dolls house. Details of house - drawing room with paintings on the wall. The tiny piano stool is cleaned with a small brush. Dining Rooms are shown. Tiny cutlery is picked up to show how small it is. Tiny book taken from shelf of dolls house. Tiny chair and desk. Miniature statue (possibly of Nelson) placed on table. A black craftsman at work weaving. We see his work in C/U. African carvings are shown to the camera.

Akosua Baa - daughter of the Queen Mother of Taffo and the son of an Ashanti chief are featured. They seem to be making things which signs suggest are for sale (?). The son of the chief makes a model porcupine. Inside a pavilion. Religious icons - a model of a man on horseback perhaps on a religious crusade. A woman in a black head scarf reads palms. Machinery in C/U. A man hammers metal on a stone. Men kick and women cuddle a person-sized cat cuddly toy - perhaps supposed to be Felix. There are other smaller versions of the cat. Women dressed in mediaeval, Tudor, ancient Egyptian etc. costumes parade down some stone steps. They then pose together. They are filmed on a pleasure boat.

A side-show game - catch a canary and win a prize. Young children (mostly boys) are seen winding handles to try and win. The prizes are the cat toys featured earlier. Views of different pavilions are shown within a picture frame for novelty effect.

Wembley Exhibition. Panning shots of gardens, statues, model castles etc. Comedy skit amongst large audience in the Stadium. Elderly man in top hat goes to talk to a young woman - a cigarette/chocolate vendor. His "wife" - a man in drag - pulls him back to his seat. Acrobats perform a sequence in the middle of the Stadium. A man does somersaults over the backs of elephants. We see this feat in slow motion. When he attempts to jump three, he only just makes it. Daring horsemen race around the edge of the Stadium standing on the horses backs. Circus elephants perform routines with a man in top hat and tails. An elephant plays a "one-man-band" contraption. Clowns do stunts hanging off the side of fast moving cars. Acrobats swing from the trapeze. Man dressed in a sailor suit performs a comical trapeze act. Slow motion trapeze act. Shots of the crowds in the Stadium seating.

Parade of Royal Foot guards. Five circus rings are set up in the Stadium with horses performing tricks. Husband and wife comedy team seen earlier perform a skit where she pulls him over a wall by the seat of his trousers. Clowns and performing horse in the ring. A woman stands on the back of a horse and jumps through a hoop as the horse trots around the ring. Slow motion footage of her jumping through the hoop. She then jumps through a paper hoop in slow motion. An acrobat is spun through the air on the end of a pole. Three men perform a high wire act. Man with a sack on his head walks on the high wire. Cycling on the high wire. A woman weaves fishing nets (?) with binder twine. C/U of her technique. Top shot of interior of pavilion. Men in white attend to an automatic biscuit cutter. Trays of biscuits are fed through an oven and come out the other side cooked. Women sort the biscuits. Children clamour for free biscuits. Good faces.

Wembley Exhibition. Women working feeding something into a machine (not clear what). Man stands in front of Port of Belfast exhibit - he is not recognised by this cataloguer. He talks to some workers and makes them pose in front of a machine. C/U of a document featuring the name of King George the V with rich decoration around the borders. Man in uniform with a loud hailer. Man gesticulating wildly from what could be the press box. He picks up a telephone and speaks into it. Then picks up a loud hailer and shouts into it - smiling. Shot of something under construction or deconstruction - probably a pavilion. A group of sea cadets (?) march past. Crowds walking across grass in one of the enclosures. Man shouts through loud hailer, another man does the same. It is not clear if they are shouting at each other or what for!

People walking through an exhibition area. Mechanical exhibits. Engines, weapons, model of large ship. People walk in an area where large elephant tusks are on display. A nurse holds a crying baby. A group of children play outside. C/U of crying toddler. A large model shoe - probably to illustrate "The old woman that lived in a shoe". Children on a fairground ride with suspended cars and horses to sit on. A flag which reads "coal mine" flies above a metal tower. A lift takes people down the shaft. A Beefeater walks past what is possibly a model of the Tower of London. Interior of pavilion with spinning machines. Women work machines. Weaving machine (?). Cotton being taken up from barrels by machine. Looms. Machine making chocolates (?) - difficult to tell what is actually being produced. Liquorice Allsorts (?) being made by hand - layers being added. Sweets or biscuits going through oven on conveyor belt. Woman applies glaze or topping as they pass her. Her hat reads: "Carsons".

Continued - see other records on PM1649 for reels 2, 3 & 4.