• Short Summary

    Quirky item showing a man in a bowler hat testing a water scooter on the Thames by Parliament.

  • Description

    London.

    M/S of the top half of a business man in a bowler hat, he appears to be speeding along on a scooter. Point of view shot of the road and the scooter handlebars. M/S of the man, he is riding on a scooter with two canoe-like contraptions attached to the side. L/S of the man coming to a halt beside the River Thames. Various shots of the man folding down the canoe contraptions - they are, in fact, floats that allow the scooter to go on water. M/S of the man climbing onto the transformed water scooter, a pretty girl joins him on the back .

    M/S of the man and the girl scooting down a slip way into the River. C/U of the man and the girl . Various shots of the water scooter motoring down the Thames, we see various bridges in the distance. M/S of a motorboat whizzing past. M/S of the water scooter passing the Houses of Parliament - narrator jokes that "it's safer than a few seats in Parliament"!

    Cuts exist - please see separate record.

  • Tags

  • Data

    Film ID:
    349.06
    Media URN:
    3912
    Group:
    Colour pictorials
    Archive:
    British Pathé
    Issue Date:
    23/12/1965
    Sound:
    Sound
    HD Format:
    Available on request
    Stock:
    Colour
    Duration:
    00:01:24:00
    Time in/Out:
    01:47:16:00 / 01:48:40:00
    Canister:
    CP 574

Comments (1)

  1. Glennie says

    The gentleman wearing the bowler and riding the scooter was "Jack" Hornsby, a cousin of my mother. "Uncle" Jack raced motorcycles (track and circuit) during the 1950's, graduating to 3 wheels (motorcycle and sidecar /"chair"). His hair-raising yarns of narrow escapes fascinated me throughout my 'teens, and inspired me to take up motorcycling.
    Jack established the first Vespa motorscooter dealership in the UK, and was encouraged by his advertising agency to appear as the rider in the "water scooter" TV commercial (with his daughter on the pillion) in 1965.
    Jack was still riding his BMW motorcycle in charity events at the age of 90, and sadly died 4 years later in 2009.
    I will remember him with great affection.

    Malcolm Glenn

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