A boy in a home-made diving helmet, a beauty contest at a lido, a woman of 108, and a hydroplane race.
Titles read: "CINETOPICALITIES IN BRIEF".
Various locations of events.
Several shots show 14-year-old Guy Lowings putting on a diving helmet he made from a 5 gallon oil drum, supplied with air from a hand pump and a length of garden hose. He gets into an open air swimming pool and apparently walks about for ten minutes. We see him getting out of the pool - still alive! (Location of events unknown.)
At the Cliftonville Lido (Bristol?) we see girls in swimsuits and sun suits walking around the open-air pool, past a huge crowd and the judges, theatre impresario Charles B Cochran and Eileen Moore. It is an 'Eyes and Charm' contest, and the girls who get into the finals hold square masks over their faces so that just their eyes show. A man looks through binoculars; crude C/U of the girls' bottoms. (We don't get to see the winner.)
In Czechoslovakia we see an old woman of 108 years cutting leaves from a branch and lighting her pipe to have a smoke. Brief C/U of her birth certificate.
At the headquarters of the British Hydroplane Club at Newnham on Severn we see several motor speedboats being prepared for racing and lowered onto the water. Various shots of the boats racing on the river. Crowds of people watch from the riverbanks.
jamied says
"air from a hand pump" - the pumping is being done by Guy's brother, Keith Lowings.
"(Location of events unknown.)" - Guy Lowings lived in Broadstairs, so the location is likely, though not certain, to be the Broadstairs Lido.
Here's a newspaper story of the era about Guy and his diving outfit......
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19381112&id=ghpAAA
AAIBAJ&sjid=qKQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4
195,3821435
"At the Cliftonville Lido (Bristol?)" - no, the Cliftonville Lido is in Margate, Kent.