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With many popular seaside resorts within its region, the South East Film and Video Archive holds a fascinating and varied selection of seaside publicity films dating from the 1920s to the 1980s. Featured resorts include Brighton & Hove, Broadstairs, Eastbourne, Hastings and Margate amongst others. The majority of these publicity films were made by councils and tourist agencies wishing to attract visitors to the area, and were most common in the domestic tourist boom of the 1950s and 1960s. The films are by nature a presentation of the positive and attractive sides of the resorts, showing the bustling, sunny, and cosmopolitan view of the areas. They often clearly demonstrate the values and dominant imagery of the times through the scenes, music, and styling of the films. The earliest publicity film in the Screen Archive South East collection is a silent hand-tinted film made in 1923 entitled ‘Magical Margate’. From the 1970s, the colourful film 'All Go Margate' has a distinctive look of the era. Presented by Michael Aspell, it features the attractions and scenes around the town and seafront including donkey rides, cabaret shows, discotheques, Dreamland (the amusement park) and sun bathing on the beach. Other films promoting seaside resorts include The film 'Brighton' by John King from 1957, which depicts many elements of the town that have disappeared or become disused such as Brighton’s West Pier, the town’s many cinemas and the 'Promettes', the women who provided tourist information on Brighton's seafront promenade. The seaside publicity films complement the amateur family films of beach holidays in the region that also feature strongly in the collection. See also: another tourist promotional film from the South of England, 'Beautiful Bournemouth' (1950) from the Wessex Film and Sound Archive
This film was deposited by: Margate Museum / East
Kent Maritime Trust |
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