Plymouth Hoe foreshore improvements 1937

Here's another rare old photo from the Western Morning News and Daily Gazette of Friday 19th February, 1937. The caption reads:

'Foreshore Improvements.

Work in now proceeding on the improvement work at Tinside, Plymouth, and additional sun-bathing terraces and cubicles are in course of construction.'
The picture appears to show the area known as the (men only) 'Lion's Den'.
Today, it's back to its original condition!

TS Mount Edgcumbe's last berth

Many people will have read my article on the Training Ship Mount Edgcumbe which has been featured in the Herald, The Shopper and on this blog.
Searching through the archives, I have come across this very rare photo of the TS Mount Edgcumbe in a sad state, waiting to be broken up. The photo comes from The Western Morning News of Monday 25th July 1921.
The caption reads : 'One of the last wooden walls, the Mount Edgcumbe, training-ship, has been towed from her old berth, near Saltash Bridge, and is now at the dock of Queen Anne Battery, Plymouth, where she is to be broken up.'


New Flickr pages for old photos

I've just set up new Flickr pages at http://www.flickr.com/photos/99259874@N03/
where I will be posting many old photos which have never been seen before. If you get a chance, please check them out.
This photo shows the police trawling a river in the 1930s. Unfortunately, it came with no details. I am constantly buying and collecting together old photos and rather than keep them under wraps, I thought that it would be a good idea to share them. Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do.

David Rodgers and Sylvester Stallone

Many people will remember David Rodgers from his time with TSW and as host of Treasure Hunt (appearing alongside Cornish comedian, Jethro).
For about 25 years, I've had this 7x5 colour photo of David with Sylvester Stallone. I haven't a clue where it came from or where it was taken or what the occassion was. I've recently been sorting through many old photos and had forgotten all about this one.
If David reads my blog (and I doubt he does!), I'll happily post it onto him if he wants it.

Rare photo : St Budeaux's oldest cottage

The rare photo section of this blog will probably get updated quite regularly as I have many photos that won't have been seen anywhere else. The latest one comes from the Western Morning News and Daily Gazette of Friday 30th April 1937 and it shows St Budeaux's, then, oldest cottage.

The caption reads: 'Three hundred years old, Commons Cottage, in Vicarage Road, St Budeaux, Plymouth, is threatened with demolition for road widening. It ha been occupied by the Westlake family for 200 years and the present occupier, Mr John Westlake, aged 74, has lived there since his birth.'

More rare photos soon.

Rare Photo : Plymouth Hoe

Every week, I plan to post a rare photo on this site which you won't have seen anywhere else. Most come from old editions of newspapers that I've collected together. It seems a shame that many of these photos will never see the light of day again unless someone posts them on the net, so here goes!
This week's photo shows the ornate gate, now long gone, at the top of Lockyer Street where it joins Plymouth Hoe.

This picture comes from the Western Morning News and Daily Gazette of Friday 2nd October 1936.

The caption reads: 'The present entrance to Plymouth Hoe at the top of Lockyer Street, where Mr J J Beckerlegge, President of Plymouth Institution, last night suggested a wrought-iron gateway should be erected bearing the inscription 'Plymouth Sound, Gateway to the World.'

Plymouth's First Talkies

It's hard to imagine a time when people went to the cinema to watch a film that had no soundtrack, included subtitles and was, often, accompanied by music from a pianist.
Asked which was the first talking film to be shown in Plymouth and many people would probably say that it had to be The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson in 1927, which included the classic line 'You ain't heard nothing yet!'
However, the first talkie that was shown in Plymouth was called 'The Singing Fool' and it played during August 1929 .
The Western Morning News of the 8th of July 1929 carried the story:

'TALKIES FOR PLYMOUTH

Kinema enthusiasts in Plymouth will shortly have an opportunity of seeing and hearing the talkies.

The Western Morning News in officially informed that the Savoy Picture House is being wired for the new films and that during August, the first talkie film to be shown in Plymouth will be presented.'

The talkies didn't please all and the first film to be shown in Plymouth was soon reviewed in the Western Morning News of 15th August 1929:

'THE TALKIE COMES WEST

One cannot doubt after hearing the 'talkies' that they have come to stay. Despite a certain harshness and, of course, the slow drawl of the American voice, they have a dramatic force unattainable in the silent film.
This is simply illustrated in 'The Singing Fool' showing at the Savoy, Plymouth this week. Sonny Boy, the child on who the story hinges, lies seriously ill in hospital. His mother, by the bedside, suddenly observes a doctor and a nurse draw a sheet over his face. Piercing the quietude of the kinema comes the agonized scream of the distraught mother. This is a melodramatic illustration but it explains the wide difference between the silent and the talking film. The 'talkie' is a new and totally different form of entertainment, demanding the concentration of other senses. No longer can we affect a languid interest in the screen, for music and speech will soon dispel any drowsiness. Critics must remember that the 'talkie' is in its infancy and naturally will improve every year. It is to be hoped, at the same time, that our friends in America will eliminate their pronounced drawl from the films sent over here and that British enterprise will rapidly afford us opportunities of hearing our own artistes and music.'

The Singing Fool, like The Jazz Singer, also starred Al Jolson. It featured the song 'Sonny Boy' which was the first recording to sell a million copies.
The Savoy announced another talkie on its theatre posters which was due to show the next week following The Singing Fool. Entitled 'The Doctor's Secret', Vide Press called it 'the best talkie yet'. A long-forgotten film, it is thought that no copies still exist.
Many people were enthralled by the new medium. However, not everybody was pleased about the new talkies. Hatty Baker, a resident of Pomphlett, wrote a letter to the Western Morning News which was published on 30th August 1929. It read:

'Much has been written, more spoken, about the nerve-racking noise of the present day. Now, noise has invaded the silent film. The talkies are all very well in their way - a very noisy, somewhat chaotic and metallic way - but to women like myself who went at times to a kinema for rest and quiet, they are disappointing in the extreme.
When the talkie started and the noise banged out from a kind of box contraption (I do not know what it is called), the contrast after the human performers was painful in the extreme. The twang of the speech might, perhaps, be endured, though one hardly goes to an entertainment for that, in spite of one woman's remark : 'I enjoyed it so much; I cried all the time!', some people having curious ideas on enjoyment, but the metallic bang, bang of the box-band was hideous.
I returned with a headache, saying never again to the talkies.
Am I alone in such critisism? Are there not others who would like to see at least one good silent film with accompaniment?
All things pass and when this age of noise and turmoli passes, the talkie will surely (we hope and trust) will pass also.'

Hatty, like many, couldn't have predicted the future. Silent films were on their way out and in a very short time, every film would be accompanied by a soundtrack. The age of the silent film seems to come from a different world from nowadays where we are bombarded with sound from televisions, ipods, computers, radios and of course, incredible stereo sound systems in every cinema.