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Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Lancashire (1926)

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BFIfilms
June 23, 2008

Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' is available to buy on DVD at http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk... This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and...

Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' is available to buy on DVD at http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/...

This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally resto This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally restored by the BFI National Archive. Britain seen in colour for the first time was heralded as a great technical advance for the cinema audience - now we can view a much improved image, but one which still stays true to the principles of the colour process.

The rather haphazard journey from Land's End to John O'Groats creates a series of moving picture postcards. Look out for shots containing the component colours - red and blue-green - such as when a little girl in a red coat and hat walks among peacocks in the grounds of a castle, and three girls with red curly hair pose by the sea at Torquay.

The car is a Vauxhall D-type - considered a sporty model at the time. A long-distance journey by car was a relatively new concept, with none of the amenities en route now taken for granted. The visit to a petrol station shows smoking on the forecourt: no health and safety issues back then! The travelogue ends with a series of recognisable London landmarks. Much remains the same - one major exception being the volume of traffic on the roads. (Jan Faull)

For more information about 'The Open Road' see http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/openroad/

You can watch the whole of 'The Open Road' and over 1200 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Category: People & Blogs

Tags:

Open Road travelogue Blackpool fairground Lancashire Leisure Holidays 1920s Twenties

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CutieMias09 (1 month ago) Show Hide

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Yea i can see how much Blackpool Pleasure Beach has really changed since.
The rides have completley change.
And the rides are run better now
So good memories from the past

manoverboardagain (1 month ago) Show Hide

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Great to see, my paternal grandparents spent their honeymoon in Blackpool in 1927

ninnynaf (2 months ago) Show Hide

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why dec.21 2012? whats happening then? n i think they should of kept this ride at pleasure beach!

w4rr0ckm4st3r (1 month ago) Show Hide

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Apparently the world will end then because the Myan calender says so(But it's actually 2220,the people who originally worked it out using the calender made a few mistakes)

59acres (2 months ago) Show Hide

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Cool.I'll be the 143 year old with the expectant smile.

yaddaaaa2222222 (2 months ago) Show Hide

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and no teeth.

59acres (2 months ago) Show Hide

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I'm saving up for a new set.....should have em by then so start practicing that pucker.

yaddaaaa2222222 (2 months ago) Show Hide

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lol

59acres (2 months ago) Show Hide

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I'm listening to Kate Rusby tunes at the minute and I must say shes looking very good too.JUst to let you know you might have some competition deary.

yaddaaaa2222222 (2 months ago) Show Hide

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not trying to compete.. love me or leave me, that is my motto.

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Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Lancashire (1926)

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