Vintage video: London’s Night World
March 24, 2010
I’ve watched this British Pathé short from 1947 (in 2 parts) about five times now, and it’s still pretty great.
There’s so much to love about this film. The irony of a rumba band in postwar Britain playing “Brazil“. The OMG Anglo-Indian! waitress (“Believe it or not, her name’s Molly, and her mother’s English”). The calypso band in ruffled shirts. The kick-ass jive dancers in a West Indian bar. The sense of wide-eyed novelty in a diversity we now take for granted. The glimpse into a London where the phrase “night-time economy” implied something other than greasy kebabs forked out of styrofoam clamshells and teenagers vomiting into gutters. This film makes London look like so much fun!
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As a fellow ex-pat American into sewing et al (in Australia), I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your blog! And I especially love it when you share the Pathé videos, they’re so much fun!
And twice in the eighties, and again in the nineties for that matter. LOL
For a WONDERFUL read on this subject, look for a book called, “Dear God, this is Anna”
By a denizen of the scene. I read it in the seventies, SO fascinating.
Do you have an actual link as the embedded one isn’t showing up for me
Fixed it!