Tuesday, 15 July 2014

On the Scrapheap

When was the last time you saw a really satisfying scrapyard? I came across this ten-minute film while looking for something completely else. The beguiling wonders of this information superhighway will never cease to amaze me

It's from the The Rank Organisation's wonderful "Look at Life" series made in the mid 1960s and is called Down in the Dumps.

Rank made over 500 of these marvellous short films in the ten years from 1959,  for screening at their Odeon and Gaumont cinemas before the main feature. Many of these are now available to view online and are mostly fascinating records of urban environments at a time of rapid change, much of it driven by the rise of private motor cars. The films are particularly evocative, of course, for those of use who grew up in the 1960s.  Invited to find what anthropologists call a 'perfect specific' for my own memories of that decade I'd plump for the design on the back of a box of Rowntree's fruit gums. Here to is:




Image © Nestle UK

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