Wednesday 13 June 2012

Fabulous Fashions of the 1940s DVD!!

Ever heard of Pathe News? 

Well, I shan't bore you with the ins and outs of it but, basically, British Pathe captured important events on film and produced short information reels for the public between 1910 and 1970.  As far as I understand it, the 4-5 minute reels were shown in cinemas around the UK.

There were some 90,000 of these films and these have been digitised so we can enjoy them today.  With plenty of reels from the 1940's, some great DVD's have been produced which contain clips taken from the archives; little snippets put together to give an insight into the era.  You can't beat a bit of real footage to see what things were really like, can you?? 

Last week Mr Y gave me a one of said DVD's.  It might be that you have heard of it before, maybe you own it even, but in case I'm not alone in my not knowing about it's existence, I thought I would share it with you. 

The DVD in question is "Fabulous Fashions of the 1940's The British Pathe Cinemagazines".

Image taken from Amazon!  Camera cable M.I.A - again!
Its content is vast and I was struggling to pick only a few clips to share with you.  Simple screen shots wouldn't have conveyed the brilliance of the DVD (in my opinion).  Flummoxed, I turned to the ever brilliant Youtube and, voila, here is a little clip from said DVD which might wet the appetite!!  Enjoy :o)


The DVD covers the entire era from "Air Raid Booties" in November 1940 to "Clothes being off Ration" in March 1949.  It's quirky, sometimes cheeky (sometimes cheesy!) but very informative and mostly very British!

Bad bit about the DVD??  It isn't long enough.  I have watched it twice already and was riveted to the spot for the entire 72 minutes.  I didn't event knit while watching it in case I missed something wonderful!

Mine came from Amazon although I did spot it on eBay. 

I really enjoyed it and shall be watching it again, and again, and again............ :o)

5 comments:

  1. Sounds fascinating! I can see why you would not want to knit during it ;)

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  2. I didn't know about it! Thanks for sharing, it looks great :)

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  3. I have never heard of it either, and it sounds fabulous I am off now track down a copy!

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  4. I flipping adore Pathe! Thanks so much for showing us this, I didn't know they did DVD's! I love the clip you showed us, this DVD is definitely going on the birthday list! XxxX http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.co.uk

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  5. What a great little clip- thanks for drawing my attention to this DVD's existence...this shall certainly be going on the wish list! xx

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