Edmonton's Charter Presentation
35mm nitrate film Black & White Sound 1937 4:13
Summary: Jubilant crowds outside the massive Regal Cinema – one of the world’s largest – await the officials who are going to inaugurate Edmonton as a municipal borough in 1937. The street scenes of shops, people and traffic are marvellous, and there’s also shots from inside, as speeches and presentations are made
Title number: 19554
LSA ID: LSA/25939
Description: Rushes of British Gaumont news piece on the charter of incorporation which created the Municipal Borough of Edmonton in 1937. Opening Gaumont British News title has "Charter Day at Edmonton" written across a picture of the globe. Crowds assemble and wave flags around the marquee outside the Regal Cinema in Edmonton (opened in 1934, this cinema was said to occupy the largest site of any cinema in the world containing, amongst other things, a large ballroom with stage for an orchestra). Many of the women in the crowd wear fur coats and cloche hats, or carry wicker baskets; the children also wear coats and hats. A row of men in suits and bowler hats, with military medals, lines up outside the theatre marquee; three men hold up large Union Jack flags. In the background, we see that the theatre is advertising Frank Capra/Ronald Colman film 'The Lost Horizon' (1937). The marquee is lit and features a triangular Art Deco pattern, while the cinema itself is embellished with large neo-classical pillars, all in an angular Art Deco style. Two clergymen, who also wear military medals, mingle in the theatre's foyer. An elderly staff officer in full military regalia with a plumed pith helmet struggles to walk with two walking sticks. He is followed by the Mayor of Edmonton (Thomas John Harington) who wears a cape, livery collar and bicorne hat. The military man smiles and chats with the men lined up outside the theatre. A wider shot of the theatre allows us to see the bunting across the street and passing traffic. Bicycles and cars go past; a van is labelled Pickford's Express Carriers Birmingham. Another car pulls up outside the marquee, and two women wearing expensive-looking coats with large fur collars and high heels exit, followed by a man in a cassock. More mingling in the lobby as the military man is introduced to these new arrivals. The assembled dignitaries now sit behind a table on a stage (presumably in the ballroom of the Regal Cinema). A large Union Jack is draped over the table, on which sits the officer's plumed pith helmet, a large ceremonial mace, and a large 1930's microphone. The only sound we hear throughout is background crowd noise and occasional applause.
Further information: Military man in plumed hat appears to be the same man present at the Southgate Charter Day in film 19581 Southgate Charter Film.
Keywords: military; newsreel; Cinema; charter day
Locations: United Kingdom; England; London; Enfield; Edmonton; Regal Cinema
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