Martin family compilation including A Glimpse of Oxford in the 1930s
9.5mm film Black & White Silent c.1933 5:10
Summary: Compilation of family and travel films, including Oxford, from the Martin family in the 1930s
Title number: 20624
LSA ID: LSA/27182
Description: This compilation of short family films opens with a hand made title card "A glimpse of Oxford". A 1930s street scene in Oxford, with University buildings in the background. A pair of female students walk towards the camera, books tucked under their arms. We are outside the main entrance of The Queen's College on the High Street, in the distance we can glimpse the dome of the Radcliffe Camera building. We see close-ups of the carved stone work around the entrances, including statues and a stately looking griffin before cutting to a short view of the "Bridge of Sighs", the skyway that joins two parts of Hertford College, over New College Lane.
A new intertitle reads "Meet the Young Lady of Marlow!" We jump to another High Street, this time in Marlow, where we can see a statue of a nude nymph across the road, and a view of the Marlow War Memorial. A couple of short cuts provide us with closer views of the statue.
The next intertitle: "Have you ever seen a DREAM walking?" cuts quickly to a shot of an older (and larger) lady walking past an advert for Daren bread.
The next intertitle reads: Stoke Poges Church, then: Immortalised by Thomas Gray. We see the church from the lychgate, then the lychgate itself before cutting to an older man in a suit, (possibly Sydney Martin himself) looking over the brick tomb of Thomas Gray, underneath the east windows of St Giles Church. He then walks further through the graveyard in a shot framed by the lychgate in what is overall a very short sequence.
Intertitle "When we are very Young" followed by "Photographed by Syd Martin". The next scene opens in a sunny garden with two woman relaxing, one sits in a deck chair whilst the other (older) woman sits in a more upright chair - presumably brought into the garden from inside the house. All the while a young girl plays around with an upside down umbrella and a dog (who we learn later is called Bob) plays at their feet.
Sydney Martin sits in another deckchair, very smartly dressed, including a bowtie. He holds a packet of cigars. The little girl takes one of the cigars and puts it in his mouth before helping to light it with a match. An older man in a much more sombre coloured suit helps the little girl to climb up a step ladder in the garden towards what looks like a shrub in bloom. A close up of the dog chewing a bone is followed by a wider shot that includes the little girl sitting next to the dog on the lawn, clutching the strap of a cine camera case.
the next intertitle (where we learn the dogs name) reads: "Poor Old Bob!". We are back in the garden and the two deckchairs from earlier have been propped up together whilst folded, next to a table with a cloth and a bowl on it and a wooden chair. The young girl from earlier is bringing Bob the dog forwards, the girl is dressed up as a nurse including a home made cap. The dog lies in front of her as she strokes him. She then waves at someone off camera, and we cut to see Sydney Martin (from before) walking down the path wearing a hat, carrying an umbrella and briefcase and huffing in a comical manner. He hands the girl his hat whilst he continues to pull faces. From his briefcase he pulls out a selection of woodworking tools including a tenon saw, and rotary drill which he hands to his young nursing assistant. He pulls out a mallet and chisel and together they move towards the dog patient.
The next intertitle: When we are a little OLDER!" is for a short seaside clip, where Sydney and an older girl are both sitting on the back of donkeys at the seaside. Sydney is wearing a suit jacket over a 1930s style swimming costume, the girl is wearing a swimming costume. He waves at the camera as they head off for the ride, the donkeys being led by a young boy.
Intertitle: "Tony the terrible!" We are introduced to another dog, this time named Tony, a black and white puppy who is attacking a pair of dark leather shoes that a man is wearing as he relaxes in his deckchair. In the background we can see a maid, dressed in a checked dress, apron and cap. She tickles and plays with Tony the dog.
The final scene is a short drama, possibly based on fact! The first intertitle in a sequence reads: "The flowers are not for YOU to pick!" followed by "A domestic fragment" then "Scene - Any Backgarden" Lastly "On a quiet afternoon"
We open with a older woman and the young girl sitting in the garden. The older woman is knitting, she looks over her glasses at the young girl who is sitting in a deckchair reading a magazine. The girl loos over at some nearby flowers then back to the older woman who has fallen asleep. The girl looks about then slips out of her chair and sneaks over to the flower bed where she picks a large bloom on a long stem. The older woman wakes up and chides the girl who turns round and replants the stem in the garden. Sydney is standing nearby, leaning on a broom, and he leans down towards the flower. A very short shot of the girl with the older woman the intertitle reads: "Sez you" then "Finis".
Credits: Martin, Sydney Francis (Filmmaker)
Further information: The statue in Marlow was unveiled in 1924 and was erected in memory of Charles Frohman, a well-known theatre producer of amongst other works Peter Pan, who drowned when the Lusitania was torpedoed in WWI.
The song lyrics "Did you ever see a dream walking?", by Art Jarrett, were first introduced in the 1933 pre-code musical Sitting Pretty.
Daren bread was once a well-known brand of brown (but not wholemeal) bread.
Thomas Gray wrote his masterpiece "The Elegy Written in a Country Graveyard" in the graveyard of St Giles Church, in Stoke Poges published in 1751. He was buried there, after his death, twenty years later. The poem is still one of the most popular and frequently quoted poems in the English language.
Locations: United Kingdom, England, Oxford, Stoke Poges, Redbridge.
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