Walking Pictures on film

Most people will remember the name of Pathe, who provided newsreels for UK cinemas for many years. They also did topical stories and even had a go at short films including a series of short films under the Dave and Dusty name; Dave being a small boy and Dusty his pet dog. The theme was simple – Dave sees a grown-up doing something interesting, and then has a go himself, with the dog roped in to help.
Two films in the series feature Walking Pictures. In both, Dave spots a Walking Picture photographer at work, then has a go at earning some pocket money doing the same with his Box Brownie. Needless to say it’s a rare glimpse into the Walking Picture photographer’s art. Although both feature static photography, the basic set-up in both is very similar to that used by Walking Picture cameramen. Both films are obviously very much staged and the banter is a bit wooden but perhaps not far off the patter they might have used.

Brighton Holiday Snaps

This film has a photographer snapping people on a felt donkey, using a large plate camera. This is the sort of equipment many pre-war walkie cameramen used. You can also see the tickets ready to be handed out to customers. In the background we can clearly see the kiosk for the firm Brighton Holiday Snaps, with the display board on the left. I don’t know if this was an actual firm, though it seems unlikely Pathe would have mocked it all up just for a five minute short. It was released in June 1948.
DAVE AND DUSTY (PHOTOGRAPHER, BRIGHTON) – British Pathe.

London

The second short again features a street cameraman trying to persuade people to pose for a portrait, rather than just snapping them walking. It was issued in January 1947, so probably filmed the year before.

Paul Godfrey says that the camera is an Aptus, launched in 1913, and still on sale in the 1950s. What’s interesting is that the camera took Ferrotypes or Tin Types as they are sometimes called (especially in America). These were small portraits on a thin sheet of tin, usually supplied in a card mount. Once taken the plate was developed in a small tank under the camera, washed and dried and sold to the customer. By the time of this film such technology was indeed very old fashioned.

DAVE AND DUSTY (PHOTOGRAPHER) – British Pathe.

I trawled through all Pathe’s seaside newsreels in the hopes of finding some documentary footage of Walking Picture photographers but only found two brief glimpses in one. This was a topical newsreel documenting a day at Margate in 1954, so probably features guys from Sunbeam, a company documented on this site. Anyhow, worth going through for a bit of nostalgia!  Not yet pinned down but the ten minute colour cinema news series Look At Life also has a day at the seaside episode with a nice shot of a kiosk and one of those head in the hole boards. There are over 500 episodes.

SEASIDE DAY – British Pathe.

The links here are provided by Pathe and will take you through to the films on their site, which you can watch for free.  Thanks to Colin Harding.