Leonard Bentley
Piccadilly Circus: 1969
This is a J. Arthur Dixon postcard printed in Great Britain, it shows the nighttime view of Piccadilly Circus looking north towards Shaftesbury Avenue. Under the Coca-Cola sign, the film “The Dirty Dozen” is being advertised. This space had been used to advertise films showing at the Leicester Square Theatre or the Empire in Leicester Square but in this case, it is an advertisement indicating that the film was being re-released all over London. This is November 1969 and it is having a second bite of the cherry, it was originally released in September 1967 and played at the Leicester Square Theatre until the end of October. The film starred Lee Marvin and a host of Hollywood stars including Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Ernest Borgnine, Clint Walker and Robert Ryan, it is still shown on TV at regular intervals. Clint Walker unfortunately died in May this year, he played “Posie” in the film but will always be remembered as “Cheyenne Bodie” in the TV Western series “Cheyenne” from the early 1960s. The film was shot in England at locations just north of London in the summer of 1966, during a lull in shooting the cast received a visit from Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali who was in England to fight Brian London whom he dispatched in the third round. The boxer also took time to visit my old school, Tulse Hill Comprehensive in 1974 on his way back to the US after the "Rumble in the Jungle" where he was made an Honorary Governor. There is a sign over the Coca-Cola sign advertising, rather appropriately, three rum brands produced by United Rum Merchants. The company had formed in 1946 after the company of “Portal, Dingwall and Norris” invited two other rum importing companies to share their premises at 40 Eastcheap after “Alfred Lamb & Sons" and “White Keeling Rum Merchants” were bombed out of their buildings during the blitz, this sharing of premises inspired the formation of United Rum Merchants in 1946. The company of “Alfred Lamb & Sons” had been formed in 1849 and began to import Jamaican Rum and at one time had the contract to supply the Royal Navy, as did “Lemon Hart & Co”, they provided 100,000 gallons of Rum annually during the 1840s. The Hart family were German Jews, Abraham Hart arrived in Penzance during the early 18th Century, he was a Goldsmith by trade, but he acquired other business interests which led him to the West Indies Rum trade, but it was his Grandson, Lemon Hart who established the company and lent his name to a brand of Rum before being taken over by “Portal, Dingwall and Norris”. I’d like to think that “White Keeling Rum Merchants” produced Daiquiri Rum but it may have been a product of the new company in order to cash in on the popularity of the Daiquiri cocktail.
Piccadilly Circus: 1969
This is a J. Arthur Dixon postcard printed in Great Britain, it shows the nighttime view of Piccadilly Circus looking north towards Shaftesbury Avenue. Under the Coca-Cola sign, the film “The Dirty Dozen” is being advertised. This space had been used to advertise films showing at the Leicester Square Theatre or the Empire in Leicester Square but in this case, it is an advertisement indicating that the film was being re-released all over London. This is November 1969 and it is having a second bite of the cherry, it was originally released in September 1967 and played at the Leicester Square Theatre until the end of October. The film starred Lee Marvin and a host of Hollywood stars including Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Ernest Borgnine, Clint Walker and Robert Ryan, it is still shown on TV at regular intervals. Clint Walker unfortunately died in May this year, he played “Posie” in the film but will always be remembered as “Cheyenne Bodie” in the TV Western series “Cheyenne” from the early 1960s. The film was shot in England at locations just north of London in the summer of 1966, during a lull in shooting the cast received a visit from Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali who was in England to fight Brian London whom he dispatched in the third round. The boxer also took time to visit my old school, Tulse Hill Comprehensive in 1974 on his way back to the US after the "Rumble in the Jungle" where he was made an Honorary Governor. There is a sign over the Coca-Cola sign advertising, rather appropriately, three rum brands produced by United Rum Merchants. The company had formed in 1946 after the company of “Portal, Dingwall and Norris” invited two other rum importing companies to share their premises at 40 Eastcheap after “Alfred Lamb & Sons" and “White Keeling Rum Merchants” were bombed out of their buildings during the blitz, this sharing of premises inspired the formation of United Rum Merchants in 1946. The company of “Alfred Lamb & Sons” had been formed in 1849 and began to import Jamaican Rum and at one time had the contract to supply the Royal Navy, as did “Lemon Hart & Co”, they provided 100,000 gallons of Rum annually during the 1840s. The Hart family were German Jews, Abraham Hart arrived in Penzance during the early 18th Century, he was a Goldsmith by trade, but he acquired other business interests which led him to the West Indies Rum trade, but it was his Grandson, Lemon Hart who established the company and lent his name to a brand of Rum before being taken over by “Portal, Dingwall and Norris”. I’d like to think that “White Keeling Rum Merchants” produced Daiquiri Rum but it may have been a product of the new company in order to cash in on the popularity of the Daiquiri cocktail.