Leonard Bentley
Piccadilly Circus: 1947
This is an anonymously published postcard showing the view in Piccadilly Circus looking east towards Coventry Street with Shaftesbury Avenue on the left. This is July 1947 and the people of London are well supplied with west end entertainment, a time to forget about rationing and austerity for a little while. At the London Pavilion, the 25-year-old silent docudrama, “Nanook of the North” made by Robert J. Flaherty in 1922, played there from 21st July until 21st August. The film is now considered a masterpiece of documentary film making although some scenes were staged, it tells the story of an Eskimo/Innuit family in northern Canada and their struggle to survive. For light relief the theatre goer could go to the Palladium where Tommy Trinder starred in a Gay Musical called "Here, There and Everywhere" which ran from 2nd April until 3rd January 1948. Another Musical, this time described as a Musical Romance was playing at the Hippodrome in its third year, Ivor Novello’s “Perchance to Dream” ran from 21st April 1945 until 11th October 1948. At the Leicester Square Theatre for just one week, the British made film “So Well Remembered” was shown, starring John Mills, Martha Scott and Patricia Roc, the film was based on James Hilton’s novel about life in a northern Mill town. The last film advertised is “The Hucksters”, an American film starring Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sidney Greenstreet and Adolphe Menjou, it was Deborah Kerr’s first American film which portrayed the American advertising industry. The advertisement for “Bile Beans”, just under the sign for “Votrix Vermouth” was a regular in this spot until the early 1950s. “Bile Beans” were a laxative/Tonic and came in the form of a gelatine pill, much like the old cod liver oil pills that were handed out at my primary school. The Bile Bean Manufacturing Company set up the firm of C.E. Fulford Ltd to manufacture the pills in Leeds at the turn of the century, it was run by an Australian and a Canadian who claimed that there was an Australian plant in the ingredients which did the trick, but it was later discovered that the pills contained Liquorice, Rhubarb, Cascara and Menthol. I don’t know, it probably did work. There is an advertisement on the Shaftesbury Avenue side of the London Pavilion for “Swallow Raincoats” whose catch phrase was “Fine in the Rain”. The company was based in Birmingham and from the early 1930s until the early 1990s manufactured Men’s, Women’s and Children’s raincoats. They were contracted at the end of WW2 to supply raincoats for the servicemen and women who were being demobilised, their adverts of the time state that there may be some shortages due to the contract. It looks like in 1947 they were back on track.
Best viewed with the zoom feature.
Piccadilly Circus: 1947
This is an anonymously published postcard showing the view in Piccadilly Circus looking east towards Coventry Street with Shaftesbury Avenue on the left. This is July 1947 and the people of London are well supplied with west end entertainment, a time to forget about rationing and austerity for a little while. At the London Pavilion, the 25-year-old silent docudrama, “Nanook of the North” made by Robert J. Flaherty in 1922, played there from 21st July until 21st August. The film is now considered a masterpiece of documentary film making although some scenes were staged, it tells the story of an Eskimo/Innuit family in northern Canada and their struggle to survive. For light relief the theatre goer could go to the Palladium where Tommy Trinder starred in a Gay Musical called "Here, There and Everywhere" which ran from 2nd April until 3rd January 1948. Another Musical, this time described as a Musical Romance was playing at the Hippodrome in its third year, Ivor Novello’s “Perchance to Dream” ran from 21st April 1945 until 11th October 1948. At the Leicester Square Theatre for just one week, the British made film “So Well Remembered” was shown, starring John Mills, Martha Scott and Patricia Roc, the film was based on James Hilton’s novel about life in a northern Mill town. The last film advertised is “The Hucksters”, an American film starring Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sidney Greenstreet and Adolphe Menjou, it was Deborah Kerr’s first American film which portrayed the American advertising industry. The advertisement for “Bile Beans”, just under the sign for “Votrix Vermouth” was a regular in this spot until the early 1950s. “Bile Beans” were a laxative/Tonic and came in the form of a gelatine pill, much like the old cod liver oil pills that were handed out at my primary school. The Bile Bean Manufacturing Company set up the firm of C.E. Fulford Ltd to manufacture the pills in Leeds at the turn of the century, it was run by an Australian and a Canadian who claimed that there was an Australian plant in the ingredients which did the trick, but it was later discovered that the pills contained Liquorice, Rhubarb, Cascara and Menthol. I don’t know, it probably did work. There is an advertisement on the Shaftesbury Avenue side of the London Pavilion for “Swallow Raincoats” whose catch phrase was “Fine in the Rain”. The company was based in Birmingham and from the early 1930s until the early 1990s manufactured Men’s, Women’s and Children’s raincoats. They were contracted at the end of WW2 to supply raincoats for the servicemen and women who were being demobilised, their adverts of the time state that there may be some shortages due to the contract. It looks like in 1947 they were back on track.
Best viewed with the zoom feature.