Leonard Bentley
Piccadilly Circus: 1950
This is a Photo Greetings Card postcard from the early 1950s, the bird’s eye view is of Piccadilly Circus looking east with Shaftesbury Avenue on the left and Coventry Street straight ahead. The double bill which is playing at the London Pavilion is a strange one, a cartoon and a film noir. “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad”, Walt Disney’s attempt to join two dissimilar stories in cartoon form, first the Washington Irving book, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and Kenneth Grahame’s “Wind in the Willows”. The other film, “The Capture” is a thriller set in Mexico starring Lew Ayres and Teresa Wright, the double bill ran from 20th May until 8th June 1950. The advertisement on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and the Circus for “Votrix” was a regular occupier of the space in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a Vermouth produced in Britain by Vine Products Ltd at Russell Street, Kingston upon Thames. The company also produced “VP” wine, the cheap mainstay of London’s vagrant population for several decades, it is still being produced by Allied Brewers. In 1949 a Dry version of “Votrix” cost 12/6, the sweet version 10/-, whereas the continental Vermouths, Martini, Cinzano and Noilly Prat to name a few were always almost double those prices. Whether the drink contained Wormwood, the name Vermouth is the French pronunciation of the German for Wormwood which is Vermut, I have not been able to ascertain. I think it unlikely as it was banned for use in drinks in most European countries until quite recently.
Piccadilly Circus: 1950
This is a Photo Greetings Card postcard from the early 1950s, the bird’s eye view is of Piccadilly Circus looking east with Shaftesbury Avenue on the left and Coventry Street straight ahead. The double bill which is playing at the London Pavilion is a strange one, a cartoon and a film noir. “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad”, Walt Disney’s attempt to join two dissimilar stories in cartoon form, first the Washington Irving book, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and Kenneth Grahame’s “Wind in the Willows”. The other film, “The Capture” is a thriller set in Mexico starring Lew Ayres and Teresa Wright, the double bill ran from 20th May until 8th June 1950. The advertisement on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and the Circus for “Votrix” was a regular occupier of the space in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a Vermouth produced in Britain by Vine Products Ltd at Russell Street, Kingston upon Thames. The company also produced “VP” wine, the cheap mainstay of London’s vagrant population for several decades, it is still being produced by Allied Brewers. In 1949 a Dry version of “Votrix” cost 12/6, the sweet version 10/-, whereas the continental Vermouths, Martini, Cinzano and Noilly Prat to name a few were always almost double those prices. Whether the drink contained Wormwood, the name Vermouth is the French pronunciation of the German for Wormwood which is Vermut, I have not been able to ascertain. I think it unlikely as it was banned for use in drinks in most European countries until quite recently.