Leonard Bentley
Piccadilly Circus: 1945
This is an image produced from a 3¼ X 2¼ inch negative which I obtained from a seller in California, the story is that the negative comes from a collection of WW2 photographs which were taken by a US Army photographer. The negative size indicates that he may have been using a Graflex camera of some kind, the negative size was used in some of their smaller cameras which were a cut down version of their large format press cameras. The negative is warped and is very brittle, but I think it gives a decent image with the help of photoshop. The image shows Piccadilly Circus looking north towards Shaftesbury Avenue, the boarded-up Shaftesbury memorial has an advertisement for “Thanksgiving week” and “The Southerner” is playing at the London Pavilion, it was also shown on the TV channel "Talking Pictures" last weekend. The film played at the London Pavilion from 3rd September until 27th September 1945, it was a Jean Renoir film, the third in the five films he directed whilst living in America and is regarded the best of the five. It starred Zachary Skotidis also known as Zachary Scott, Betty Field and J. Carrol Naish, the story was about the trials and tribulations of a Texas cotton farmer. Scott was studying to be a doctor when he dropped out of university and travelled to the UK on a freighter where he stayed for 18 months and performed with a dozen English repertory companies, he died age 51 years from brain Cancer. “Thanksgiving week” ran from 15th September until 22nd September in London but other weeks were held throughout the UK until 1st December. The idea followed on from the sale of War Bonds but instead of helping pay for the war, the money raised would help pay for the peace. The week was launched by the new Prime Minister, Clem Atlee in Trafalgar Square where there was an exhibition of captured German war materiel including a V2 rocket. The London target was to raise £125 million but it raised almost £144 million.
Piccadilly Circus: 1945
This is an image produced from a 3¼ X 2¼ inch negative which I obtained from a seller in California, the story is that the negative comes from a collection of WW2 photographs which were taken by a US Army photographer. The negative size indicates that he may have been using a Graflex camera of some kind, the negative size was used in some of their smaller cameras which were a cut down version of their large format press cameras. The negative is warped and is very brittle, but I think it gives a decent image with the help of photoshop. The image shows Piccadilly Circus looking north towards Shaftesbury Avenue, the boarded-up Shaftesbury memorial has an advertisement for “Thanksgiving week” and “The Southerner” is playing at the London Pavilion, it was also shown on the TV channel "Talking Pictures" last weekend. The film played at the London Pavilion from 3rd September until 27th September 1945, it was a Jean Renoir film, the third in the five films he directed whilst living in America and is regarded the best of the five. It starred Zachary Skotidis also known as Zachary Scott, Betty Field and J. Carrol Naish, the story was about the trials and tribulations of a Texas cotton farmer. Scott was studying to be a doctor when he dropped out of university and travelled to the UK on a freighter where he stayed for 18 months and performed with a dozen English repertory companies, he died age 51 years from brain Cancer. “Thanksgiving week” ran from 15th September until 22nd September in London but other weeks were held throughout the UK until 1st December. The idea followed on from the sale of War Bonds but instead of helping pay for the war, the money raised would help pay for the peace. The week was launched by the new Prime Minister, Clem Atlee in Trafalgar Square where there was an exhibition of captured German war materiel including a V2 rocket. The London target was to raise £125 million but it raised almost £144 million.