Old English Fete

Gracie Fields plays with a giant propeller and falls off a metal horse in faintly surreal film shot at a fete in Kew Gardens.

Gracie Fields was among the UK’s biggest names in entertainment in 1928, so it must have been a coup to get her to attend this fete in Kew Gardens. Fields is game for anything, first spinning a giant propeller – for reasons not entirely obvious – and then clambering aboard a metal horse, with body designed to unseat riders in particularly undignified fashion. There’s also shots of extravagant can-can dancing in national costume, watched by stunned looking children.