National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Tale of Two Seasons
Forget spring and autumn – in Rhyl it’s only ever summer with visitors, or winter without. Either way and whatever the weather, the pubs that Rhyl is “well blessed with” are open.
From the collection of:
Overview
M Theaker and B Snelson, both members of Rhyl Cine Club, interviewed a number of residents and holidaymakers in the town for their first foray into 16mm film which won a Certificate of Merit in the 1967 Movie Maker Ten Best Amateur Films of the Year Competition. Day trippers seeking beer and bingo had to be catered for if the town was to avoid bankruptcy but many rued the gradual decline in regular holidaymakers who would fill the town’s hotels for weeks at a time during the season.
Beer and bingo, Punch & Judy, the Open Air (religious) Mission and the Royal Floral Hall – comments on these or other aspects of Rhyl are voiced over by, amongst others, Philip Lloyd, local librarian, historian and expert on Arthur Cheetham (a film pioneer who shot footage of children on the sands and in the streets of Rhyl in the 1890s and who ran cinemas in Rhyl, Aberystwyth and Manchester) and Joseph Holroyd, an actor in the Manchester Repertory Company. The Manchester actors were evacuated to the Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl, during WWII and Joseph set up the Rhyl Children’s Theatre Club in 1944, which achieved a permanent, purpose-built home in 1963 – The Little Theatre, which is still going strong.
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