The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Bradford Adverts Reel 2
Without trying to be too clever, these advertisements demonstrate the virtue of the uncomplicated: short, sweet and memorable.
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Overview
The changing face of trade is well illustrated with these ads for local shops and services in Bradford in the 1920s, with all three businesses featured having disappeared into the past, leaving very little, if any, trace. Although these animated ads are about as basic as possible, they still have the essential ingredient of appealing to peoples’ yearning for a better lifestyle – whether this means carpets, career or fresh cream.
This film originated with Mr Spink who owned a cinema in Yeadon, West Yorkshire. It isn’t known who made the film, very possibly Youngers Shoppers Gazette who made similar advertisements in Bradford during this period. Advertising in cinemas declined after the war, although a survey from 1943 showed that ads before the film were quite popular with the audiences. It was not helped by the poor quality of the adverts compared to television counterparts. Before then, in 1938, Associated Picture Corporation stopped advertising films in its 500 or so cinemas, with its Chairman and Managing Director, John Maxwell, declaring them “unethical” and that, “people come to be entertained not to be advertised at.”
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