At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
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This is Bournemouth
Bournemouth. A holiday resort that’s got the lot. Sunshine, sandy beaches, gardens, shops, fine dining and entertainment - with sports stars and a few beauty queens thrown in
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Overview
This nostalgic film opens with holidaymakers arriving at the resort by plane, train or car. We then get a colourful review of the resort’s beaches, gardens and shopping facilities – with a comment about the town's effluent. All sorts of leisure and sports activities are seen – as well as the tennis star, Virginia Wade. Trips to nearby places of interest are also shown before we get a montage of forthcoming entertainments. After a dinner-dance we return to the busy beach.
The two ocean liners seen in this interesting film are the Queen Elizabeth II, or QEII, and the SS United States – the latter being captured during her last year of service. Both liners still exist today. The QEII is now docked in Dubai, where she has been converted into a floating hotel. Her future seems assured. The SS United States, however, though currently docked in Philadelphia, has a much more uncertain future. Purchased in 2009 by a preservation group, the SS United States Conservancy, the liner has been the subject of various restoration schemes to restore the ship, none of which have, so far, come to fruition.
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