Ring O' Bells, West Kirby, Wirral

I have just posted about Lowry's connection to the pub on Gutted Arcades of the Past. In doing research for the post I came across a 1936 advert:

This hotel has proved a port of call and pleasant resting place for such national characters as the poets SHELLEY and KEATS, also the artist TURNER when painting his pictures of sunsets on the River Dee. It was the source for that famous song "SIMON THE CELLARER", which was composed here.


The advert made me smile as it could have been written by Malc at his mischievous best with his penchant for tall stories - perhaps he was the source for the unknowing landlord?

The song  by John Liptrot Hatton, 'Simon the Cellarer' was not written in the pub but more than likely it was about the former Ring O' Bells in Bidston. Though I did think you could add it to the Malc playlist for the next Lowry Lounge!


Here are the words:



Old Simon the cellarer keeps a rare store,
Of Malmsey and Malvoisie
And Cyprus, and who can say how many more!
For a chary old soul is he,
A chary old soul is he.

Of Sack and Canary he never doth fail,
And all the year round there is brewing of ale,
Yet he never aileth, he quaintly doth say,
While he keeps to his sober six flagons a day.
But ho! ho! ho! his nose doth shew
How oft the black Jack to his lips doth go.
But ho! ho! ho! his nose doth shew
How oft the black Jack to his lips doth go.

Dame Margery sits in her own still-room,
And a matron sage is she,
From thence oft at Curfew is wafted a fume;
She says it is Rosemary,
She says it is Rosemary.
But there's a small curboard behind the back stair,
And the maids say they often see Margery there -
Now Margery says that she grows very old,
And must take a something to keep out the cold!

But ho! ho! ho! old Simon doth know,
Where many a flask of his best doth go.
But ho! ho! ho! old Simon doth know,
Where many a flask of his best doth go.
Old Simon reclines in his high-back'd chair,
And talks about taking a wife;
And Margery often is heard to declare
That she ought to be settled in life,
She ought to be settled in life.

But Margery has (so the maids say) a tongue,
And she's not very handsome, and not very young:
So somehow it ends with a shake of the head,
And Simon he brews him a tankard instead.
While ho! ho! ho! he will chuckle and crow,
What! Marry old Margery? no, no, no!
While ho! ho! ho! He will chuckle and crow,
What! Marry old Margery? no, no, no!

The references to Malmsey would resonate with Lowry fans - who would recall how Malc stated that he was named Clarence after Shakespeare's duke who died head-down in a malmsey butt; Rosemary - the name of the elephant in the short story 'Elephant and Colosseum' and of course Margery - his second wife.

Here is the song performed by Peter Dawson:

Over the fields from Upton

That walk they had in the country, over the fields from Upton, "Public footpath to Thingwall". Some stupid boy (or was he, on the contrary, being profound) had turned the red signpost in the opposite direction, towards Wallasey, towards Leasowe, towards the sea. Warm fresh bread and butter with their tea. It was in Greasby they saw the horse in the stable - "dreaming and warm", she had read of someone calling a stable - and in Upton the slate-paved dairy, cold and clear: the primroses in Marples field under the yellow gorse. Ultramarine

The above walk is probably based on a real one undertaken in the Spring of 1927 by Malc and Tess Evans the model for Janet in Ultramarine.

The walk described by Lowry is closely related to the one already discussed in the post Day Out In Saughall Massie. The walk in that excerpt in the novel mentions Saughall Massie Road which runs from Upton to Saughall Massie.

Upton was the home of his brother Stuart and his wife Margot where Lowry felt more at home during the mid-20s than his parent's home in Caldy (see Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg 39). Therefore, we can assume that Malc was familiar with the area and that the walk possibly commenced from Stuart's Corvally - his home in Upton. Or Malc and Tess may have got the bus from West Kirby to Arrowe Park or got off on route as there are several footpaths to Thingwall off Arrowe Brook Lane and Arrowe Brooke Road, which was once used by the West Kirby to Birkenhead bus. The immediate fields around Upton have been consumed by housing and the old road to Saughall Massie ends at a dead end truncated by a new by-pass. Below you can see the the beginning of Saughall Massie Road in Upton and the fields beyond which Malc and Tess walked over:





If they started their walk in Upton - their route could have been down Ford Road - Greasby Road via a footpath which still exists from Greasby Road to Arrowe Brooke Road - Arrowe Brook Lane( where Lowry would have seen the signs to Thingwall)- by footpath near Irby Mill or Mill Lane to Greasby - where they could have returned by Greasby Road to Upton or continued over the fields to Saughall Massie. (See map below for possible route).



Malc and Tess may have got their "warm fresh bread and butter with their tea" at Lumsden's (seen below) at Irby Mill Hill which was popular in the 1920's.



Greasby was still a small village in the 1920's. Malc must have been familiar with Greasby as he mentions the village in a letter to Carol Brown in which he relates a dream about finding a dog on his way to Greasby; the Coach and Horses pub (seen below) is referred to in 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'.



The possible location for "the horse in the stable" could have been Greasby Hall Farm:



The dairy in Upton remains unidentified - here are photos of the village in the mid-1920s:




The only reference to a Marple's Field that I have discovered to date is one in Caldy. A farmer named Joseph Henry Marples ran the farm in the centre of the village not far from Inglewood. This may be a case of Malc altering the topography to suit his own creativity which does occur elsewhere in his work.

Lowry may have known that the name Primrose is associated with first love - from the Latin 'primus' - meaning first, due to their early Spring flowering. The primrose is the sacred flower of Freya, the Norse goddess of love and was used in rituals giving honor to her which again may have had significance for Lowry. Lowry was later to use the name Primrose in his novel Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid and the short story 'Gin and Goldenrod'. By one of those Lowryan coincidences, there is a pub in Liscard called 'The Primrose' not far from where Tess lived and very near the first Lowry family home.

Antediluvian Forest At Leasowe

On the shore were the remains of an antediluvian forest with ugly black stumps showing. Under The Volcano

Chris Ackerley has suggested that Malc's mention of the forest early in Under The Volcano intimates the Atlantis theme in the book. The forest forms part of the 'Leasowe' landscape created by Lowry for the childhood home of the Consul.

The forest Lowry refers to is the 'submerged' or 'petrified'or 'submarine' forest described on a bas relief in Leasowe Castle as once stretching from "From Birkinheven unto Hilbree, a squirrel may jump from tree to tree". The trees were last regularly viewed back in the 60's but have since disappeared under the shifting sands. The trees were at their largest towards the river Dee, and smallest at Leasowe. They were mainly oak and fir, also present were alder, elm and beech. They gave the appearance of actually being planted and were of great size. This process was quite possibly accelerated by the introduction of the massive sea wall, which caused the tide to turn upon itself, increasing the flow around the stumps. As a child I have this vague memory of seeing them as we walked out from Dove Point at Meols, Wirral to pick cockles at low tide. Lowry would have certainly have seen the forest as a child whilst playing on the shore at Meols.

The earliest mention of the submerged forest occurs in description of Cheshire dated 1615 by William Webb entitled Kings Vale Royal in which he calls the forest the 'Meols Stocks' alluding to the antediluvian origins of the forest:

In these mosses, especially in the black, are fir-trees found under the ground, in some places six feet deep or more, and in others not one foot; which trees are of surprising length, and straight, having certain small branches like boughs, and roots at one end -as if they had been blown down by the winds; and yet no man can tell that ever any such trees did grow there, nor yet how they should come thither. Some are of the opinion that they have lain there ever since Noah's flood.


The forest is also mentioned in the poem Iter lancastrense (1636) as 'Ye Stockes in Worolde':

But greater wonder calls me hence: ye deepe
Low spongie mosses yet rememberance keepe
Of Noah's flood: on numbers infinite
Of fir trees -swaines do in their cesses light;
And in summe places, when the sea doth bate
Down from ye shoare, 'tis wonder to relate
How many thousands of their trees now stand
Black broken on their rootes, which once drie land
Did cover, whence turfs Neptune yields to showe
He did not always to theis borders flow.



The forest seems to have had a special interest for Victorians appearing in several studies including Benjamin Blower's The Mersey, ancient and modern, ones contained in the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society and the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. One of the most detailed accounts is contained in The History of the Hundred of Wirral by William Williams Mortimer (1847) The account is in the appendices of the book and is entitled 'Submarine Forest At Leasowe' telling of an excursion to the forest by the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society in April 1846:

It having been so arranged by the selection of the day for the excursion, that the party should reach the shore at the period of low water, they proceeded at once to the place called the Submarine Forest, entering on the beach at a point between the Castle and the Lighthouse.

To those who expected that the long expanse of sand between the embankment and the water was covered with stumps of trees of various heights, like a forest over which a hurricane had swept, nothing could be more disappointing. Apparently there was nothing worthy of notice beyond the ordinary extent of sand, diversified as usual with little rivulets flowing towards the tide, and with occasional pools, or patches of clay. The first indication of a forest was a projecting moss, like a gigantic nodule of clay, or like a projecting piece of rock. One of the party, however, drew attention to the fact that it was distinctly vegetable matter; in fact, a veritable stump, exhibiting its fracture horizontally, or nearly so, and it cleavage more or less vertically. Among the various projections or truncated pieces of root, large quantities of day and sand had effected a lodgment, and small portions of sea -weed were also attached to it. I am not aware that any other instance was noticed of a root apparently occupying the position where it had sent forth a stem, and thrown out branches and leaves: but in this instance it appears to me that there could be no doubt on the matter. It is not a little extraordinary, however, to find even a single root maintaining its anchorage, with such a strain of sea upon its tiny cables, where the material in which it is imbedded is liable to constant change, and where even its own substance is being daily rotted and frittered away.

Passing on along the sands, other indications of vegetable matter began to exhibit themselves. In some instances the clayey substance seemed to be impregnated with decayed vegetable matter; so that occasionally an ordinary observer could hardly tell whether a certain mass was merely a piece of blackened loam or a portion of rotten wood, of about the consistency of cheese. Passing still westward, the vegetable appearances became more frequent and more distinct; the whole area presented a carboniferous appearance, so that one could have predicted the existence of vegetable matter, even without the finding of a single specimen. But specimens existed in abundance; in one part the woody matter stood out in relief, like the veins of harder material, on the face of a weather-worn stone, suggesting the idea that it had been held in solution, and infiltrated into the cracks of the sand. In another, the margin of a streamlet, from four to six inches high, appeared to be a piece of darkened lias, but, on breaking it with the hand, it proved to be a portion of wood, very soft, and probably expanded, and holding the water like a sponge. Numerous instances occurred in which the timber so found admitted of the finger being readily thrust into it, in the same manner as into a piece of turf bog. Occasionally on breaking off a piece of the earthly matter, various strata of vegetable deposit appeared, like the marks that so frequently show themselves in coal, or like the leaves which appear in the fractures of various kinds of rock. Sometimes the wood was not in such a state of decomposition, but on the contrary, comparatively fresh and strong. Some was evidently birch ; and some evidently oak ; perhaps there were other kinds also. In some instances it retained the bark, in others this was wanting.

A few of the specimens, instead of giving evidence of rottenness, exhibited marks of partial petrifaction; as if minute portions of fine sand had been infiltrated into the substance of the wood, occasioning in it a shorter breakage, and rendering it almost impossible to cut it with a knife.

Another detailed account of the forest is included in Ancient Meols: or, Some account of the antiquities found near Dove point, on the Sea Coast of Cheshire by Abraham Hume. This states that timbers used in the library of Leasowe Castle came from the forest.



Here is Dove Point in 2006 with no sign of the forest at low tide:

The Magnet 1950

I have been meaning to feature The Magnet on the 19th Hole for sometime. I did feature it in a recent talk at my local library so I thought it was about time to do so here! The film is held with affection in New Brighton because many of the landmarks seen in the film have long gone or been drastically altered. The film also had importance for Malc as well:

The Goodhearts...after dinner they seek relaxation at their local cinema, the Bay, where there is an English film playing called The Magnet.

But as soon as they enter the cinema Tommy Goodheart thinks he has gone to the next world , is having a dream within a dream, or suffering from extraordinary hallucination.

For the scene before his eyes seems at first to be the very scene along the beach this afternoon, then he realises that the scene is taking place in New Brighton, his own birthplace, on the sands where he played as a boy. And the scene that is playing is that which deals with the exchange of the invisible watch!

Then there is a short description of the film which is continually interrupted -for Mary Goodheart-by Tommy saying “There’s the cathedral! That’s Seacombe pier! That’s New Brighton pier! There used to be a tower only they knocked it down. That’s the old prom – called that the Ham and Egg Parade. Birkenhead Ales, my God! That's the place where I saw the Lion-faced Lady. The tunnel had not quite been completed when I left England though it was already in use," etc Ghostkeeper

We can only assume from the description above that Lowry saw The Magnet mostly set in his birthplace sometime in the early 1950's in Vancouver at the Bay Theatre. What I find remarkable about the description is the impact it had on the "exiled" Malc - an "extraordinary hallucination." Did Lowry construct the 'Ghostkeeper' story after seeing the movie? I will return to answering that question in more detail elsewhere. One can only imagine the feelings generated in Lowry's mind seeing a film of his birthplace when he was thousands of miles away as well as many years since being there.









The Magnet is a 1950 Ealing Studios comedy film, and gave James Fox his first starring role. The story revolves around a young boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), whose deceptive obtaining of the eponymous magnet leads to confusion and ultimately him being hailed as a hero, but feeling guilt at his slyness.

Johnny Brent (Fox), whilst off school in quarantine for scarlet fever, manages to con a younger boy out of a magnet by swapping it for an "invisible watch". However the little boy's nanny accuses him of stealing, which makes Johnny feel guilty: he runs away but then tries to get rid of the magnet, particularly after an older boy uses it to cheat at a pinball machine and the owner thinks Johnny is involved. He then meets an eccentric iron lung maker who is raising funds for the local hospital and gives him the magnet which is later auctioned for charity. The iron lung maker tells the story of the magnet at the various fund-raising events he attends, exaggerating wildly and portraying Johnny as everything from a Little Lord Fauntleroy to a ragged orphan from Dickens, all the while hoping that he can find him again. After he returns to school, Johnny sees the little boy's nanny and overhears her telling her friend about her budgerigar, which she says has died of a broken heart. Johnny, however, thinks she is talking about the little boy himself and becomes convinced that he is guilty of murder. He hides in the back of a van which takes him to Liverpool, where he conflicts with local boys, winning them over by convincing them he is on the run from the police. He saves the life of one of them when he falls through the floor of a disused pier. The injured boy ends up in the very iron lung for which the fund-raising has been all about and when Johnny visits him he sees the magnet mounted on it - and also bumps into the inventor, who is delighted to have found the little hero at last. Johnny is awarded the Civic Gold Medal, which he gives to the magnet's original owner, his conscience clear. Wikipedia

You can view the entire movie on Youtube:



The cinema Lowry refers to where he saw the film was the Bay Theatre 911 Denman Street, Vancouver (seen below). Constructed in 1938 and now a heritage site in Vancouver due to its poured in-place concrete walls and streamlined design features indicative of the “Art Moderne” style. Other notable features include the sculpted corner entrance and a prominent sign tower.



You can view related posts on my Postcards from Malc blog:

Liverpool Cathedral
Seacombe Ferry
New Brighton Pier
New Brighton Tower
New Brighton Promenade
Kingsway Tunnel

You can also view more still shots of the locations and what they look like now at Reel Streets.

West Cheshire Golf Course

Spring on the West Cheshire Golf Links, with its background of cylindrical brick- red gas works Ultramarine

The West Cheshire Golf course was formed in September 1908 and went into liquidation on 7th June 1952.

The course occupied 2 sites as indicated on the map above. The first course occupied the former Bidston Moss to the east of the Birkenhead to New Brighton Railway and south of the line to Seacombe with the club house and first tee lying to the north across the Seacombe line. The course could be reached by an underpass under the Seacombe branch line. The first course moved from this site sometime in the mid-30s possibly due to the expansion of Birkenhead Docks with the construction of Bidston Dock which can been seen on the above map (click on image to enlarge) and in the photo below.


This expansion is referred to here:

The low-lying land north of Bidston, the site of the old West Cheshire Golf Course, is suited to port industries. The latest of the docks, Bidston Dock, at the head of the West Float, gives shipping facilities Merseyside Plan 1944

The original course became a municipal tip in 1936 which gradually expanded across the former course into the 90s.

The original course is the one referred to by Lowry in Ultramarine which we can assume he used with Tess Evans ( the basis of the character Janet in Ultramarine). Lowry himself was a member of Caldy Golf Club as a youth and later was a member of the Royal Liverpool Club at Hoylake. We can only speculate why he used the West Cheshire course rather than the ones at Caldy and Hoylake. Certainly, the West Cheshire was nearer to Tess's home in Liscard, she may have been a member or perhaps Malc was "hiding" with her at the West Cheshire from the prying eyes of his family and their friends? You can see the course's clubhouse which Malc and Tess would have used on the left of the photo below.


The gas works which Lowry referred to in Ultramarine was located the east of the course in Gorsey Lane, Wallasey which would have been clearly visible from the east end of the original course.


The only meaningful mention of the course in local newspapers I could find related to winding up of the club. However, the most detailed mention of the course is in Bill Houldin's Up Our Lobby which refers to the West Cheshire Artisans based at the course but also talks about caddying at the course. The book includes this description:

The West Cheshire Course was situated around what was the Wallasey Pool, (now Bidston Dock). The Pool was simply an irregularly shaped, grassy banked stretch of water. On one side ran the Wrexham/Wallasey railway, and on the other side up to the road bridge, the golf course. The course followed the line of the pool and then took a right turn following the road past what is now the incinerator. It went up to what is now the Co-op Coal Depot, but which then was a railway engine sheds. It then took a right turn again. It was a nice undulating and interesting course and bred many fine golfers... The clubhouse itself was on one side of a dirt road which starting at the first tee and going under the Wrexham/Wallasey Railwayb line bridge, would stretch for three or four hundred yards up the hill to Breck Road, Poulton... The Professionals Shop and Caddies Stand were on the opposite side of this sunken, dirt road. They were connected by a wooden bridge which lay alongside the railway bridge, both crossing the sunken dirt road at this point.The Caddies' Shed was just that, an open-ended wooden structure, roofed in with corrugated iron and having a dirt floor. Nothing here to encourage the lazy tomlounge about.




The second course was located west of the New Brighton to Birkenhead line occupying the former Bidston Aerodrome site as seen below:


The above map appears on the site of a former member of the club - Bert Gadd:

My new club, West Cheshire, just down the road from Hoylake, now lies partly under the M53 motorway having been wound up half a century ago, so I guess my course record 63 is safe.The Life and Times of Bert Gadd – Professional Golfer

Bert Gadd's mention of the club is one of the few on the Net. Another refers to the role of the course in WW2:

The West Cheshire Golf Course, of which my parents and I were members, was taken over to decoy German aircraft to hopefully bomb wide open spaces. The job of some brave folks, as air-raids started, was go out setting light to the many oil filled pots. The deception worked, the only problem being that some of the nearby homes including ours) suffered damage.

The old course received many bombs creating the abundance of "ready made" bunkers. However, as the estimate to reconstruct the course was prohibitive, the compensation money given by the government was used to build a new course - the clubhouse having escaped damage. WW2 Talk

Both former sites are now virtually unrecognisable due to the first being used as a tip and the second being consumed by a motorway, access roads and a retail park. There is sparse information existing about the course unlike Caldy and the Royal Liverpool - the course has virtually disappeared off the map and local consciousness. It must be noted that the course was not connected to Bidston Golf Club which still exists on land adjacent to the second course.

The original West Cheshire course and the later tip are now Bidston Moss Nature Reserve.

This triangular piece of land sandwiched between the River Birket, the M53 and A554 was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1994.

Although vastly changed from the salt marsh of the original mossland it is an important wildlife site in North Wirral, particularly for its ponds, reedbed and marshland.

Approximately eight hectares in size the site has had a varied history. The construction of a sea wall in 1847 along the eastern limit of Wallasey Pool effectively destroyed the salt marsh at Bidston. Land drainage and the canalisation of the River Birket allowed the construction of roads and buildings.

The adjacent golf course was constructed in 1890, while land forming the present nature reserve continued to be used for grazing until the 1970's. Part of the reserve's land was then used for tipping builders rubble - particularly the mound in the north-east corner.

It was declared a Site of Biological Interest in 1980 and improved in 1984 by the construction of ponds, paths and boardwalks together with tree and wildflower planting. Since then it has been managed by the Wirral Ranger Service. Read more

The Scala Theatre, Birkenhead

"Where shall we go? The Hippodrome or the Argyle? ..... I've heard there's a good show on at the Scala -" Ultramarine

I have already posted about this line in Malc's Ultramarine under the title The Smells of Birkenhead and Liverpool. I now realise that I incorrectly stated the theatre Lowry was referring to was the cinema in Lime Street Liverpool. However, I now believe that he was referring to the former Scala Theatre in Birkenhead since the other 2 theatres he mentions are both in Birkenhead. What caused me to change my mind was finding a 1927 programme for the Scala in Birkenhead. The scene in Ultramarine is probably based on Lowry's youthful excursions to Birkenhead theatres with Tess Evans.



The Scala Theatre was originally called the Theatre Royal opening at 51/53 Argyle Street, Birkenhead on 31st October 1864. The theatre was altered after a fire in 1892, extensively modernised in 1905 and introduced cinema into the programmes in 1910.

Under pressure from cinema, the Theatre Royal closed in January 1921. The new proprietors Sol and Alfred Levy spent a fortune in converting the theatre to a modern picture house. James S. Bramwell was in charge of the reconstruction, Arnold Auerbach, a Liverpool artist, provided the designs and J.A. Milestone was in charge of building work.



The cinema had a well-proportioned hall, on the right hand side of which was the main stairway to the balcony and café. On the newel post (or central pillar) was an ornamental ruby red brazier balanced by two similar lights on opposite walls. Entrance to the stalls was via a screen of pillars and the main lounge hall. The latter was of a Neo Graeco influence and sported artistically-illuminated semi-archaic panels of black murals depicting Greek legends. Indeed the foyer had a temple-like atmosphere.

On passing into the auditorium the most noticeable feature was the proscenium. The projection equipment was somewhat a novel to the area with films being projected from behind the stage rather than from the front of the screen. This necessitated the screen being transparent to the film yet opaque in terms of the audience not being able to see either the projectionist or his equipment.



The brightly decorated stage set was set off by glowing blue background. The proscenium opening was flanked by two tall piers, colossal gilded masks and decorative, lacquered lanterns. Both the piers and the cross beam were adorned with painted figures. Ceiling lights compromised four sculptured figures standing on an illuminated sphere and holding lighted globes in their hands. Lighting was supplemented by jewel lamps of quaint design. The orchestra pit was deeply recessed below floor level.

At that time this was the only cinema in the town to have a café, which was a lofty room to the left of the main stairway. It was finished in crimson, black, gold and blue with large, red-framed wall decorations and richly coloured lights suspended from the ceiling. The décor f the ante-rooms and corridors was in harmony with that of the main building. The Silver Screens of Wirral: A History of Cinemas in Birkenhead and Bebington by P.A. Carson & C.R. Garner



The cinema re-opened on 25th April 1921 as the Scala Picture House. The cinema had daily matinees at 3.00pm and continuous performances from 6.30 to 10.30pm. In 1927, the licensee and manager was Cyril Levy, circle cost 1 shilling and 6 pence, the stalls 1 shilling and the upper circle 5 pence. The Scala was the first cinema in Bikenhead to show “talkies” in August 1929. In February 1930 the Scala was taken over by Associated British Cinemas and soon after closed for redecoration. The Scala finally closed on 6th February 1937 and was demolished to be replaced with a new cinema called the Savoy.

One of the interesting things which struck me when I obtained a programme for the Scala, dated November 14th 1927, was the contents of the programme which was a mixture of live performance and movies. Here is a break down of the programme for that week in 1927 which may have been similar to what Malc and Tess may have seen:

Gaumont Graphic
The Gaumont Graphic was a silent newsreel which was issued from 25 October 1910 to 29 December 1932. In November 1929, Gaumont launched a new sound newsreel, the Gaumont Sound News, and for the next three years the Graphic functioned as its silent counterpart for smaller cinemas which did not possess sound. After the demise of the Gaumont Graphic, the Gaumont Sound News continued until the launch of the Gaumont British News in 1934.

The initial editorial arrangements of the Gaumont Graphic are unknown, but from 1913 it was edited by Alec Braid. In 1915 Braid was replaced by Alexander Victor, but by the following year Victor had himself been replaced by Louis Behr, who remained in editorial control of the Gaumont Graphic and Gaumont Sound News until 1934.
British Universities Film & Video Council



You can find every surviving Gaumont Graphic clip by searching JISC MediaHub

Tony Hargreaves and Dorothy Dodd
Unfortunately, I cannot find anything on this act except what it says in the programme - in musical and character studies.

Talbot O'Farrell



I couldn't really find too much about Talbot O'Farrell even though he was very popular in the 20s and 30s and even made a film directed by Michael Powell called Born Lucky.

TALBOT O'FARRELL

Titles read: "Pathetone now has pleasure in presenting - The famous Variety, Screen & Radio Star Talbot O'FARRELL." London (probably Pathe Studio). Various shots of Talbot O'Farrell standing beside a piano in traditional 'Irishman' costume of a light-coloured top hat, dark double-breasted suit, light trousers and spats. He does a bit of patter about the silly titles of songs being sung nowadays. He then sings an Irish song called 'Little Green Heaven' (about Ireland, naturally). We see superimposed shots of the Irish countryside and the pretty colleen who is waiting for Talbot. British Pathe

Here is Talbot singing All that I want is in Ireland:

TALBOT O'FARRELL

Full titles read: "And now 'Pathetone' introduces another celebrated Artist on the screen - Talbot O'Farrell - the famous Variety Star." London, probably Pathe Studio. M/S of a man in tails sitting at a grand piano and playing. Variety star Talbot O'Farrell enters, looking very smart in a top hat and suit. He does a bit of patter and then sings an Irish comedy song, 'Casey's Charabanc', a jaunty song about various characters and events on a charabanc trip. At the end of the song he starts clapping, to encourage the cinema audience! He says he is going to sing a different kind of Irish song, one that he sang for Their Majesties the King and Queen at the Command Performance, called 'Come Back To Ireland And Me'. Talbot sings the sentimental song - an Irish Mother's lament.
British Pathe

Mismates
(1926) American
B&W : Seven reels / 2104 metres
Directed by Charles Brabin



Cast: Doris Kenyon [Judy Winslow], Warner Baxter [Ted Carroll], May Allison [Belle], Philo McCullough [Jim Winslow], Charles Murray [Black], Maude Turner Gordon [Mrs. Winslow], John Kolb [Watson], Cyril Ring [Helwig], Nancy Kelly [Jimsy], Betty Byrne

Distributed by First National Pictures, Incorporated. / Supervising producer Earl Hudson. Scenario by Sada Cowan, from a play by Myron C. Fagan. / Released 26 July 1926. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / The film was released in Austria in 1927, and in Germany in 1928.

Drama.

Survival Status: (unknown)



Mismates was based on the Myron C. Fagan stage play of the same name. Doris Kenyon (above) plays a pretty young woman of modest means who doesn't know what she's in for when she marries wealthy Philo McCullough. The groom's over-protective mother not only refuses to recognize the marriage, but she also denies Kenyon access to the family home -- for five long years! McCullough's snooty relatives try to rid themselves of Kenyon by framing the girl for a crime she didn't commit. But our heroine escapes from jail to get the last laugh on her despicable in-laws. Halfway through the film, director Charles J. Brabin tries and fails to emulate Cecil B. DeMille with an extravagant society party, which makes about as much sense as the rest of picture. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi


I was interested to discover that the film's director was born in Liverpool:

Charles J. Brabin (April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England - November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies.

Born in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier College. Brabin sailed to New York in the early 1900s and, while holding down odd jobs there, he tried his hand as a stage actor. He joined the Edison Company around 1908, first acting then writing then directing. His last film was A Wicked Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934.

Brabin wed silent-film "vamp" star Theda Bara (seen below) in 1921, remaining married to her until her death from abdominal cancer in April 1955 and becoming one of the rare long-lasting Hollywood marriages. Wikipedia

Full filmography of Charles Brabin



I was fascinated while researching this post to discover a Liverpool born artist new to me - Arnold Auerbach 1898-1978:



This self-portrait was drawn on Auerbach's return to London from the continent at the age of twenty-four. It bears the impress of the late quattrocento, recalling portraits by Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini. As a sort of 'coming of age' portrait 'it is a summation of his student days; an avowal of his powers as a draughtsman and an anticipation of the art world opening before him.' (Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, Arnold Auerbach, 1998).

Auerbach was born in Liverpool to second-generation immigrants, his grandfather having come from Poland. In his Sculpture: a Brief History, one of a number of books on the subject, Auerbach wrote that drawing was the link, the common factor, between painting and sculpture. Having studied previously at the Liverpool School of Art, been invalided out of the army in 1918 two years after being drafted at the age of eighteen, he exhibited in 1919 at the Maddox Street Gallery and in 1921 at the Walker Art Gallery.

Through the 1920s Auerbach worked as an architectural sculptor on the interiors of art-deco buildings, including for the palace of the Nawab of Rampur in India. In the later 1920s and early 1930s his style changed from reflecting an awareness of ancient Egyptian stance, simplification and monumentality of form to experimentation with the broken forms, angularity and semi-abstract patterning of cubism. He later worked at the Beckenham Art School, the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Chelsea School of Art variously teaching architecture, sculpture, still life and portrait painting. Ill-health forced him to give up sculpture in the 1950s, by which time he had returned to naturalism. Invaluable Find.com

You can view some examples of his work at the Invaluable.com site.

Scampered Like Children Past The Hall Line Shed

And there had been nothing that mattered, save only themselves and the blue sky as they scampered like children past the Hall Line shed to the harbour wall just in time to see the Norwegian tramp steamer Oxenstjerna pass through the gate of the inner dock, while a scratch four paused on their oars watching her entrance steadfastly, their striped singlets dancing in the afternoon sunlight. Ultramarine

The Hall Line shed stood on the Wallasey side of the Great Float in Birkenhead Docks near to the Duke Street swing bridge.



Robert Alexander started shipowning in the 1850s and in 1868 founded the Sun Shipping Co., Liverpool which operated cargo and passenger services. The ships were named _____HALL, the company became known as the Hall Line, and in 1899 the name was officially changed to Hall Line Ltd. The company was purchased in 1901 by John Ellerman and continued operating as part of the Ellerman Group as Ellerman's Hall Line. Below is a photograph of a Hall Line ship The City Of Cairo built in 1915 and which would have been a familiar sight at the Hall Line sheds in Birkenhead during the 1920's



People rowing would also have been a familiar sight in the Great Float as it is today. The photograph shows a scratch four training from Wallasey Grammar School in the Great Float sometime in the 1930s. The Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club have been rowing in the Great Float since the 1884 and their boathouse is located near to the former Bidston Dock site. If you go to their site you can see a photograph of one of their oarsmen with a striped singlet as described by Lowry.



It is not surprising that Lowry has chosen to have a Norwegian ship entering the docks given the Norwegian heritage of Hilliot the main protagonist of Ultramarine which reflected Lowry's desire to adopt Norway as his spiritual or even sometimes his imaginary home.



The above ship Bravore would have been typical of the kind of Norwegian ships that would have visited Birkenhead Docks in the 1920's.

The Oxenstjerna acts a catalyst in Hilliot's mind to remind him of how Janet and his love first grew in Norway as they had both seen the ship in Oslo Fjord. I cannot find any ship with the name of Oxenstjerna and we can only speculate why Lowry chose this name. The ship in Ultramarine is named after a Swedish minister as we discover when Hilliot tells Janet the source of the name on the way home on the Liscard bus after seeing the ship.



Oxenstjerna is an ancient Swedish senatorial family, the origin of which can be traced up to the middle of the 14th century, which had vast estates in S6dermanland and Uppland, and began to adopt its armorial designation of Oxenstjerna (" Ox-forehead") as a personal name towards the end of the 16th century. Its most notable member was Count Axel Gustafsson (1583-1614), chancellor of Sweden, 1911 Encyclopedia