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British Pathé
Sabrina newsreels:
Do
your own Sabrina newsreel search
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you can play it.
A big
c o l o u r treat for you. Having found the British Pathé newsreel archive,
there was only one thing for me to do: search for Sabrina! And she came
up in glorious technicolour - yes, folks! People who lived before 1960
did have flesh tones! There are a couple of B&W clips of her
at beauty contests and stars' days out, but of most interest is the 1956
newsreel of Sabrina - in full colour - getting her photo taken in a department
store. Cheesecake? Yes indeedy, WITH STRAWBERRIES ON TOP!
6/2/1956
Summary from the Pathé site:
M/S [medium shot] and C/U [close-up] in Bourne and
Hollingsworth's department store [Oxford Street, London] as
glamorous blonde television and film star Sabrina , carrying a small
hat box and holding the lead of a white poodle, chats to a lady on the
theatre ticket counter. Commentator talks of how "you can get anything
from cosmetics to cats' food" in modern department stores as Sabrina
makes her way to the Polyphoto counter where the assistant shows her a
sample of the photos (for those who don't know, Polyphoto produced sheets
of 48 small portrait photos in different positions, contact sheet style,
so you could choose the best for enlargements).
The assistant seems to have persuaded our glamour puss to have her
picture taken, and shows her the way to the photographer's studio. Sabrina
takes off her coat and gloves, sits on a stool with her poodle in her
arms and poses for the camera - lovely, darling! M/S from behind the photographer,
Anthony Cheshire , who looks out from a large square box-camera
and signals for Sabrina to look up to the left. He turns a handle on the
camera to take the photo, then directs her to look in other directions.
Great sequence of C/Us as Sabrina poses and Anthony directs her and turns
the handle.
The poodle seems a bit restless so Sabrina sets him on the floor and
poses alone. C/U of the counter on the camera notching 27 shots so far.
Sabrina poses in classic 1950s style (head back, come hither look, bosoms
thrust out), then appears to tire of the whole thing; she suggests swapping
places with photographer, who protests; Sabrina pouts prettily and he
gives in. He shows her how to work the handle on the camera, and as he
takes his place on the stool she pushes his head firmly into position
and adjusts his tie and jacket. C/U as she signals to him to keep his
chin up.
C/Us of Anthony posing as Sabrina turns the handle with a little difficulty;
the counter shows 48 shots taken. C/Us of the finished Polyphoto sheet
of photos of Sabrina - very glam! - panning right and tilt down to show
shots of Anthony at the end.
Note: Fabulous story!
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