Magic Lantern Slides

Local cinema adverts from the late 30s

By Graham Stevens

Photo:Magic Lantern Slides with their original packaging

Magic Lantern Slides with their original packaging

Jessen

These unique magic lantern slide adverts for Canvey butcher Fred Atwell were acquired by my mother-in-law Brenda Jessen when she bought a box of 'odds and ends' from Mr Parish's second-hand shop over 30 years ago. Mr Parish's shop was on the corner of Arcadia Rd and the High St, opposite the Clock House. These premises(still standing today but now a house) were originally Fred Atwell's butcher's shop. The slides are clearly marked Feb/37 and July/38 and also with the name of the supplier P A Cramer & Co. It seems quite likely that they were never used.


Were they destined for Mr Pettit's Pictures just around Small Gains Corner or the newly opened Rio Cinema at the Haystack? Can anybody project any light onto where or how they might have been used?

Photo:Conventional advert from ' the Old Firm'.

Conventional advert from ' the Old Firm'.

Jessen

Photo:Tongue 'n Cheek advertising.

Tongue 'n Cheek advertising.

Jessen

This page was added by Graham Stevens on 02/03/2010.
Comments about this page

JUST LOOK AT THE PHONE NUMBER i KNOW BY THE 50S OURS WAS ONLY 3 NUMBERS

By MARGARET
On 13/03/2010

I struggle to remember my current phone number, but i've always remembered our number on the Island, Canvey 562, even though i've lived in Norfolk since 1962.

Life was much simpler back then!

By George Smith
On 05/04/2016

There used to be magic Lantern slideshows at Whittier Hall at one time. Could they have been used there?

By Maureen Buckmaster
On 06/04/2016

Hi Maureen, I don't think Uncle Harold would really have approved of commercial breaks advertising the local butcher during his slideshows of Homes for the Blind in Palestine. Although that said the Quakers were a driving force in commerce and industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. I have a feeling that as these slides were in their original packaging and found in what was an Atwells shop they were unused. A few years ago George Chambers told me that in WW2 messages for members of the emergency services were often scratched on slides and displayed during programmes at the Rio.

Re the telephone numbers although our bakery business was started in 1923 the numbers had reached double digits by then and we were Canvey 35 and I think that was our number until the early 60s when they added a a double 2 in front. Also until that time we had one of those wonderful extension systems with two rows of switches(up &down) and a winding bell ringing handle on the side. The last time I saw one of those was in a museum.

By Graham Stevens
On 08/04/2016
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