Sunshine Girl

From the collection of

Archif Sgrin a Sain Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive

Established in 2001, the National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive holds an unrivalled collection of films, TV and radio broadcasts, video tapes and sound recordings relating to Wales and the Welsh, from 1898 to the present day. The collection spans multiples formats and genres, both professional and amateur.

Sunshine Girl

Archif Sgrin a Sain Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive
Merthyr Tydfil
1959-01-01
Sound
12m

What makes a South Wales Sunshine Girl? Well, the answer may vary depending on whether you ask a chauvinist or a feminist!

Ten hopefuls compete to become the South Wales Sunshine Girl. It is all to play for, so long as they are willing to bare almost all for the big screen and smile along as they are used to advertise various businesses operating in the area. In return, the winner will scoop a two-week holiday for two in Jersey, or a stay in Ostend. A runner up can walk away with a "luxury dressing table", "lux-a-flex blinds" or one of the 120 sea trips offered by White Funnel Pleasure Steamers.

The South Wales Sunshine Girl competition, won by Ann Roberts, was sponsored by the Palace Ballroom, Merthyr. Many such competitions were held the same year - e.g BBC Women's Dress Sense Competition (1st prize a trip to Paris), Miss Secretary 1959, South Wales Dairy Princess and, probably not the pick of the bunch, Welsh Turkey Queen! See Karl Francis' film 'Miss Rhymney Valley' (1985) for a chauvinist v feminist wrangle about beauty contests. The song 'Sunshine Girl' is sung by the famous Cardiff (Senior) Snowflakes Choir. Formed in 1926 it performed at the first Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in 1947 and one of its members worked in films in the USA 1936-39 as a body-double for Shirley Temple.

What Women Want?

Caring mums, hard-working housewives or independent, fun-loving 'new women' - the female consumer has long been a target of screen advertising.

In the cause of selling anything from baked beans to washing powders to all manner of labour-saving devices, advertisers have promised to make women's lives easier and to help them build happy homes and successful relationships.

There's no getting past the fact that women have all-too often been patronised and objectified by a male-dominated advertising industry. But screen advertising also tells (and sells) a more positive story of social progress for women, with increasing social and economic independence. This collection tracks the ups and downs of female empowerment in the 20th century, with its false steps as revealing as its forward ones.