From the collection of
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.
Adverts: romancing the world - and Ammanford - with golden rings and Scandanavian meat, leather soles and coal, Eve's soap and flowers.
A night out at the cinema and the adverts reveal what a wondrous place you live in! No-one with a coal fire can be lacking in "health, comfort [or] economy". You may be drowning but "all kinds of waving" are available from Percy Peach, and Sims the butcher ensures a happy family with every joint sold. The jewellers can provide rings that are "a pledge of joy to every bride",the florist flowers, a "gift that speaks when words fail" (useful, no doubt, for some errant grooms).
Local goods for local people! Screen advertising wasn’t all national brands and chain stores.
Purpose-built cinemas began appearing around Britain shortly before WWI, booming in popularity during the War and developing into the ‘picture palaces’ of the 1920s - when adverts jostled for space alongside newsreels before the main feature. Local businesses were quick to see the potential of a big screen and a captive audience to promote their wares.
While they didn’t have access to the budgets of the national brands, regionally-specific businesses had the benefit of that personal touch. Products and services evolved over time, but that scratchy ad for your local Indian restaurant, so integral to the cinema-going experience into the 1990s, had its roots in the booming entrepreneurship of the industry many decades before.
