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Youngers Shoppers' Gazette (Ilkeston ca 1942)

From the collection of

MACE is the strategic lead organisation for screen heritage for the East and West Midlands regions. An independent charity based at University of Lincoln, MACE preserves and makes accessible a collection of more than 100,000 historic moving images representative of the diverse cultures and histories of communities throughout the heart of England from the Lincolnshire coast to the Welsh border.

Youngers Shoppers' Gazette (Ilkeston ca 1942)

Media Archive for Central England
Ilkeston
1 Jan 1942
Silent
5m

With ration books at the ready, shoppers had to stretch the pennies in wartime Derbyshire.

These wartime adverts with their charming graphics originated from a cinema at Ilkeston in Derbyshire. From a one-man window cleaner to the prosperous Ilkeston Co-op a wide range of companies are featured. The war was having a clear impact on everyday life with reference to shipping convoys and the ration book. George Andrew and Sons appear slightly opportunistic however with their plug for spades linked to the government's Dig for Victory campaign.

The makers of this and many other similar local cinema reels of the period were Youngers Publicity Service, a London based agency and production company. What we have here is unlikely to have been exactly how it was screened as many of the advertisements are printed on film manufactured in 1942 but some, towards the end of the reel, are much older. For instance the Corona Cordials ad (Britain's 'cheerful' beverage) wishes cinema goers a happy new year for 1940.

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Near Your Local Cinema

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.