Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. The archive's collections of magic lantern slides, films, videos and associated materials capture the many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.
This film is part of Free
Beach Scenes
Lewis Rosenberg and his friends enjoy a camping holiday near Newquay in the 1930s - with dancing, kissing, physical jerks and surfing
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Overview
This charming film from Lewis Rosenberg shows him and a party of friends on a jolly camping holiday at Holywell Bay near Newquay. Here they dance to a wind-up gramophone and cavort on the beach, while a group of uniformed girls make a human pyramid and exercise with adult leaders. After views of Newquay the men go surfing at sunset. Scenes of harvesting follow before it's time to say goodbye to the hotel staff and head for home by the Great Western Railway.
Lewis Rosenberg was born in London in 1906. His parents were working class Polish Jewish immigrants who settled in London’s East End and he was the youngest of six children. He was in his twenties when he bought his first cine camera and, despite a lack of formal training, took it with him when he went on holiday with his friends. Some of these holidays, for which Lewis and his friends saved 2 shillings per week, were organised by Socialist and Communist youth groups who attracted large numbers of supporters amongst the Jewish community in London's East End. This film features a holiday for Jewish youngsters belonging to such political youth organisations.
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