About Vintage Stuff

The aim of Vintage Stuff is to display some of the ephemera that I have collected, often inadvertently, over the years. I am now deliberately seeking out interesting old adverts, screen shots, leaflets, obscure record covers, picture postcards and illustrations; anything that catches my eye, in fact. They will be mainly, but not exclusively of UK origin (so many vintage blogs appear to be American) and almost always a scan from something that I actually have in my collection, rather than off the net. If you do re-blog, please acknowledge the source. Further stuff, mainly photographs, can be found on my Flickr pages, via the Benny Hill record cover.

Sunday 27 May 2012

No Sex Please: We're British



The farce, No Sex Please: We're British, opened in the West End in 1971, the film version appearing two years later. Although a lot of changes were made to the screen version, the basic story remained the same. Ronnie Corbett plays Brian Runnicles, a clerk at Barclays Bank, who mistakenly receives a delivery of pornography which was supposed to have been made to a nearby sex shop, rather than the expected new calculator. The parcel is opened upstairs in the flat above the bank, where the assistant bank manager, David Hunter (Ian Ogilvy) lives with his new wife Penny, (Susan Penhaligon). The rest of the film is taken up with the trio trying to get rid of this, and subsequent packages, in ever more ludicrous ways, whilst trying to avoid the bank manager himself, Arthur Lowe, and David's mother (Beryl Reid), both anti-smut campaigners. The films ends with a chase sequence featuring a nice collection of British motors tearing around Windsor in pursuit of the final box of magazines,carried by Brian on the back of Cheryl Hall's scooter.


The opening scenes sees Brian power-walking through Windsor on his way to the bank, negotiating lots of  contemporary traffic; that Volga estate is a rarity! 
A pre-Confessions Robin Asquith gets a sticky cameo
Barclays Bank, High Street, Windsor; it's odd that it wasn't renamed for the film, I bet they have a few  jokers through the door afterwards "Psst! want any porn?!"
Hello Brian, want a look in my in-tray?
The first consignment of porn is discovered.
Brian Wilde (of Porridge) confronts Brian in the park.
Guess what, you can'y get rid of mucky films down the waste disposal!
Brian tries to return a box of 'blue films' to the sex shop, one with apparently hardly any stock except for a few old copies of Parade magazine.
1001 Perversions; Susan Penhaligon looks suitably appalled.
Michael Bates played an accounts inspector, receiving the attentions of Margaret Nolan (left) and Valerie Leon 
Now it's Brian's turn.
In the 1970s, it was compulsory for TV crooks to drive old white Jags.........
A good old British car chase; Ian Ogilvy rides shotgun in the moggie
The chase is over and what is in the box? An enormous calculator.......
Although this is a moderately entertaining little film, with a fine roll-call of contemporary comic actors and a number of neat little set-pieces, there are times when you just wish they would dump the porn in someone's bin and be done with it, rather than try to bury it, throw it in the river or feed it down the waste disposal system! Forty years on, the whole premise does seem a little outdated and as a sex comedy, there is little to upset grandma, this being only a PG certificate. High points are the cars and the street scenes of Windsor, not to mention Valerie Leon and Margaret Nolan as a couple of call-girls and the rather lovely Cheryl Hall, one of the bank assistants who has taken a shine to our Brian. Available on DVD at the usual outlets................

Thursday 10 May 2012

Export Drive

A selection of adverts for British cars, culled from The Autocar magazine dated 1 November 1946. This appeared to be an issue aimed at attracting exports, hence many of the adverts were in full colour. Others were in black & white, including those for Rolls Royce and Bentley; perhaps they thought that they didn't have to try too hard!












Monday 7 May 2012

Beehives and Petticoats

Three young ladies cavort in the countryside in the 1960s; since these pictures came from a magazine actually called Beehive Girls, the one on the left doesn't appear to be playing the game!


Saturday 5 May 2012

Two Big Blokes and a Bird (and a Jag)

Remember Fiona Richmond? In the 1970s, she was a model, an actress and also wrote all sorts of naughty books supposedly about her own sexual experiences, not to mention being the girlfriend of publisher and club owner Paul Raymond. Today she apparently owns and runs a couple of hotels. This picture comes from a 1976 issue of Spick magazine, photographed at a contest to find Britian's fattest man (how very non-PC!!). Mighty George Macaree looks rather startled; I wonder what Fiona was doing with her right hand........?



Whilst trying to find out what else she had got up to in recent years, I came across her in the excellent BBC series The Car's the Star, where she was interviewed in the programme featuring the Jaguar E-Type in 1997. In the 1970s clip she is driving FU 2, not now on the DVLA database, though has probably since been re-registered, whilst JCT 1N is still on the road in 2012 (Unless they are the same car, of course.........)




Thursday 3 May 2012

RH&DR Guide

A splendid little guide to the equally splendid little Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, a favourite line of 'Dunstabelle' and I. This was published by Ian Allan in 1947, the scraperboard cover illustration being, I suspect, by A N Wolstenholme, whose work graced other Ian Allan titles of the period. I bought it in a secondhand bookshop in Bath about ten years ago for just 70p, a bargain even then!