Entertainment

French Cinema : 1914 to 1928

/ suzannethinton / Leave a comment

In the first weeks of the Great War, the Bioscope journal noted:

“There are very few signs of the terrible struggle in which the country is engaged to be noted at Brighton.  The panic of the first week, of course, had a very bad effect, but things soon resumed their normal course.  The picture theatres are doing a brisk business, and the patriotic and war films which are the order of the day are proving a great draw.” The Bioscope,10 September 1914

It was indeed the case that in Brighton and Hove, residents (and many visitors) continued to amuse themselves as well as busying themselves with their contributions to war work and fund raising.

Continue reading →

Noël à Brighton 1915

/ suzannethinton / Leave a comment

The Great War is dragging on. As the festive season approaches, Brighton is doing her best to show her support for Britain’s French Allies.  On 16 December 1915, the Brighton and Hove and South Sussex Graphic certainly gave France pride of place.

In the newspaper, a journalist simply called Aigrette pens a splendid article about Madame Adolphe and her French ladies’ tailors in Preston Street.  At this emporium “the reducing pencil has been hard at work and lovely bargains are on sale”.  Aigrette is mightily impressed by one outfit: “a triumph of fashionable elegance.” 

Image: Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust

Alas, to our, fortunately, greater sensitivity to these matters in the 21st century, the cloth is shockingly described as “tête de nègre velour cloth of beautiful supple quality.”  It is unlikely that in 2023 any fabric would be compared to a black person’s hair, however supple it may be.

Continue reading →

French Cinema in Brighton (2) 1907-1914

/ suzannethinton / Leave a comment

Until early 1909 there was not one single hall or theatre in Brighton dedicated to moving pictures.  Patrons could see “exhibitions” of animated images as part of a variety performance or as a novelty on the Palace Pier or the Alhambra on Kings Road.

The first “cinema” in Brighton was the Electric Bioscope Theatre in Western Road, just a few yards from the corner of Montpelier Road (where Waitrose stands in 2023). It opened on Saturday 13 February and was immediately successful.  The Pathé film of the disastrous 1910 floods in Paris was one of the myriad of French films shown in Brighton before the outbreak of the Great War.

800px-ND_141_-_PARIS_-_La_Grande_Crue_de_la_Seine_-_Rétablissement_de_la_circulation_par_passerelles_au_Quai_de_Passy_inondé

A postcard showing an image that might have been seen in an early version of the Pathé newsreels which were a staple of British cinema until the 1970s. Wikimedia Commons

Continue reading →

French cinema in Brighton (1) 1896-1907

/ suzannethinton / Leave a comment

School-friends Jemima and Annabel are swapping their experiences of a new invention.

Albion House,

135 King’s-road,

Brighton,

Saturday, 4th July, 1896

My Dearest Jemima,

How I love being on holiday in Brighton!  We’re staying in Mr Hockley’s boarding house on the corner of Preston Street and my room has a view of the sea and the West Pier. Everything is so exciting but last night was really special.  I cut out the advertisement for you from the Brighton Gazette on Thursday.  Mother, Father and I just had to go and see what it was all about.

Continue reading →

Dansez français

/ suzannethinton / Leave a comment

Jan Mulreany shares her passion.

You might not think you would ever encounter a full set of cornemuses Auvergnates or cabrettes [bagpipes from the Auvergne region] in a Sussex pub, nor hear the wail of a French hurdy-gurdy as you come round the corner in Shoreham, but for the last thirty years someone has been doing this in Brighton, and dancing to it too.

IMG_4747

Dansez Français demonstrate their skills at the Centenary celebrations of the Brighton and Hove French Circle. Her Majesty the Queen gazes benevolently at the Breton flag. The Hove Club, 2015. Image: Suzanne Hinton.

Continue reading →

Brighton’s French Music Festival, 1881 (2)

/ suzannethinton / 1 Comment

Just a year ago, in my blog about Brighton’s 1881 Music Festival, I stated: “A great part of the success of the Festival does seem to have been due to the excellent organisation by Chérifel de la Grave.”

Should I have been more alive to this newspaper report?

The national press went a little further in criticism of the practical arrangements of the Festival:

Were there flaws in the organisation?  Well, the chief conductor of the participating Orphéon from Châlons-sur-Marne certainly thought so.  His 50-page account of his band’s trip to Brighton is very revealing.

Continue reading →

Brighton, 14 November 1827

/ suzannethinton / 2 Comments

On this day, exactly 193 years ago, a dapper 46-year-old Frenchman attended an elegant ball in the Assembly Rooms of the Old Ship Hotel, Brighton. What a splendid affair.  The rooms had recently been redecorated by Frederick Crace following his successful work at the Royal Pavilion.  The officers of the 52nd Infantry and the 7th Hussars were in their dress uniform (although the latter disgraced themselves by dancing while wearing their swords).  The ladies were magnificent in their ballgowns and jewels.  Even elderly Mrs Fitzherbert graced the event with her presence.

Continue reading →

Hospitality is the fertiliser of the soul

/ suzannethinton / 1 Comment

In 2002, when the organisers of the Golden Jubilee Party in Regency Square (of which this blogger was one) invited the Orchestre d’Harmonie de Dieppe to play, they did not realise that they were following a long tradition.

In 2002, when the organisers of the Golden Jubilee Party in Regency Square (of which this blogger was one) invited the Orchestre d’Harmonie de Dieppe to play, they did not realise that they were following a long tradition.

Continue reading →