Britain can make it exhibition

Series

Series Name

Britain Can Make It

Issue

Issue No.

12

Date Released

17 Feb 1947

Length of issue (in feet)

1003

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Britain can make it exhibition

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

Monthly Film Bulletin synopsis: This film takes the audience on a quick tour of the 1947 "Britain Can Make It" Exhibition at South Kensington. Glimpses of the following exhibits are shown: silverware, textiles, fashion, household fittings and furniture made from thirty-one different varieties of wood, cycles, radios and toys. Attention is called throughout the film to the emphasis which was placed on good design in the exhibits and this is particularly so in the closing scenes where specially designed and furnished rooms are pictured.
COI Commentary - "Britain Can Make It". Like all famous slogans, this one thrives on practical demonstration. So, in the autumn of 1946, the "Britain Can Make It" Exhibition was stages in one of London’s great museums. The public were offered a glimpse of Today and Tomorrow instead of Yesterday. And the public poured in. War-weary, tired of rations, tired of austerity, they came to see what the future holds for them. They came at the rate of 20,000 a day.
On the very threshold they found a symbol of the whole show - a metal manikin with an eye for design and a message.
Another one posed a question. And a third advised, "take a good look, think over what you see, and judge for yourself".
As the visitors wandered on, they found reminders that the basis of good design is the material used. Metal, for instance. It can be moulded and wrought into abstract designs of great beauty - or into article of practical use. However ordinary their purpose, they can still look pleasant, whether they’re made of steel - or of silver plate.
The common sauce-boat can become uncommon and yet remain a sauce-boat.
There are new uses for stainless steel in the kitchen. Sinks can be mass-produced to a clean and practical design. You can have plate racks of an almost gossamer lightness. Vegetable baskets can be pushed out of the way when they’re not wanted.
In the Hall of the Future the cyclist saw what’s coming to him. As the catalogue said, he’ll still have "the healthy pleasure of providing his own movement" (in other words, the thing has pedals); but there’ll be a small battery-driven motor to replace the three-speed gear and help him up the hills. In the handle-bar panel there’ll be light switches, an electric bell button, a speedometer and - radio.
Another raw material for Design is Textiles. A rich variety of fabrics were set out before the keen and critical eyes of the ladies. And from the complexities of fabric design they moved on to the mysteries of Fashion.
(MUSIC)
Next, Timber. The subject was introduced by this stimulating arrangement, made up from thirty-one different kinds of wood.
Moving from the abstract to the practical, there was an armchair of preformed plywood, easy to clean and with specially-designed cushions. Comfortable, practical and cheap to make,
Wood was combined with metal in a dressing-table of cast aluminium covered with a birchwood veneer. The metal construction makes it easy to curve the edge so that things don’t roll off, and to sink the jars so that they can’t be knocked over.
Furniture designs ranged from the safe and practical - to an adventurous confection in birch and mahogany. It’s a new idea. Is it a good one? Remember what the manikin said.
The public were also invited to consider things in the setting of the Home. There were a series of furnished rooms, each by a different designer who had been asked to create something suitable for a particular family or person.
This was supposed to be the room of a radio sports commentator - you may say, if you like, of a busy bachelor who likes his reference books to be near the typewriter; and his telephone and radio handy by the bed.
There was an industrial worker’s bedroom. One noticed the almost inevitable bedside radio; and lights placed where they’re most needed - over the bed and the dressing-table. The whole room designed for economy, comfort and simplicity.
Another designer had imagined a kitchen and dining recess in a small modern house. On his dining table he had placed modern utensils and crockery, clean in line and without unnecessary ornament. He had planned an electric kitchen, using prefabricated units grouped round the cooker.
There was another kitchen, for a family of five. On the extreme right, a gas cooker - then the sink - then a worktop with underneath it a gas washboiler and frig. and, above, unit shelves for stores.
But you should have seen the bathrooms! There was one real luxury job - a shower on the bath, hollow glass bricks on the walls, and an opulent couch for your sunray treatment. There was an illuminated shaving mirror shedding new light on an old problem. There were lever-action taps. And there was a very special gadget for the children.
The Children - designers have though a lot about them. A Nursery School which is really like a nursery. Full of light and air and beauty. With everything to the right scale.
And toys - a whole world of toys.
(MUSIC)
From children’s play, to play for the grown-ups.
The athletic visitors found the old familiar things, but in new materials, using new methods of manufacture. The lazy visitors found that the designers had been thinking of them too - and of those who must have music wherever they go. The strap of this radio set acts as its aerial - a pretty toy.
But there was one part of the Exhibition the general public did not see - the small back room behind the cast shop-window. Here came prospective buyers, from home and overseas, with a stream of practical questions. Where can the articles be obtained? How soon can delivery be arranged? What quantities are available? What prices do the makers quote? They came with their questions from sixty different countries; and they went out to the factories and placed orders worth millions of pounds. One firm alone has enough work for four years as a direct result of the Exhibition. More work, more goods and money coming in from abroad, a better standard of living - that is what this room meant and what the whole Exhibition meant to all those people who queued up for it; and to every worker and housewife in the country. The world knows now, as it never knew before, that Britain Can Make It.

Researcher Comments

This story was filmed on location at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Keywords

Children; Domestic life; Arts and crafts; Industry and manufacture; Exhibitions and shows; Design

Written sources

The National Archives INF 6   /592
Central Film Library Catalogue   1948, p83.
British Film Institute Databases
Monthly Film Bulletin   Vol.14 No.158 February 1947, p28.

COI Reference

MI 360/12

Credits:

Sponsor

Board Of Trade

Director

Duncan Ross

Production Co.

Films of Fact

Camera

Frank Sherwin Green

Commentator

Geoffrey Sumner

Producer

Jack B. Holmes

Camera

James Ritchie

Director

Langton Gould-Marks

Editor

Len Green

Sponsor

Ministry of Information

Camera

Paul Dickson

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

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Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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