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Whitstable in Old Ads - The
Sequel
Some time ago, a 1959 carnival program from Ian
Johnson provided a nostalgic trip around Whitstable's business
community and we recorded it all in our permanent feature article Whitstable
in Old Ads. Now, we can do another tour of the commercial memory
banks by picking out a selection of adverts from an even earlier
carnival program kindly supplied by Jock Harnett.
It was produced in 1949 at a time when the town was entering a more
enlightened age. Nevertheless, some austere attitudes remained from past eras.... along with memories of a World War that had ended just four
years earlier.
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The British Gas Council (left) allowed the town's women to
express themselves... but confined them to
the kitchen and filled their speech balloons with gas. Unfortunately, it also denied them their lust
for instant heat.... because factories were still being "converted to
peace time output".
There was "no guesswork with
gas"... apart from guessing the delivery
date.
Rationing was still very much in evidence and it
applied to poultry. You could get around the problem at
corn merchants T Rigden and Son by opting
for an unrationed "poultry meal with Scotch
Corn" (see below)! I presume that it was the same principle as
wartime Corned Beef.
Rigdens may also have circumvented egg rationing.... by
manufacturing their own poultry shells. Manufacture of the
yolk and white presumably had to wait for technology to
evolve. |
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| Wartime queues were dissipating.... at least at Florists
(see right). By now, flowers could be sent anywhere... but not by
Interflora. Bradleys relied on the next best thing... the "Florists
Telegraph Delivery Association".
Trial orders were welcome... but how did customers
trial a flower? ("Trial over... I've had this daff
three weeks.... and it's gone brown"). |
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The NHS had arrived just a year earlier (on the 5 July
1948) and David Cheadle had already revamped his shop to
deal with the new legislation. Meanwhile, down in Harbour
Street, Gilman & Clarke were supplementing the Welfare
State with their own proprietary creations... the Victory
range!
From our original article, "Whitstable In Old
Ads", we know that Gilman & Clarke Victory Oils
and Ointments survived until at least 1959... but the '49
portfolio was more extensive. Unfortunately, even at an attractve price of 1s
3d and a "down to earth" marketing approach, the chance to "bring
up the phlegm" failed to appeal to the town's more discerning
hypochondriacs during carnival week.
As a result, the Victory Cough Remedy had disappeared by the end of
the fifties and we were making do with Fishermen's Friends. Was it a case of
"defeat" being snatched from the jaws of
"Victory"... or were customers becoming just that bit
too slippery?
With the global NHS standardising things, chemists needed
specialisms like Victory Oils to
distinguish their services. Other approaches might involve an
in-depth range of toiletries.... or a wide selection of baby products. On the other
hand... they could just opt for that old favourite - the
"accredited fitting of Brooks
Rupture Appliances"......
.... with a 24 hour service and snaps if required. If
anyone has such photos please email them... to any Herne Bay web
site.
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Elsewhere, other town traders were also distinguishing
their services.
Up at Tankerton Circus, Mr W A Burden was offering
practical boot repairs.... thereby outdoing the town's
impractical boot repairers who were sewing up the big
hole at the top..
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| The W.A.Burden motto added a touch of interest and
other businesses followed suit with their own poetry. Some of it was written
specifically with Carnival Day in mind. The Long Reach pub
put pen to paper to produce the
gem on the right.
Despite the deluge of artists in modern Whitstable, we
don't get many people turning to verse these days. Nor do we
get local businesses cashing in on a Carnival's ability to
create a "Strachey Stomach" or two.
Perhaps, people are different nowadays.... with
feelings of "full and mellow" more
difficult to achieve with a Vindaloo.... and wine
from an "offie" roughing things up a bit with
cries of "Ooo ah yah.... Ooo ah yah"
rather than gently "smoothing the conversation". |
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Mind you, back in '49, we had advantages. Our vocabulary was
being honed to perfection down at the Oxford Cinema...
with the screening of classics such as Laurence Olivier's
Hamlet. Just as well.... because you never knew when your
words might be played back to you...... |
| Yup!....With technology advancing, D&S Gaywood were
offering to record "speaking likenesses" onto a 78 rpm.
Records could cover anything... .from civic
functions.... to
banquets and political speeches. Even today, there must be
quiet moments when you simply want to sit back.... put our feet up... and give
your Top Ten
Julian Braziers a spin.
"Nearer to home" but more difficult to
capture were recordings of your children's very first
words. Presumably, the
technician moved in around March and left in June after capturing
an utterance such as "Da-Da"...
"Ma-Ma".... or "C'mon
you little b#$$@r..... say something".
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The great British humour had survived both a World
War.. and the cake trade....
Turner's were "doing their best"...
but, without an address, we didn't know where they were doing
it. In fact, quite a few ads omitted address details. Carnivals
might attract a few visitors from out of town but, essentially,
they were local community affairs and addresses were unnecessary.
Humour was less evident at women's hairdressing
salons where "Permanent Waving"... and Inecto Dying
and Tinting had arrived.....
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If it failed to satisfy, Mullards could offer an
alternative approach.... by knocking up a wig. They could also do
a complete transformation... but, presumably that took a little longer and
involved scaffolding. But what or who was Eugene Madison
Superma? Was it a type of perm... or an ancestor of Supergran?
Well, the answer appears in an ad for a rival salon called Coasts.... ... where
it was described as a
machineless system...
Any wiser? Me neither! The things that women got up
to in the pursuit of beauty and a higher position on the waiting
list for a new gas cooker from the British Gas Council!
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Old carnival programs are such a great way of confirming
the many memories recorded in our Visitors Book. Although the
address is given as Tankerton Circus, I suspect that the
ad on the left refers to an establishment in St Anne's
Road that later became the famous Valente's Ice Cream
Parlour of the 1950s and 1960s. The one below refers to a rival cafe that was located
on the opposite side of the road. It was, of course, the
much remembered Holmes. The site is now occupied by
the showroom of Caroline Kitchens. |
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The ads also help us to recall some wonderful characters
from the past. Who will ever forget dear old Nancy Foreman
and the taxi service that she operated from Railway
Avenue. Her fleet included black cabs and, later (I
believe), Humber Hawks.
Nancy continued to drive long after her retirement...
with some interesting results. |
| Finally, if anyone is thinking of advertising in the
next Carnival program, take care. It's wise to check the
wording to ensure that it cannot be misinterpretted....
because, sure as eggs are eggs, someone will preserve it
for 60 years and then pop it on a web site!
This was very much the case with Surman's.... when, in
1949, they gave the impression that they might be prepared to
butcher more than just the pork.... |
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And with that important message, I will put down the
Carnival program of '49.... and wait for the next one to
surface. In the meantime, my thanks to Jock Harnett... and
my apologies to all those shopkeepers who have had the
misfortune to feature above! ;-) |
Reaction on Article....
Diana Suard has written to explain the term "Superma"...
Eugene Madison Superma was one of the first chemical
perms and the fact that it was machineless must have been
very attractive to women.
I can remember, as a very young child in the forties,
going to the hairdresser's with my granny and seeing a
lady 'tied up' to a perming machine. Very frightening it
was too! The hair was clamped into curlers which were
heated via electric cables suspended from the ceiling.
The hairdresser in question was a Miss Standing and she
had a salon in Tankerton Circus, above Clegg's the chemist
(now Wright's Flooring). I think chemical perms came
in before the war, but perhaps poor Miss Standing was at
the end of her career and couldn't face the change.....
Hope this little bit of useful/useless information helps
you sleep better, Dave!
Diana Suard
Paris |
| Our Reply: Thanks,
Diana. I am including your explanation in the next Chat
Column in case anyone misses it here. |
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