LONDON STREET CRIES

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3303, 30 May 1931, Page 6

LONDON STREET CRIES

OLD PICTURE COME TO LIFE. EPISODES IN TALKIE-MAKING. " There are the criers of London Town; Some go up street and some go down. Now if you will but wait a while, Sweetly it will the hour beguile To hear how each with singing cry Their several wares as they pass by." —John Lydgate (1370-1450).

Walking down Chelsea Embankment a few days ago between the intervals of two snow showers I saw a small crowd at the bottom of Swan Walk (writes a special correspondent in the London Morning Post). I crossed the road to see what it was all about, and was amazed to find myself looking at one of Wheatley's pictures of the street criers of Old London come to life.

Two young women and a child dressed in the costume of the period and carrying baskets of primroses were walking up and down the street calling on all and sundry to buy their sweet primroses, "two bunches for a penny." Very dainty they looked in their thin, summery costumes, and very charming were their fresh young voices, while the old Georgian houses made a beautiful and realistic background. Of course the inevitable cinema van was hidden away round the corner. It was hardly the day I should have chosen to make a film, and, while I marvelled at teh wonders of modern science, I marvelled still more at the hardihood of the young woman of today as I brushed away a few snoWflakes and turned up the collar of my greatcoat to watch the proceedings. Inquiry elicited the fact that a talking picture of the street cries of Old London was being made to assist the hospital funds. Making a talkie in the streets of London is beset with difficulties. The rumble of traffic or the strident hoot of a motor car may spoil a sound-film just as it is being completed, and the whole thing has to be done again. Good lighting is essential, and the sun has a tiresome way of escaping behind a thick cloud just when everything is ready for the " shoot." An amusing episode occurred during teh filming of " Matches," which called for a quick decision on the part of the operator. A stray dog, which was not intended to take part in the performance, ran straight into the field of the camera when the film was about half completed. Fortunately the operator remembered just in time that a dog features in nearly all of Wheatley's pictures, and he continued turning the handle as if nothing had happened—and by the greatest good fortune it was a real "Wheatley" dog !