Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 14614 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| CRUISE ROUND THE WEST INDIES ON THE ANTILLES | 1958 | 1958-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 29 mins 38 secs Credits: Individuals: Ruth Jacobson Genre: Home Movie Subject: celebrations & ceremony FAMILY LIFE landscapes & seascapes military & war TRAVEL travel & tourism |
| Summary A home movie made by Ruth Jacobson a cruise holiday take by her and her husband Lionel around the West Indies aboard the S.S. Antilles in 1958. The film begins with passengers taking part on the “Mysteries of the Deep” ceremony, a traditional Equator-crossing initiation rite that commemorates a sailor's first crossing. This is followed by visits to ... |
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Description
A home movie made by Ruth Jacobson a cruise holiday take by her and her husband Lionel around the West Indies aboard the S.S. Antilles in 1958. The film begins with passengers taking part on the “Mysteries of the Deep” ceremony, a traditional Equator-crossing initiation rite that commemorates a sailor's first crossing. This is followed by visits to a number of tropical locations including Martinique, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico as well as Caracas in Venezuela.
The film opens on a group of...
A home movie made by Ruth Jacobson a cruise holiday take by her and her husband Lionel around the West Indies aboard the S.S. Antilles in 1958. The film begins with passengers taking part on the “Mysteries of the Deep” ceremony, a traditional Equator-crossing initiation rite that commemorates a sailor's first crossing. This is followed by visits to a number of tropical locations including Martinique, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico as well as Caracas in Venezuela.
The film opens on a group of passengers onboard the S.S. Antilles dressed in various maritime costumes participate in the “Mysteries of the Deep” ceremony as the ship crosses the Equator. Costumes that can be identified include King Neptune, Davy Jones, and Her Highness Aphrodite. A second group of passengers are lead to the ship’s swimming pool, seated on a plank and covered in gunk before being thrown into the pool.
The film cuts to a still in a travel brochure about the Caribbean island of Martinique before changing to show ships moored in the harbour at Fort-de-France with the town in the background. On land, a man holds a chicken by the neck. There are various views of fishing boats and nets on a beach with palm trees. A group of men lead a cart of sugar cane pulled by oxen. Two women and a man stand on the deck of a ship followed by another man looking out to sea with binoculars.
A still of a travel brochure title page identifies the next destination as Guadeloupe. General views of a busy market at Basse-Terre follow. Back onboard ship views of the harbour and town as well as of passengers sunbathing and socialising.
Puerto Rico is the next stop and views of Old San Juan from the roof of the El Morra Fort. Two men stand by the fort wall and are joined by a woman in a blue dress. General views of El Morra Fort followed by the three people climbing up a series of steps. The film cuts to shots of sunbathers beside a hotel swimming pool followed by a group of people enjoying a meal [out of focus]. Back on board the ship, some of the passengers sunbathe on deck.
Following a still from a travel brochure views of rowing boats rowing towards land from the cruise ship. A musical group performs under a canopy. A woman in a hat sits on a wall next to a red-flowering bush, a mountain range in the background. Walking along a street a woman carries several large wicker baskets on her head. The sequence closes with a view of a harbour and town seen from the ship.
The film cuts to a policeman directing traffic next to “The Canadian Bank”. There is a views of a tropical garden. A man hands a woman a flower before posing beside a car. A soldier stands to attention outside a building with the Union Jack flying on the flagpole.
In the next sequence a view of a large industrial “Shell” refinery and dockside with moored tankers. General views of the port and city from a bridge are followed by busy street scenes. The film switches to views of the arrival of the cargo ship “Sydhar” which enters the harbour and passing the camera.
Another still of a travel brochure announces the location of the next sequence as Caracas, Venezuela. View from a car travelling through the city showing a twin towered building sporting a huge Pepsi Cola bottle hoarding and modern building complex. A woman takes a photograph. There are views of an equestrian statue intercut with three men stand on diving boards beside a hotel swimming pool. The sequence ends with views of the Antilles docked along a quayside.
General views of a street carnival taking place with people in African tribal costume parading with banners. Various floats pass by, including a tropical fruit designed vehicle and Egyptian themed float. Crowds of people are in a stadium as more floats arrive.
A group of men swim in the sea near to the Antilles with another steam ship docked in the harbour. More views of the harbour and beach, and a woman relaxing in the grounds of a house. Shots of a tropical beach and huts close this holiday film.
Context
Born Birmingham, January 19, 1919. Died Newcastle, February 8, 2009, aged 90
Regarded as the grande dame of Newcastle Jewry, Ruth Jacobson moved to Newcastle as a bride of 18 and became a leading light in the city and the region, writes Faga Speker.
The youngest of four children of Rev Dr Abraham Cohen, chief minister of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation from 1913-49, she received early training in charity work from her mother, Bessie. Armed with a receipt book and her natural charm, she...
Born Birmingham, January 19, 1919. Died Newcastle, February 8, 2009, aged 90
Regarded as the grande dame of Newcastle Jewry, Ruth Jacobson moved to Newcastle as a bride of 18 and became a leading light in the city and the region, writes Faga Speker. The youngest of four children of Rev Dr Abraham Cohen, chief minister of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation from 1913-49, she received early training in charity work from her mother, Bessie. Armed with a receipt book and her natural charm, she was sent to collect annual subscriptions for the Poor Children’s Boot and Shoe Fund. Marrying in Newcastle in 1937, she was a mother at 19. Another two babies soon followed. Her husband, Lionel Jacobson, had gained a degree at Oxford and trained for the bar. But he went into his father’s business, Jackson the Tailor, founded in the early 1900s, and ran it with his brother before its 1953 merger with Burtons, of which he became chairman. Despite her young family, Ruth volunteered for war work and helped with the Women’s Voluntary Service until after the war. She also started her lifelong involvement in the local Daughters of Zion and joined Wizo, soon becoming branch chairman. Keen on local and especially smaller charities, she and her husband set up a trust fund. But their main endowment was the Ruth and Lionel Jacobson chair of clinical pharmacology at Newcastle University Medical School, twinned with the school of medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For over 40 years, each medical department of the university has invited a speaker from abroad to deliver the annual Jacobson Lecture. After Lionel’s death in 1978, their youngest child, Malcolm, joined Ruth as trustee. In the 1973 community amalgamation, the Jacobsons bought the site for today’s United Hebrew Congregation of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Lionel Jacobson House, the original house on the site, provides constantly used function and drop-in rooms, synagogue offices and a small shul for the daily minyan, as well as the kosher food facility. Keen collectors of contemporary art, the couple made generous loans to Newcastle and Durham Universities. Ruth was a life-member and fundraiser of the Friends of the Laing Art Gallery. A co-founder in 1948 of the highly successful amateur dramatic society, The Jewish Players, she appeared in many of its productions and led the company to its triumphant securing of two cups at the local drama festival. Involved with youth, she was chairman of the fundraising committee of the Northumberland Association of Youth Clubs, a governor of Rutherford Comprehensive School, and a member of the development trust committee of Newcastle Church High School. As founder-chairman of the League of Jewish Women in Newcastle, which she was asked to start in the mid-1970s, she became involved with the North East School for the Blind, where she used her thespian skills by acting out each character in the stories she read to the schoolchildren. Maintaining her interest in Wizo, she sat on its national executive committee and was a vice-president of Wizo UK until retiring in 2005 after receiving a Woman of Valour award. She was also active in the Newcastle Ladies’ Cancer Committee and was the first female board director of the Metro radio station, retiring in 1989 aged 70. In 1980 she was invited to join a group visit to schools and hospitals in China, organised by a London communal figure, the late Ruth Winston-Fox, with the aim of gaining emancipation for Chinese women. Asked by the deputy lord mayor of Newcastle, Labour councillor Bennie Abrahams, to serve as his deputy lady mayoress, she continued as his lady mayoress in 1981, as Mrs Marion Abrahams was too ill for public duties. Politically unaffiliated, she became a huge asset, especially with the lord mayor’s failing eyesight. She was appointed MBE in 1989 for her contribution to charitable services in north east England. But she retired from her positions as her oldest daughter, Valerie’s, health deteriorated with multiple sclerosis. Both Valerie and Valerie’s son, Nigel, predeceased her. She is survived by her second daughter, Pamela; son, Malcom; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Obituary: Ruth Jacobson: The Jewish Chronicle online, 26 March 2009 http://www.thejc.com/social/obituaries/obituary-ruth-jacobson |
