Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 22089 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| VAUX COMMERCIAL: THE CONTINENTAL HOTEL SUNDERLAND | 1965 | 1965-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 35mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Sound Duration: 42 sec Credits: Organisations: Vaux Breweries, Erwin Wasey Ltd Individual: Kent Walton Genre: Advertising Subject: Urban Life |
| Summary A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at The Continental Hotel, Sunderland. Inside at the hotel bar ITV sports commentator Kent Walton enjoys pints of beer with local musicians David MacBeth and Helen Russell alongside other patrons. |
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Description
A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at The Continental Hotel, Sunderland. Inside at the hotel bar ITV sports commentator Kent Walton enjoys pints of beer with local musicians David MacBeth and Helen Russell alongside other patrons.
The advertisements opens on an exterior view of the entrance of the Continental Hotel in Sunderland.
The film cuts inside where Kent Walton stands at the bar next to Helen Russell chatting. They both turn and look across the busy lounge...
A 30 second television advertisement for Vaux Breweries filmed at The Continental Hotel, Sunderland. Inside at the hotel bar ITV sports commentator Kent Walton enjoys pints of beer with local musicians David MacBeth and Helen Russell alongside other patrons.
The advertisements opens on an exterior view of the entrance of the Continental Hotel in Sunderland.
The film cuts inside where Kent Walton stands at the bar next to Helen Russell chatting. They both turn and look across the busy lounge to David MacBeth who sits at a nearby table. They stick their thumbs up at each other in acknowledgement.
The film cuts back to Helen Russell at the bar followed by a young woman holding a pint of Vaux and taking a drink. Behind the bar a pint of Vaux is pulled from a tap, then the film cuts to David MacBeth drinking his pint.
A young couple sit at one of the bar's tables, the young woman takes a drink from her pint.
The advertisement ends on a tankard of beer with the Vaux logo on the front and male voices singing “Vaux beer brewed in the North by people who love good beer”.
Context
This is an example of a cinema advertisement for Vaux Brewery, one of ten commercials sponsored by the brewery in the mid-1960s preserved at North East Film Archive. Vaux Brewery operated in Sunderland from 1806 up until 1999 when it was closed due to advice from London based financiers.
The founder of the company was Cuthbert Vaux, who produced the company's most infamous drinks, the Vaux’s Stout and the Double Maxim, both of which are featured in the advertisements and were the most...
This is an example of a cinema advertisement for Vaux Brewery, one of ten commercials sponsored by the brewery in the mid-1960s preserved at North East Film Archive. Vaux Brewery operated in Sunderland from 1806 up until 1999 when it was closed due to advice from London based financiers.
The founder of the company was Cuthbert Vaux, who produced the company's most infamous drinks, the Vaux’s Stout and the Double Maxim, both of which are featured in the advertisements and were the most common drinks they brewed. The first brewery location for the company was on the corner of Matlock Street and Cumberland Street. However, they were forced to move when the land was purchased for the Central Railway Station, their second location on Castle Street from 1875, where they would stay until the company’s dissolution. They also held another brewery in Union Street for thirty years from 1844 until the 1870s. The Vaux & Co. brewery was a family owned business. After Cuthbert Vaux died in 1878 the company was passed on to his sons, John and Edwin. John Vaux’s sons, named Cuthbert and Ernest, would go on to join Edwin in the brewing business after their father’s passing. Even parts of management were family members. Frank Nicholson, who joined as a manager in the late 1890s, married the daughter of John Vaux, Amy, and became director. Upon becoming director, Frank Nicholson oversaw a variety of big changes for the brewery. Vaux expanded into a bigger company under Frank; he organised a union with North East Breweries Ltd., creating the second largest brewers in England, with Vaux and Associated Breweries Ltd. Brewing companies were also purchased in Sheffield, and in 1972 Vaux expanded overseas, with the acquisition of Fred Koch Brewery in New York, but this venture only lasted three years. In the 1990s they also made their fatal expansion into hotels, which would ultimately lead to the end of Vaux Breweries. The Vaux breweries were closed in 1999 and the company then turned to focus on its investments in hotels and restaurants, under advice from London financier Alex Brown. This was a shock to many in the area, even some within the company itself, as the brewing sector was very successful with profits of £50 million. The Chairman of the company, Paul Nicholson, was so displeased with the news that he resigned from his post. Ultimately the closure would leave 700 out of a job and a hole in the spirit of the city. After rebranding as Swallow Group Plc. the new company did not last very long on its own. In 2000 the company was taken over by Whitbread. From here the Swallow Hotels became Marriott hotels and the pubs were turned into brands such as Brewers Fayre. In 2003 the Swallow brand itself was purchased by London Inn Group, however, by 2006 this went into administration. In 2014 the last hotel located in Glasgow had closed. The Vaux Breweries were closely linked to the culture and community of Sunderland. They served as the team shirt sponsors for Sunderland AFC from the mid-1980s until the brewery’s closure in 1999 and the headquarters on Castle Street in central Sunderland, played a big part in its architectural landscape. This headquarters was demolished in 2008 and as of 2014 it has been a discontinuous construction site for a new base for Sunderland City Council. Their advertisements were made firstly to promote their products, but also served to highlight their chain of local pubs and bars around the North East. Their adverts commonly featured their trademark dray and horses, appealing historical symbols of the Vaux Brewery, which spoke to the tradition and trustworthiness of the company. At the end of the adverts the company jingle would play out, ‘Vaux Beer brewed in the North- for people who know good beer’. These beer adverts were narrated by, or featured, sports commentator Kent Walton, who became famous for commentating on tennis, football, and most notably on wrestling coverage on ITV’s ‘World of Sport’. Usually the adverts featured other celebrities enjoying their drinks with the locals, lending credibility and kudos to the Vaux brand. The Continental, a Vaux social club located in a back lane behind the Joplings department store (now student accommodation), is, the voice over tells us, 'a favorite with show business people', introducing singers David MacBeth and Helen Russell. Newcastle-born David MacBeth was spotted as a pop singer in a 1950s talent show for young people called The Carroll Levis Discovery Show. He went on to appear several times on Tyne Tees Television under the pseudonym David North. His debut single ‘Mr Blue’ produced by Joe Meek (a No. 1 hit for The Fleetwoods in the States) reached no. 18 in the UK chart. (Even Bob Dylan and The Band tried a version of the song in 1967, later heard in the bootleg Basement Tapes released in 2014.) It was recorded while MacBeth still worked as a commercial traveller. In 1962 he covered US chart topper ‘Roses are Red (My Love)’. Once on the books with Newcastle United FC before time as an army conscript, his new found career didn’t really fly. He recorded on Decca Records and Piccadilly Records while working the cabaret circuit in the early 60s, but soon joined the agency side of the music business in 1965, when he appeared on this Vaux commercial. A return to recording in 1969 for producer Tony Hatch failed to ignite his singing career. The fabulous actress and author of wartime drama Keep Calm and Carry On, Helen Russell (1924 - ) was a stage-struck Londoner who was performing at age 8 and turned professional at the age of 14 (having lied about her age). At 15 she joined the Entertainment National Service Association (ENSA) set up by Basil Dean, otherwise known as Every Night Something Awful, to entertain British troops at army bases during World War II, and played lunchtimes in munitions factories, theatres and clubs, to keep up the morale of workers. She settled in South Shields with her husband, in time returning to performing in working men’s clubs such as a local on Ocean Road. In an interview with blogger Gary Alikivi, Russel recalls: “First time I worked with a stripper in the clubs. It was a Sunday morning. I walked into the club ‘Are ye’ the strippa or wat?’ said a bloke there. ‘I’m the what’ I replied (laughs). The stripper walks into the dressing room with just a bag. I walked in with all my gear, microphone, speakers and stage costume. She did a 5 minute act then taxi to her next gig. She did 4 clubs in a morning. Not bad work but I couldn’t do it. I’ll stick to singing (laughs).” Later as a jobbing actor with agent Janet Plater, Russell appeared in numerous TV shows such as Emmerdale, Comedy Playhouse, Supergran, Byker Grove, Heartbeat, Spender and Billy Elliot, and even in the multi BAFTA award winning comedy sketch show of the 90s, The Fast Show. She has frequently appeared in plays at her local Shields theatre, The Customs House and was still entertaining audiences in her 90s (as of writing in 2019). After its demise, the spirit of Vaux Brewery was continued by two of its former directors, who would go on to form the Maxim Brewery, buying the original recipes of their classic drinks, including Double Maxim. More recently, as of Easter 2019, there has been a revival of the Vaux Brewery name. An attempt to open another Vaux Brewery with a more modern take on the Vaux name is trying to fill the void left in Sunderland by the original closure. References: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/david-macbeth-mn0000178989/biography https://garyalikivi.com/2019/07/18/puttin-on-a-show-in-conversation-with-north-east-entertainer-helen-russell/ https://amdramne.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/reliving-80-years-of-showbusiness-with-helen-russell/ |
