Here's something special. An 18-minute, 1966 promotional video from the Commonwealth Film Unit, designed to entice overseas migrants to move Down Under. Shot beautifully throughout Melbourne - as it turns out by my partner's mother's filmmaker cousin! - at a host of locations throughout the city, it's without any narration, presumably given its market.
There are signs galore throughout, from the inner city ghost sign captured on the milkman's round at 1.26 (is it Carlton?) to the wonderful panoramas of colourful neon signs at 15.03 and the end. Watch out for the large sign of the Mazda Lamps cat on Elizabeth Street at 2.23, and again later (the cat's face is still there today).
Lots of nice shots of early-model Holdens too, as well as the Holden factory where one of the characters works:
Loved seeing those VW delivery vans everywhere, all with hand painted signs. The neon looked great too. Parking looked a lot easier in the sixties.
ReplyDelete..except no power steering on those Holden EKs and FBs! I used to have an FB years ago...but with the addition of the same 'red' motor the guy was building in the Holden factory, not the grey motor you could hear so clearly in the vid :)
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