"Hats on!" Easter 1960 and having a gay time!

Any history buff would just love the British Pathe site. It contains archival material on news, sport, entertainment and social history from Pathe News covering the period from 1896 to 1970,

I was born in England and grew up with this when visiting the cinema. There was always Pathe News. As young children we did not appreciate this genre. We were the first group of the TV generation and this form of news reporting that had served people well in past years was about to end. Very unkindly we called these reports “Pathetic News”. I guess it was our attempt at feeble satire. I have come to appreciate this material as a historical record and reflective of the times. For many the alternative in the early years was the newspaper – these newsreels brought the news to life. You could see Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler speaking live. Seeing this material brings everything back in a somewhat eerie fashion.

The material on the site can be downloaded for free as a preview in low resolution. Higher resolutions are available at a cost. The prices are fixed for web use and PowerPoint Presentations and other uses are quoted on request. Personal prints of specific individual frames are available in high resolution for payment of a fee. There are special arrangements for users in the UK, especially educational institutions.

The theme of this blog is Hat Nostalgia and what better than to see hats being worn in context by real people. You can spend a lot of time searching for possible subjects. Try “hats”, “hat making”, “Ascot”, “Derby”, “Fashion”“Wedding” and “Coronation” among others. My personal favorite is to search under “Easter Parade” where the real hat wearing was done. I found an amusing clip from an Easter Parade in 1960. “If you can't be gay at Easter when can you be gay?” How times have changed. Of course, “gay”meant something quite different from homosexual then!

You can find this searchable archive at:
http://www.britishpathe.com/