Piccadilly Circus: 1958 - a photo on Flickriver

Piccadilly Circus: 1958

            This is a Lansdowne Publishing Co Ltd postcard showing Piccadilly Circus looking north towards Shaftesbury Avenue from near the junction with Lower Regent Street. It is a rainy evening in the autumn of 1958 and if you wanted to be frightened in the comfort of a west end cinema then the London Pavilion is the place for you. The Cinema is showing an American Sci-Fi/ Horror double bill, “It. The terror from beyond space” was a low budget film starring Marshall Thomson, Shawn Smith and Kim Spalding about the second mission to Mars and an almost indestructible Martian creature which hitches a lift back to earth, the plot was said to have inspired Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay for the first “Alien” film. “Curse of the faceless man” was another low budget American horror film reputedly shot over a seven-day period starring Richard Anderson and Adele Mara. The plot was a theme on the “Mummy” story but this time involving a Roman gladiator mummified by the eruption of Vesuvius and later discovered by archaeologists excavating Pompeii.  The double bill ran at the London Pavilion for one week starting 4th October 1958. The sign advertising “Schweppes Tonic Water” was predominant on that corner for most of the 1950s, the company was founded by Johann Jacob Schweppe in 1783 in Geneva using the Joseph Priestley method of producing carbonated mineral water. Schweppe moved to London in 1792 to develop his business which later resulted in the marketing of Malvern Mineral water, Ginger Ale, Bitter Lemon and Tonic water. The company is now owned by the American company, “The Dr Pepper Snapple Group”. Another Beverage if you could call it that, had been advertised in Piccadilly Circus since the first advertisements went up in 1908. “Bovril” was a Beef extract which could be dissolved in hot water or even milk to make a hearty drink in the winter, it was and is popular at football matches, it can also be used as a spread on bread or toast. The product had its origins due to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the French government ordered one million cans of beef for its Army from a Scottish businessman living in Canada named John Lawson Johnston, but he had problems transporting and storing the beef before processing, so he came up with the idea of “Johnston’s Fluid Beef” which in 1889 became “Bovril” with the formation of a production company in the UK. The name is a composite word, the “Bov” is taken from “Bovinus”, the Latin for Ox and “Vril” from the Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel, “The Coming Race” the plot is about a superior race of people, the “Vril-ya”, who derive their powers from an electromagnetic substance named "Vril". Despite becoming a solely vegetarian product in 2004 due mainly to the BSE problem, after two years Beef was once again on the list of ingredients.
   

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / London / Soho (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 1958

Tags:

Piccadilly Circus

Shaftesbury Avenue

Lansdowne Publishing Co. Ltd

Autumn

The London Pavilion

Black and White

Science Fiiction Horror Film

Schweppes Tonic Water

Sign

Johann Jacob Schweppe

Geneva

Joseph Priestley

Carbonated Mineral Water

Malvern Mineral Water

Ginger Ale

Bitter Lemon

Tonic Water

Dr Pepper and Snaplle Group

Beverage

Bovril

Beef Extract

Franco-Prussian War

Canada

John Lawson Johnston

Johnston's Fluid Beef

Bovinus

Latin

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Novel

Vril-ya

Electromagnetiic Substance

Vegetarian

BSE

Ingrediients

London

1983

1792

1870

1889

2004

1958

It. The Terror from Beyond Space

Marshall Thompson

Shawn Smith

Kim Spalding

Martian Creature

Alien

Dan O'Bannon

Curse of the Faceless Man

Horror

Mummy

Roman Gladiator

Vesuvius

Pompeii

Richard Anderson

Adele Mara « less

Sets appears in: • Piccadilly Circus

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