Juke Box Story (1958)

Hampstead, London.



Medium panning shot of a very refined looking coffee bar, the 'Vanity Fair', filled with pot plants, leather armchairs and respectable middle-class couples sipping tea. The camera settles on the top of a small flight of stairs where a metal juke box stands, looking very out of place in such a "sober atmosphere". C/U of a smartly dressed couple chatting over a cup of tea and a cigarette. C/U of the metal juke box which has the name, 'High Fidelity' written on the glass front. The narrator explains that the juke box, once associated with "jazz and rock 'n' roll", is rapidly becoming respectable. C/U of the turntable. A disc is being mechanically lifted from the turntable and replaced amongst the rows of records. C/U of a second smartly dressed couple sitting at a table - she wears a large white hat. As they chat they indicate to where the jukebox is standing. The background buzz of the coffee bar is audible. C/U of the woman in the white hat. She appears to ask her partner for money to place into the juke box. M/S of the couple as the man reaches into his pocket to find some change for the woman to place in the juke box. The woman in the hat graciously accepts the change and walks off frame. The man smiles and lights up a big cigar. M/S of the woman in the hat putting money into the juke box and selecting records. C/U of her chosen records being selected and placed onto the turntable.



The scene changes to the assembly line of a factory in Ilford, Essex. M/S of Tony Fahy sanding a half-constructed juke box. A panning shot follows a man in a white coat, Ken Calvy, who joins another man at a large piece of machinery. The two men are operating a 'profiling machine' - an automated saw which "paves the way for the speaker assembly". Various C/Us of the blade of the 'profiling machine' cutting speaker shapes into a large sheet of hard board.



M/S of another area of the factory where the cut pieces of hard board are being assembled to create a box for the speakers by Tom Maher. According to the narrator, several hundred machines are completed each week, many of which are exported. M/S of two middle aged women in white dresses stretching out long lengths of electric wiring. C/U of brightly coloured wires being unwound from bobbins - in larger machines "there is no less than one thousand feet of wire". M/S of two women pulling out lengths of wire. M/S of five women in similar white dresses assembling the wires to create "the complicated selector button system". C/U of Mrs. Irene Goodwin's hands "fixing and soldering the leads in the selector button assembly". C/U of Mrs. Goodwin's face as she solders. M/S of a young man, Roy Pipfer, working on the mechanism that lifts the records. Various C/Us of the "assembly of the record return arm" and Roy's face as he attempts this delicate task - the arm must be accurate to "one five thousandth of an inch". The narrator makes a bad pun about Roy's work - "one of the few people we know who twists a lot of arms and gets paid for it". M/S of two of the mechanisms attached to racks of records. Len Burton sits in front of one and begins its "final testing" - a process which lasts eight hours and "requires skill, patience and great care". Top shot of the mechanisms being tested by Len. Various shots of the testing process. Various M/Ss of the last stage of the assembly line where the amplifier is fitted and last minute adjustments are made. Ronnie Palmer enters and joins two others who are seated on low stools with wheels on the bottom in front of the nearly completed juke boxes - "not a new dodge for getting to the tea trolley before everyone else but a labour and back ache saving device".



C/U of the juke box in the coffee bar seen at the start of the item - "where it will give enjoyment to thousands of lovers of light music". M/S of two posh middle aged women sitting a table in the coffee bar drinking tea, eating cakes and chatting. C/U of a record being lifted onto the turntable.
FILM ID:71.13

A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ. EXPLORE OUR ONLINE CHANNEL, BRITISH PATHÉ TV. IT'S FULL OF GREAT DOCUMENTARIES, FASCINATING INTERVIEWS, AND CLASSIC MOVIES. http://www.britishpathe.tv/

FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES VISIT http://www.britishpathe.com/

British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website. https://www.britishpathe.com/