Travel Hostess- Thunder Bay, Canada

Last weeks Fisher Price air stewardess reminded me of this old, souvenir slide, which I've been meaning to post for a while!

Back in the day, before digital cameras, videos and dvds, families would often invite each other round to one anothers houses, to view slides and cine film of their holidays. The quality of peoples own photos were generally, pretty ropey, so a gap in the market emerged and companies began to produce souvenir packs of slides, taken by professional photographers. Quality assured, you could now share those magical moments without embarrassment!

Todays post, of an Ontario Government Travel Bureau Hostess is taken from a pack of 5 travel slides of Thunder Bay, Canada produced by Gaf. Their series of slides was called pana-vue. You can see more from the pana-vue series over at Worldsfairphotos.com and also at disneypix.com. There are lots to choose from at disneypix, but my absolute favourites are of Tomorrowland.

Now, if the response is good to these slides, I could always share with you my set of Calgary stampede slides, featuring an Indian village and chief!!!

Fisher Price Air stewardess

Hot on the heels of Pan Am, thats recently been aired on UK TV, heres Fisher Price's very own Air Stewardess from the seventies. Although complete with matching bag, I cant see how she can hold it!

Birmingham Bull Ring Commemorative Plate

The Old Birmingham Bull Ring was the first indoor market in the UK when it opened in 1964. It mixed traditional open air market with a submerged market hall. Considered to be the height of modernity when it opened it soon fell from grace with its labyrinth of subways, and failing escalators. None of this was helped by the isolation the ring road caused.

Back in the eighties it used to run a rather good flea market, and I remember picking up a couple of fine finds there. Last month this plate, by Purbeck Pottery turned up. It commemorates the opening of the Bull Ring. It seems at odds to have an almost folk response to what was at the time, such brutal modern architecture!