This amazing footage just came across Deerhound-L, and I had to share.
First is silent film of a British dog show in 1938 -- notable for the Poodles. It's only a few seconds long, and the quality is bad, but still... amazing.
The second is a much longer and better film of the same show in 1953. It shows the dogs arriving, being checked by a veterinarian (who never washes his hands or does any form of infection control between dogs -- I guess he's just looking for signs of distemper), being groomed, in the bench area and in the ring.
My favorite, however, was this silent footage of Scottish Deerhounds owned by Miss Richmond on what is apparently a vast, misty estate with rolling grassy meadows, acres of puppy paddocks, and a river. The scenes of her riding out with her hounds on horseback almost made me cry.
Check out the whole site. It's just loaded with astonishing vintage film, much of dogs but of all kinds of other things, too.
That is an awesome site! Thank you Christie!
Nice to see Pekes (quite obviously Pekes too) who could breathe and move, and GSDs who weren't crippled.
I typed in Great Danes and found other footage, including a video of an obedience training school where the dogs were doing high jumps and novelty things like jumping over a table with a family of 4 seated at it, complete with plates and tableware! :-)
Posted by: Barb | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Bless Mrs. Phipps-Hornby, her sensible shoes and her clever groundskeeper who no doubt put that racecourse together for her!
Posted by: Gina Spadafori | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
ROFL Dee... that is PRICELESS.
Is this the greatest website ever or WHAT?
Posted by: Christie Keith | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Thanks for the great link.
Who says Pekes can't move? They even race, greyhound-style:
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1770
Posted by: Dee | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Someone needs to do that horseback photo as a painting!
Posted by: The OTHER Pat | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Comment by glock — July 18, 2009 @ 9:01 am
lol!~ I did the same search! I was impressed by this woman and her 'herd' of Dals:
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=19262
Posted by: straybaby | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
There's some old footage of cat shows too, which highlight Persians and Siamese. From the 1930s through the 1950s, back when both of them were substantial cats.
And as a bonus ...? They've got a silent short of Louis Wain!
Posted by: Eucritta | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Great site! I typed in Dalmatians and was able to review all sorts of footage about Dalmatians, including old dog show footage. Very interesting from standpoint of the breed "standard". There was also some great footage of Dalmatians with horses and a Dalmatian coaching under the rear axel of carriage.
Posted by: glock | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Isn't it amazing? I could get lost there for days!
Posted by: Christie Keith | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
I found one of a paralyzed dachshund with handmade wheelies from 1951!
This link is a treasure, many thanks.
Posted by: Eucritta | 17 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
What a greyt site! Found a 1926 film of the 91st Waterloo Cup! Tallyho!!!! Thank you, Christie!
Posted by: Anne T | 18 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Wow great find - what I found really interesting was the similar phenotype to dogs today, we read all this hype about how breeders have changed breeds so much recently and that is why we have so many health problems in (purebred) dogs today but the peke's and cavaliers in those videos don't look larger or have longer muzzles than dogs today. I just expected to see Peke's with long muzzles, and giant bulldogs but they look the same as I saw at show two weeks ago. Very interesting !
Posted by: LC | 21 July 2009 at 08:00 PM
Some dogs were very similar in appearance now and then, but you must not be looking at the same Pekes who were running that steeplechase course as I was.
The Crufts Best In Show footstool that couldn't even sit for pictures without becomin life-threateningly overheated didn't look much like the dogs in the video.
Posted by: Gina Spadafori | 21 July 2009 at 08:00 PM