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Launching the Empress of Canada

Accession number: 
1960.0032

Actors and Participants:

Production Years: 
1960

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
324 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
10
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, VHS.
"Footage of: crowd; pan of crowd; dignitaries going to a platform, Mrs. Olive Diefenbaker among them; Olive Diefenbaker greeting clergyman and crowd looks on in background; scenes of The Empress of Canada under construction at Newcastle on Tyne shipyard; workers on scaffolding, painting the ship; close-up of worker painting; other workers performing various tasks; and more views of the exterior of the ship under construction. Views from a train of railway tracks, a small station and a railway bridge; passengers aboard train; close-up of Olive Diefenbaker aboard the train; train passing York station; surrounding countryside with built-up regions; more views of VIP passengers aboard the train, a British Rail train as per the BR headrest covers; rural countryside shot from the train; back to close-ups of passengers; more shots of countryside; Tyne Bridge at Newcastle; ship on the river; train arriving at station; Mrs. Diefenbaker and other passengers disembarking as a crowd waits on the platform; close-up of Mrs. Diefenbaker smiling for the camera; crowd walking along platform; Mrs. Diefenbaker in back of a car as it drives away; crowds walking past camera and getting into a bus; rows of buses; tugboats in river; woman and child seated on grass; more shots of tugboats and crowds at the docks; clergyman reading from a text as Mrs. Diefenbaker and other guests stand on a platform behind him; pan shot from the ship to the clergyman and guests on the platform below; close-up of a worker adjusting something on the ship; crowd; Mrs. Diefenbaker speaking into microphone; Mrs. Diefenbaker pulling a lever, sending bottle to hit side of the ship; close-up of mechanism moving to launch ship; close up of hull moving as crowd looks on; ship sliding into the water; juxtaposition of shots of Mrs. Diefenbaker and other people officiating at the launch and the ship getting underway in the harbour; crowds watching; tugboats move into position alongside the ship; people watching from grassy hillside; view of the ship at dock, with the name Empress of Canada London."