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Glasgow Live
National
David McLean

Amazing archive film captures Glasgow and the Clyde in 1942

Captured during the Second World War, it captures a priceless glimpse of a Glasgow that is fast fading from living memory.

Directed by Jimmy Rogers for the Ministry of Interior, the 1942 film Song of the Clyde zones in on the source of Glasgow 'might waterway' from its source at Elvanfoot, to its mouth at the Firth of Clyde.

While it was billed as being a tribute to the Clyde, the film also served as a moving postcard of wartime Glasgow in a bid to boost British morale and showed that it was very much business as usual in Scotland's largest city.

READ MORE: The Clyde that runs through Glasgow isn't actually 'the River Clyde' and here's why

Starting in a rural setting, the film soon heads into the city where we encounter citizens going about their everyday business, gazing through shop windows, hailing tramcars and letting their hair down at the dancing.

Famous Glasgow landmarks, some lost, others still standing, are recognisable as the film takes us along the major thoroughfares of the city centre.

Street scenes are interlaced with shots of industries, docks and shipyards. Look very closely and you might catch a glimpse of the Finnieston Crane - though it's difficult to spot among the veritable forest of other shipyard cranes that dominated the Clyde at the time.

Trams are not exactly thin on the ground in 1940s Glasgow. At the time of the film's release, the city boasted one of the world's largest tramway networks and talk of it being scrapped was still decades away.

In the modern age, we are well-accustomed to seeing beatific shots of the city and its environs on the likes of Instagram and other social media. In the 1940s, however, people seemed genuinely surprised to discover just how jaw-droppingly gorgeous Glasgow could be through a lens.

But there was some criticism aimed at the filmmakers for choosing to ignore Glasgow's less salubrious sights.

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Writing at the time of the film's release, the Daily Record's James Hogg said: "Song of the Clyde, which I saw yesterday, has found unsuspected beauty in Glasgow's river.

"Some of the shots at the source are almost breath-taking in their loveliness, and as the camera moves citywards, the emphasis is still on the aesthetic.

"The University from Kelvingrove Park, a Shawlands tram reflected in a shop window, a close-up of a points duty policeman - these are some of the effective "angles". But our slum areas are conveniently forgotten.

"Good propaganda for Glasgow in the South, I should think."

Accompanied by the famous folk song alluded to in the title, the film, which has been made available online courtesy of the British Council film archive, was a huge hit with WWII cinema audiences nationwide.

You can view the 10-minute film in its entirety here.

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