MENZIES ADS - 60's / 70's



Menzies had a couple of shops in town in 1962, these being in Princes Street and the Wellgate.
One of their ads from that era, the top one, is for "Y-Fronts" - yours for 6/11 - approx 35p in today's money.
The "Y" of course is upside down, so you'd have to be doing a hand stand to read it as that!
Maybe they should have called them Mercedes-Fronts!
A shop in Kirk Style and one in the Nethergate had been added by the time the 1971 ad (centre) was published. These shops just mainly for general clothing.
Smart shirt - not so sure about the Toblerone hat!
A short while after 1971, they opened yet another city shop, this time in the Murraygate, and by March 1977 (the date of the final ad) they had a trendy boutique at that location called "Unit One". This place had a more youthful outlook, with bomber jackets, jeans and so on.

SCHOOL CLOTHES ADS - 1965 TO 1970

1st ad is from 1968 and is for Cairds in Reform Street.

I actually remember these school caps being worn by a couple of kids at Balerno Primary in the mid 60's, but thought they had disappeared by the late 60's. Here they are though, still on sale in '68.

The McGills ad is dated 1970.

The school gear they had on offer were uniforms and sportswear, so that would have included both of their department stores in Victoria Road.

Next up is the GL Wilson ad from 1965.

Their store was well known for being located on "the corner" - that was on the corner of Murraygate & Commercial Street.

They appear to have specialised in school underwear and sportswear. However, in the 60's there really wasn't that much of a difference. I recall when the chaps didn't have shorts to put on they just run around in their undies and vest. The girls always wore navy blue pants to gym and don't think they wore shorts at all in primary.

The last ad is also from 1965 and is for Menzies.

They had 3 shops on the go at the time - the Wellgate, Princes Street and Kirk Style.

The mention of sportswear reminded me that when at primary in the 60's, gym was referred to as PT (Physical Training), but when we went to secondary in 1970 it had become known as PE (Physical Education). I know not why!

FILMING IN DUNDEE - EARLY 80'S - #1

I put a few items up in 2008 relating to the time when the BBC filmed the Alan Bennett play "An Englishman Abroad" in the early 80's, with Dundee being transformed into Moscow.

Well I have a really good bundle of photos which were taken behind the scenes when all this was taking place.

So, in the 2 pictures above, we have shoe shop Peter Lord, on the Murraygate/Commercial Street corner, being modified into it's Russian equivalent.

Across the road on the other corner was John Menzies, who also got the Moscow name change treatment.

It was actually forecast for snow around the time of filming but only a tiny flurry dropped, not nearly enough for what the director, John Schlesinger, had in mind. So the decision was made at 4am to use salt instead. 14 council workers were brought down to the city centre to spread 80 tons of the stuff around town in order that filming could commence at 8:30am pronto.

I was there. They did a really convincing job.

Below is the part of the film where you see the Commercial Street scene.

The actress is trying to find someone who could give her directions to an address she had been given. She then ends up searching around Exchange Street.

 

JOHN MENZIES RECORD DEPT - 1983

John Menzies moved out of their Commercial St/Murraygate corner position in 1983, and relocated further along Murraygate to the empty premises that was once Woolworth. This is a shot from the new location of their record department, taken in December 1983. The record racks were placed diagonally at first, as above, but by the next year they changed the layout of the racks to run parallel with the wall (see December 2008 Archives for comparison).
It's quite interesting to see the large display above the door advertising the very first "Now That's What I Call Music" album...the series being on volume 74 at present!!
And so, with this image, I will now fade out from the recent music theme and crack on with a couple of weeks of retro Christmas shopping!
Photo by DC Thomson

JOHN MENZIES - MURRAYGATE CORNER - 1982

The above photo was taken in 1982, so this would have been a kind of last glimpse of John Menzies corner spot before moving to the opposite side of the Murraygate into Woolies old premises at the tale end of 1983.
As an added bonus, below you'll find a reminder of the Galaxian machines Menzies had on the stair landings.
Incidentally, at the time of this photo, there was also an Amusement Arcade next door to JM's that no doubt had the sound of Galaxians blasting out all day long too!
Photo by DC Thomson.

JOHN MENZIES - MURRAYGATE - 1985

John Menzies moved across the road into these premises in Murraygate in the early 80s, the store having been vacated by Woolworths. Everything was on ground level this time, with the above record department at the far end of the shop. On the left is the Computer section and on the right were wall racks of cassettes and audio accessories.
This picture was taken in December 1985 and in amongst the album racks under "S" are - Shakin' Stevens, Status Quo, Simple Minds, Soft Cell, Saxon, Supertramp, Rod Stewart, Savage Progress & Small Faces.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

JOHN MENZIES CARRIER BAGS

I never thought I'd be able to put the top photo to good use but seeing as I mentioned Bruce's carrier bags in the previous post, I've decided to plonk it on here.

It's a John Menzies carrier bag and this is me arriving home with yet another album - picture was taken in 1975.
And just what LP is lurking inside?
Well it was a brand new release back then - Led Zeppelin with "Physical Graffiti".

The slogan on the carrier is - IT'S IN THE BAG.

The example underneath it is another JM record department carrier bag, this time from the 1980's.