The screen farewell to one of Britain’s most loveable characters – Betty Balfour in Squibs Honeymoon (1923)

Many of the big scenes for Squibs Honeymoon (1923) were taken by George Pearson at the Islington studio in early October 1923.

Betty Balfour looked divine in her bridal outfit and the whole of the big floor at the Islington studio was taken up with a lovely old village church set with real shady trees and bushes and laid lawn, cobbled path leading up to the church through a lychgate with perched doves. The church in the crest of the slope seemed centuries old but had in fact been erected in just a few hours. Among the spectators were a number of uniformed policemen all ‘attending’ the wedding, including husband-to-be Fred Groves and Hugh E. Wright as Squibs’ father in his comic Sunday best. There were cheers from the crowd when Squibs arrived and Betty Balfour looked radiant in a cream wedding dress. Accompanying her were a few young girls in plain black straw hats and shawls, attire that was practically the insignia of the Piccadilly Circus flower seller.

It was a slow motion wedding for Betty Balfour as Squibs for she must have gone into the church at least twenty times and came out six. Each time the bodyguard of flower girls and ‘bobbies’ threw confetti and cheered; each time Balfour had to be dusted over with a big feather duster to remove all the confetti for retake after retake.

It was not quite the end of Squibs, it was the end for the silent Squibs, but there was a talkie remake of Squibs in 1935.

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years 

will be published 15th July 2014

A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era. 

Available in the following formats:

Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132
Paperback, £14.99, 
ISBN 9781909230101
From Amazon.co.uk
From Amazon.com
From The Book Depository (hardback)
From The Book Depository (paperback)

Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, 

ISBN 9781909230125
Apple ebook, £8.99, 
ISBN 9781909230118
(Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)