Here's a gem I found on the brilliant website British Pathé... A 3 minutes long video about water-skiing in England, in July 1955!
Even more than by the vintage swimsuits dressed pinups, I'm interested by the boat used in that video : an Albatross Sport, just like mine!

Extract from commentary : "The comparatively modern sport of water skiing [...] started in the luxury resorts of the French Riviera, taken out on the wide open water spaces of Australia and America, this exhilarating sport has reach Britain.".

As a matter of fact, water-skiing started around 1920, in Juan-les-Pins. Which is, basically, down the street where I live!

Extract from commentary : "The boats used are especially made for the sport and cost 500£ each. They are powered by only 10 horses power motor engines, yet they are the fastest crafts of their type of float.".

About the announced price of 500£ : it originally sounded quite low to me, but the National Archives currency converter reckons it would correspond to 8710£ nowadays, i.e. around 10.000€!

Finally, the so glamour touch : noticed the blond water-skier at the beginning of the video? Her look doesn't ring a bell?

It probably isn't a coincidence, since Marylin Monroe was then at the top of her career, her movie "The Seven Year Itch" (with the famous scene of the white dress over a subway grate) being released in June '55, just the month before this video was shot!

Yet another Juan-les-Pins postcard... From a graphic standpoint, it's not that interesting, not a lot details, as the colorization process masked many of them.

No, one this one, the back side is more interesting : this postcard was sent by Lieutenant J. Robinson, an american soldier then deployed here, to his parents in Baltimore (Maryland).

And the date sends a shiver through my spine : the US Army Postal Service stamps shows August 9th 1945.
That very same day, the Bockscar bomber (see nose art on the right) dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb onto Nagasaki, instantly killing 30.000, and many more later due to the effects of radiations...


War in Europe has only been over for 3 months, and Japan will surrender 6 days later, marking the end of WW2. The handwritten text has a different after taste in this context : Obvisouly, this soldier ignored everything about what was about to happen on the other side of the globe, and even if he had, the army censors verifier all letters against leaks.
At the same moment, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Nagasaki, just a few kilometers away from the hypocenter of the explosion. Three days earlier, he also was in Hiroshima on a business trip... He managed to survive both bombs ; he passed away a few months ago, last January.

The Fat Man type bomb was later tested on the Bikini atoll, which gave its name to the swimsuit I was telling you about recently, which was marketed as follow : "the bikini, the first anatomic bomb" (sic)...

The excellent website "Le Blog Moto" (The Moto Blog) has just released an article about the RT 125 the history of DKW.

Have a look here : (the article is in french)
http://www.leblogmoto.com/2008/10/08/dkw-rt-125-une/

Enjoy!