Joyland Books

Hi all - I finally got to attend this year's above event over last Sunday afternoon. I thought it was very nicely done with the sideshows in the Old Town region behind the front piaza area.

I thought all of the attraction hosts were very enthusiastic, paticularly on a rather damp and dismal day, albeit warm. I especially enjoyed the Horror exhibit and the Flea Circus tent; nice to witness folk from all age groups attending too.

I took quite a few pictures of the outer "tents" with their reconditioned authentic overhead signs. I popped into the local Fisherman Inn for a quick tipple afterwards and spoke to a barman who was also quite supported of Dreamland's revival plans. He also mentioned giving BBC staff working with local TV News weathergirl. Kaddy Preston, some soft drinks through the day as they filmed the illusion exhibits for future broadcast.

The events spanned a whole week this year, finishing today (Friday, 27 August) even with 50's style Keep Fit on the beach daily at 8am!

As ever, I can't promise to upload my camera shots as I'm not exactly best at this stuff. I had to buy a new pc tower last week so maybe I'll try to have a go when I can.

Martin

I took a few snaps, sorry for the poor quality. Didn't actually look around as it was pouring with rain and none of us fancied queueing up in it... Just to clarify one point, although the actual event runs 'til today, these sideshows were only here last Saturday and Sunday.











If you want to upload pics, http://photobucket.com/ is a good place to start.

HI V,C And S - did you make it into the Margate Media Centre, only a stonesthrow away from the funfair bit on the Sunday for the indoor market? You could have said hello to me as I was selling a certain book at a certain keen price!! The traditional Punch and Judy was fun and proved that small children can be a bloodthirsty lot when roused!

Well, I have the first two editions but would be first in the queue for the third... as to the Punch and Judy show I just can't see what amusement there would be in it now that Political Correctness has removed all reference to wife-beating and hanging... next, the vegans will be wanting to get rid of the sausages

Vince, Charlie and Sam wrote:Well, I have the first two editions but would be first in the queue for the third... as to the Punch and Judy show I just can't see what amusement there would be in it now that Political Correctness has removed all reference to wife-beating and hanging... next, the vegans will be wanting to get rid of the sausages

I was in Blackpool for the first weekend in august and the punch and judy show they had in the Laughing Donkey family pub on the south pier was as traditional as you could get. They even made a joke about political correctness.

Ooooh no - all those ingredients were definitely there the other week. Wife beating, yes, mass murder, yes, sausages, yes, baby throwing yes, crocodile killing, yes, assaulting police, yes - just like any Saturday night in Margate town centre but with puppets! Ho Ho.

I don't know if everyone is aware - but four of the sideshows pictured above 'Cleo the Girl in a Goldfish Bowl', 'Miranda the Modern Mermaid', 'Mme. Yvette The Headless Lady' and 'The Living Half Lady' are restored versions of original sideshows exhibited at Dreamland in the late 50's/early 60's. You can read about the history of them on:

www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/ ... -sideshows

They occupied what had been until 1939 a shop selling bread and cakes situated at the bottom of the slope under the cinema (Dreamland had its own bakery at that time) Next to it in what had been a party dining hall were bigger shows such as Midget Town (with live midgets) and some of the cars used in the Great Train Robbery. The shows changed periodically until 1969 when Associated Leisure took over and the whole area was made into a big arcade.