Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This silent black-and-white clip shows Santa Claus arriving at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in the inner Sydney suburb of Camperdown in an open horsedrawn carriage accompanied by little girls dressed as fairies. Patients and nurses are gathered outside the Hospital to greet him. Santa Claus, who is carrying a sack bearing the name 'Anthony Hordern and Sons’, waves a white handkerchief and greets the young patients. He walks into a ward that appears to be on a veranda, and then into a courtyard where small children are in canopied beds. An intertitle introduces the clip.

Educational value points

• This clip, designed to draw attention to the Anthony Hordern and Sons department store, is an early example of the use of 'association’ to promote a product or service. Advertisers seek to associate their product with a positive cause or a particular person or image to make the produce seem as desirable as that person or thing. Hordern and Sons sought to enhance its reputation through association with positive, commendable people and causes, such as Santa Claus and a highly respected children’s hospital.

• Many department stores increase their store’s brand recognition by associating themselves with Santa Claus and the celebration of Christmas. In the USA and Canada the Santa Claus parade is frequently sponsored by department stores. A trip to view the department store Christmas window in major Australian cities is part of the traditional festivities, and most department stores and shopping malls have a Santa Claus in residence at Christmastime.

• The visit of Santa Claus was designed to promote Anthony Hordern and Sons, once one of the largest department stores in Sydney. In the 1920s, this firm had more than 3,000 employees and a huge mail-order department. Its New Palace Emporium, which opened in 1905 and occupied an entire city block, claimed to be the 'universal provider’ and was said to sell 'everything from a needle to an anchor’. It closed in the 1970s and the building was demolished in 1985 to make way for a high-rise complex.

• The clip shows a children’s hospital in the 1920s, illustrating how different it was from a modern hospital. Wards were large and often crowded. Patients would stay in hospital for months and, in some cases, for years. The rooms were dark and undecorated and had metal beds, and the nurses wore starched uniforms with caps. A belief in the therapeutic benefits of fresh air may have been the reason for beds on verandas, as shown in the clip.

• The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children opened in 1880 as the Sydney Hospital for Sick Children in Glebe, and was largely funded by philanthropists. Royal patronage led to a change of name and in 1907 the Hospital moved to Camperdown. In October 1995 it moved to its present site at Westmead because the Camperdown site could not be expanded, was difficult to reach by public transport, and the growing population in western Sydney meant there was a greater demand for a children’s hospital in the area.

• Hordern and Sons was a family business that grew from a draper’s store established by Anthony Hordern (1819–76) with his brother Lebbeus (1826–81) in the mid-1840s. Samuel Hordern (1876–1976), grandson of the founder, directed the company for more than 50 years and was well known for his philanthropy. The company was taken over by Waltons in 1969 and delisted in 1970.

• The clip is from an advertisement in the format and style of an Australian silent newsreel. In the 1920s, newsreels were usually shown before the feature film in cinemas and newsreel production was a thriving industry in Australia. Several newsreels would be linked together to form a kind of magazine presentation of local and overseas events, and some theatrettes showed only newsreels, which were played continuously, usually on an hourly cycle.