Rare footage of the opening of Dundee City Square in 1933 will feature on the big screen.
A second “miscellany” screening will be shown at the Steps Theatre following the success of the first archive film in July.
Among the footage that can be viewed on August 8 at 12.15pm and 1.15pm is the opening of the City Square by Prince George, who would later become the Duke of Kent.
The Caird Hall had been opened by the Prince of Wales in 1923 followed by the completion of the City Square and Chambers 10 years later.
Iain Flett of The Friends of Dundee City Archives, will introduce the miscellany and provide a commentary over the silent items.
He said: “A typical newsreel of the sort that used to be shown as reel breaks in cinemas then covers the opening of the entire City Square in 1933.
“A short, fast paced commentary of just over a minute, it covers Prince George in ‘Royal Visit to Dundee’.
“Prince George, later Duke of Kent, would sadly die in a military air crash in Caithness nine years later.
“His older brother, Prince Albert, would become King George VI.
“The opening of City Square had had its own public controversy, with the demolition involved of the Adam Town House, which was fondly known as ‘The Pillars’ 200 years after its creation.”
The Pillars had seven arched openings with square pillars but when proposals were mooted in the 1920s to create a civic square in front of Dundee’s new Caird Hall, the decision was taken in 1931 to demolish the building.
The official souvenir programme to the opening of the new City Square said there was “no doubt” the development “opened up a portion of the area that was to say the least of it, tumbledown and gives a new setting to the Caird Hall”.
Miscellany Two on August 8 will also include one of the early moving films in Scotland, the funeral cortege of Alexander Buist in 1901.
The film will show quite clearly the long procession in Dock Street following the coffin which had arrived from Broughty Ferry via Dundee West Station.
The proprietor of Ward Jute Mills, Mr Buist was one of the first mill owners to supply a creche and school for children of his mill workers.
His firm became Don Brothers Buist and still exists in Forfar as Don and Low.
A silent film of 1959 called “Welcome to Dundee” gives glimpses into the industry and life in the city with footage of jam making at James Keiller and Son, jute mills at work, tenements and new housing and workers leaving Camperdown Works.
“Tayside” from the “Films of Scotland” series includes a Loganair plane taking off from the Dundee grass airstrip and shots of children disembarking from the schools liner Uganda which was moored at Dundee.
Mr Flett said a drama-documentary “Get It At The Co-op” would also bring some unintended amusement with the entire film outlining the wide activities of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS).
He said: “This excerpt of a ‘local’ Co-op meeting has a central representative ‘Mr Andrews’ being heckled by a ‘native of Dundee’ about the new Taybank mill being built.
“The Steps audience may well then find the defence of ‘Mr Andrews’ by a lady with a cut glass Morningside accent hilarious.”
Entry is free and there is no need to book.
