This short film is one of a series entitled “Quicky Quiz!”, which were developed and produced by Los Angeles TV personality Jim Hawthorne. Billed as the “TV’s biggest little show”, each Quicky Quiz! posed a question for viewers to answer. In this case, the question is “what is the name of London’s celebrated bridge, first built in 1817, demolished in 1936 and then rebuilt?” The footage shows Herbert Morrison opening the bridge across the Thames in 1945. The first bridge on the site was designed in 1807–10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge of Life and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. In the 1930s London County Council decided to demolish the bridge and replace it with a new structure designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The engineers were Ernest Buckton and John Cuerel of Rendel Palmer & Tritton. Construction of the new bridge began in 1937 and it was partially opened on Tuesday 11 March 1942 and “officially opened” in September 1942. However, it was not fully completed until 1945.

If you got the right answer, you must be very smart so take a bow!

Short format shows of this type don’t really exist today, but back in the early era of television — especially during the live era when show lengths were irregular — programs such as Quicky Quiz! were important to fill dead air.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com