Time travel: Ceylon tourism ads 1939

From various Filmindia magazines, 1939…I think these are just so cute.

In this one, an elephant says “I am a vegetarian” and a kingfisher critiques human fishing techniques.

Here a veddy veddy English Sahib says “Marvelous tee ~ what!” and we have a silly French joke.

Sahibs meet each other coming and going: “Had a grand time?” “Rather!” There is so much to do…or not.

And now I want to see Lord Buddha’s tooth!

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16 Comments to “Time travel: Ceylon tourism ads 1939”

  1. Oh my goodness, those are awesome! Love the bad French joke and the bragging about road conditions as a selling point. :-)

  2. Four!!! And I wonder if the roads are still a selling point ;) somehow I doubt it…

  3. Oh, that is delightful – in a very quaint old colonial Brit way! (And I highly recommend the Temple of the Tooth).

    I remember when I was a kid, Radio Ceylon used to be one of the main radio channels that would play Hindi film music… we’d look out for which songs featured on the hit parade. If I’m not mistaken, Sunil Dutt started off as an announcer on Radio Ceylon before he got into films.

  4. Wonderful! Where did you get these?

  5. just great!
    never been there, hope to someday!

  6. Damn! I am a married man, and I still envy that fisherman’s luck. :)

    But seriousl, Sri Lanka is a great place to visit – it is just like being in India, but slightly different. :)

  7. The elephant is so cute, the loner among fish eaters :-D
    Even the perfectly safe looking seahorse is so cute.

    Thank you so much for these, memsaab.
    Along with old films a diet of old ads is very good for our health. :-)

  8. One of you peeps on Twitter ought to send a link to MIA.

  9. Sunil Dutt I think also worked with All India Radio, and he then used the name Balraj Dutt.

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