Charabanc

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A charabanc (pronounced sha-ra-bang) is a kind of open-topped bus common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It was especially popular for "works outings" to the country or the seaside that businesses would hold once a year. The name derives from the French char à bancs ("carriage with wooden benches"), http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cha1.htm where it originated in the early 19th century.http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9022495

It is mentioned in Ian Anderson's "Wond'ring Again" from Living in the Past, as well as tangentially in The Decemberists' song "The Legionnaire's Lament". From what is gathered from the context of the song, a charabanc ride is nothing but a joy-ride for the nothing-to-dos, and finds use in guiding tourists around a town or city.

The charabanc tour is also the (admittedly vague — see The Beatles Anthology, episode 6) premise of The Beatles' 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour, in which a group of characters (Spotlight 'oddities', 'lovelies' and The Beatles themselves) toured Southern England in a mix of music hall tunes/comedy, contemporary psychedlia, and musical set pieces by the Fab Four.

The charabanc is also noticeably mentioned in Dylan Thomas's short story "A Story", also known as "The Outing". In the piece the young Thomas unintentionally finds himself on the annual men's charabanc outing to Porthcawl. Within the work the carabanc is referred to as a 'chara' by way of colloquial Welsh slang.

Also the name of a theater company co-founded in 1983 by Belfast native and playwright Marie Jones (b. 1955), who went on to write Stones in His Pockets, an Ireland-based play with a two-man cast that ran successfully locally, and in London, and reasonably successfully on Broadway.

External links

• [Image of a charabanc from the 1920s]
• [Photo of horse-drawn charabanc presented to Queen Victoria in the early 1840s]

Sources