Albert Critoph

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Unknown Speaker  0:13  
This is the ACTT History Project. The date is the 20th of July, 1989

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and this is Manny Jasper interviewing Albert. Crit off,

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okay, Albert,

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shall I start? Okay,

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you've got it so, sort of I was good to ask you, first of all, your date of birth? Yes. And what was your date of birth? My, my date of my birth was 15th of September, 1922

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where were you born? In Battersea Fauci and what were your parents?

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My, in what way you mean, the occupation, yeah. Occupation,

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the occupation. My My father was a boot repair

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school in Battersea as well. Yes, quite close by, yes, there's a school called Pro Battersea. SW

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got a different name to the school. Number still stands. Okay, and when you left school, what did you do first? Well, I'm glad you brought it in, because I was going to mention it in my notes here, actually, to say that to when

Unknown Speaker  1:34  
I was at school. And as I said, I left at 14. And I think when most people met when I leave school, you have an interview in the school room there to mention what type of occupation you're going to take up when you leave school. And course, everybody was going to do this, that and the other. Of course, when it come to me, I said I would like to be

Unknown Speaker  1:54  
a projectionist as such, because I would have said to know what the world was called projections in those days, but I want to be a chat that showed the films in the cinema. So when I was in front of this pool to select a job and talking to set the other I didn't know anything about it, or more or less to them, it didn't exist. It must have been a very unusual occupation to ask for.

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So

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the and the panel as such, was chatting to one another. We could help this chap at all in any way, you know. And far as I know, it was left to that

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and

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when I left school, by the way, one in one interesting point I must mention to say that my parents were both deaf and dumb. I was an only child, so I'm more upset to fend for myself, and as I say, that the panel just couldn't help me in any way. So my

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dad's brother,

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who could speak, he wasn't affected in any way being deaf and dumb in any way.

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He took me around to different cinemas for different interviews and things, and

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even in those days, to get a job as a cinema page boy to start with was just like, just a hard job to get into the cinema in any way, just like trying to get into the print

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so, fortunate

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enough, my

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uncle was a taxi driver and also run a Confederate shop as well, or his wife did. And cause he managed to do shift work, so he managed to go around to me to one or two different cinemas, and

Unknown Speaker  3:36  
so he took me along to a cinema and one road. It's since gone. It's called, called previous called the Super Show, I can't remember off, and that was near Vauxhall, and

Unknown Speaker  3:47  
because my main appointments in the manager was interviewed, and I was interviewed, and it was a very, very small cinema. And I think what it was, the money wasn't really good, even for that time, even for a first time job, and

Unknown Speaker  4:03  
we we just left it that, and we went away and discussed it, because it's my guidance, and somehow that wasn't really happy with the actual show. So we went to one or two other places, and

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we came across the CAMEO cinemas a newsletter in chencros road just recently, been bored down, and my uncle took me there, and I was interviewed, and

Unknown Speaker  4:35  
I was interviewed for job. But in those days, you couldn't go straight in the end of the project room as a rewind boy in any way,

Unknown Speaker  4:42  
and you had to be a page boy, and they'll get that was only 14 years of age. And obviously, in those days the sea films that you had to be 16. But so,

Unknown Speaker  4:53  
but being a new set of such as mostly comedies and shorts and news rules and things, so.

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So I started, excuse me, and I started there as a cinema page boy, obviously, I got the job and I started, and I started cinema. Sorry about

Unknown Speaker  5:11  
that. No, sir. And

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as I saying that, I started the cinema. Page boy, at 15 childrens a week that I believe now is 75 pence.

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And

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iPads for 15 shillings, and I was there for short waters, another true person, Desmond, besides me, as a cinema page, one of the three of us.

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Then,

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after a few months, I got an increase of half grand. I went up to 17 and six

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and

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and I was sort of made hit page boy, but the other two,

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and,

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sorry about balls, just about over. And as I say, there was a couple of paper boys beside myself, and we used to tear tickets on the door setting the other stand outside the cinema shout at the prices. If I remember the prices right rightly, don't get it. Was an hourly show. It was a new setter, and I believe the prices were

Unknown Speaker  6:20  
six prints, nine prints, and two shillings in old money.

Unknown Speaker  6:26  
And as I say, I did that for a couple of years. And also, besides being a

Unknown Speaker  6:34  
cinema page boy, you had to sort of run messages and the other and I had to take the books to head office along in Piccadilly, I believe the numbers 199, Piccadilly, the officers are still do, but obviously not the company and my job was to collect the books. Must have been some dude, the accounts this and the other

Unknown Speaker  6:56  
takings. And besides that, also the other cinema in

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Wilmore Street.

Unknown Speaker  7:05  
And it was cool. Was it the packs that called the pack? Now this is a small Jew set up opposite the bill theater in great. I used to go there winners, and we used to quote the parks. Oh, anyway, there still stands, and they made it into one of these continental film place type of things. And I took over the snooker hall next door, and built quite a number of cinemas there. But when I was there was just the one, one news over there. And as I say, it was opposite the blue mill theater.

Unknown Speaker  7:37  
And after a while, as I say, I think was about two years or so when I was 16, I was allowed to go into the projection was rewind. Boy Lee had two, three names. Actually, the name was, I believe, called the Moulin Rouge,

Unknown Speaker  7:53  
excuse me, called a Moulin Rouge news theater. Then I think, I believe it's called the Center news theater. I believe it went out to cameo then, and has my first project room job. And if I can sort of reverse back again, mention about the head office, take the books. I also had to take it to my own cinema in chencros Road. Also this news head as well. And I remember coming back from Piccadilly and my manager. I can even remember the managers name there, Mr. Anderson, a military man type, but very fair person. I remember bringing the books back to

Unknown Speaker  8:32  
cameo, John Chris road, and that particular time I just, don't just pull down the old

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printer, well, theater, it

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was a live show place, but it's poured down and rebuilt, and the one that exists there now, the Prince of Wales, is been up number years, but it was new to me in those days, and it was just laying the

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foundation stone

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by a celebrity. And the celebrity was greater fields and

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cause I've come back. Got a boxing man. Of course, you think, Bruce, if I was going to come there and end you be waiting about 10 minutes. I must have been about our hour and a quarter, because when I got back with the books and things, they went away. I got to but I remember making some

Unknown Speaker  9:16  
excuse me having a higher but I'm not used to public speaking in any way. But so the company that owned these cameo news theaters and Alison Mars around London led cinemas outside. But they was not

Unknown Speaker  9:31  
newsletters. They were free to cinemas, and the company was called cleveringham Rose, and they were very nice people to work for. So

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I believe the

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projectors we had in the projection room at cameo newsletter, I believe, was a simplex machine. That's the projector head, and I believe the sound head was Western.

Unknown Speaker  10:00  
Electric, and I can definitely remember what the lamp houses were. It was stoma still my lamp houses pushing the picture on the screen. In fact, they are still around today for use, for follow spots, and they're very low. Emperick shows a very, very low lamp, if I remember lightly, that they were hand feed carbons. And that is meant to say that the carbons are hand fed. So you could keep a nice, even picture on the screen. If you did not do this actually and the carbons

Unknown Speaker  10:31  
burnt away, they were very, very blue or brown picture on the screen. But

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in other scene was they did have a motor drive on the back of the carbon feed.

Unknown Speaker  10:44  
Okay, to mention the other cinema at in great bestery. I believe the, I'm definitely sure about the lamp house, once again, still my lamp houses,

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the project, I believe, is Erwin, and

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I've got a feeling the sound was Western director, but I'm not pretty sure. Actually, on that,

Unknown Speaker  11:03  
I mentioned the Clavering rose company, I think I've left a lot out, but I can't remember most items.

Unknown Speaker  11:14  
As I mentioned that I just interview at school for to have a profession in the cinema business. But actually, I was very interested in the film business about seven years of age.

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And I remember at Christmas time,

Unknown Speaker  11:33  
but I wanted, as I said, I was around about seven years of age, and I asked my father to get for me at Christmas a slide land and such. It was the slide lantern. What it consists of was a small

Unknown Speaker  11:45  
torch where you could fit the lens bar on the front. You could take it off and use it as a hand torch. And with it, you got complete set of slides on the slides. There were four pictures. They were in a circle image, and it

Unknown Speaker  12:00  
cartoons and things on this slide. That's what I was very, very interested in. That's how it all started.

Unknown Speaker  12:08  
Then another Christmas. A few years on, I've got my hand

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wound film project on one by handle. And in those days, you could buy, say,

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that 100 feet or so for about six months in a tin

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short, cut some different films,

Unknown Speaker  12:27  
and I put it on the little projector. I think it was called a bigger scope. It was just an ordinary battery job to make them break the battery the beam on the projector. You just moved the as a flat battery, a four and a half volt battery, you just put it back and just put it on one the lips of the connection on the battery. You push it and make contact the back of the bulb.

Unknown Speaker  12:50  
And when I was showing these little films, sometimes you've got a square aperture on the screen correctly. You went quite evenly. But sometimes when I put the film on, I've got a half frame. I didn't know it was called half frame those, but I got half and half a pitch on it.

Unknown Speaker  13:05  
Now, sometimes you get a full frame, sometimes you don't. Obviously, I don't know all these terms as a youngster, but I do now. So the

Unknown Speaker  13:14  
this little bigger scope projector, I believe it was seven and six

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when my father bought it from for Christmas, and so I

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went back to this little shop. In fact, it sold torches and other bits and pieces, and also sold new bicycles. So I went to the chat, back to the shop with it, and I explained to him, and he must been a little bit technically minded, and he told me what I've done wrong? There was a little cross movement on the projector. He said, what you do? You hand turn it slightly so you've got no movement on the sprocket, and you put the frame in front of the pitch gate properly as such, and close it up. And he told me that. So he must have been a brainy chap, but it was a chapter repaired push bikes. So very helpful. Of course, after that, that was okay.

Unknown Speaker  14:04  
As I mentioned, I was interested in about seven years of age and go into the cinema. I couldn't help looking behind in the projection room. I mean, in those days, you just could not get into projection rooms in any way, because obviously night trade and regulations and what have you, just like getting into Bucha and palace. But I used to look out and turn around, look up the projection room, and there's another and see what was going on. And I could see that the projections were changing one side to the other. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but got close and try to look through the hole, you know, from the auditorium, and

Unknown Speaker  14:38  
I found it was changeovers. And

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so after quite some time, I really knew what was going on the projection, really but the only thing that I used to believe in those days was

Unknown Speaker  14:51  
that that the soundtrack as such, that when the film started up, I thought it was a.

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Home Phone needle on the side of the film that picked up the soundtrack. So I thought was a word, no, can't be a needle, because it's here into the film. But that's the idea I got

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from here.

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I went to

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cinema close to home at Clapham Junction, but at Clapham Junction. And there was two cinemas there. And the company was called London district cinemas limited,

Unknown Speaker  15:29  
and they were owned by a proprietor, chap called Wainwright. Mr. Wainwright, I can't name the other directors, and their head office was based at the capital cinema in Epson sorry, that's since been gone quite a number of years.

Unknown Speaker  15:47  
And as I say, I worked with this imperial Clapton junction because I wanted to change the new sets go into features. And I went there as a fourth projectionist.

Unknown Speaker  15:57  
And I was there for quite, quite some time. And also there another cinema around the corner called the globe cinema.

Unknown Speaker  16:06  
And there was a nice cinema. There was no circle, it just stalled. But very, very nice cinema. Also, we had an organ there at the Globe cinema. It was used from time to time. And I think I can remember the organ his name. I think his name was Arthur escape,

Unknown Speaker  16:24  
and he's worked from time backwards and forwards between the globe and the Imperial cinema to remember these both these cinemas were in Clapham Junction, SW 11.

Unknown Speaker  16:34  
And also we use the news rule we had there. Such was crossed over. So the obviously news was staggered, and we used to take it back and forth to each cinema.

Unknown Speaker  16:50  
Maybe you'd like to know that the Imperial cinema, the projection equipment we had in the projection room, was a very, very old project, a very old simplex with a front shutter blade. There was no case around it. It used to just fly around, around, around. And as

Unknown Speaker  17:06  
I say, that was an old front shadow simplex with

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a very old Ross lamp house, a very rare old one.

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The sound was West electric with a universal base,

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and the cinema around corner globe, when I say no, random about 10 minutes walk,

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was

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there going? The sound system was universal base that the projector were clearly front shutter, but they had a housing around the shutter.

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And the lamp house where there was a very, very big lamp house called

Unknown Speaker  17:45  
all them colony ARKS. They were very, very big lamps.

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And as I say, the the carbons were very, very thick. And also,

Unknown Speaker  17:55  
what you do not find another lamp houses, the actual positive revolved, I uh,

Unknown Speaker  18:05  
the mention this globe cinema, I can remember the two projections and this cardboard chapter inside this housing on the front shadow Kelly and for some other got broken. So what the chief projections did, actually, he broke up an old carbon box. Will be the carbons in the cardboard box. He strips it another strip

Unknown Speaker  18:24  
of cardboard, took the old shatter off, put it on the front of the shutter, boss on front, re time the end of moon. So we've got the opening closing the shutter correct, and we coed on like that for a couple of days. We've got a new blade, and this low cinema still stands is now,

Unknown Speaker  18:44  
I believe, a Tesco store. The outside walls and everything is still there and front end, but it's now a Tesco store

Unknown Speaker  18:53  
since before chain Noel Tesco store, as I say, this globe scenario belonged to London districts and the miles limited. Then out of that, the Granada took the cinema and renamed it the sentry, and that still stands, but alas, the Imperial cinema is now gone.

Unknown Speaker  19:16  
As I say, that I was told with London district cinemas, and I'd like to change around on different jobs, much as I could, to

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get projection experience

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from from here I went to

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the Waterloo news theater

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just recently gone and now as a shopping mall

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at Waterloo. Victoria Station,

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mentioned in this

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Victoria news theater on the station I

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was there for a short while.

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All. And as I say, there again, I went back to New setters,

Unknown Speaker  20:04  
because obviously, moving from place to place, I got a little bit extra money in those days. You couldn't jump around different jobs here and there, because Jobs were hard to come by. But I seem to manage to work it out okay. And I was there for a short while. And as I say, our electricity supply came from,

Unknown Speaker  20:22  
excuse me, came from the Southern Railway. Supply from the station.

Unknown Speaker  20:27  
And don't get this was war time. I'm

Unknown Speaker  20:31  
sorry about that. Coughing. I don't often talk too long like this. And our electricity supply came from the Southern Railway. And course, being war time, when bombs were dropped along the line, cause it closed the cinema down. So we had this on and off, on and off. And also, by the way, the clocks were actually synchronized with the clocks on the railway station. So every time we lost our supplier, close the cinema down, this and the other. And the management was getting fed up with this bit, so they closed it down. Then sent me to their one at Waterloo.

Unknown Speaker  21:03  
And the same thing applied. There's now supply the SAT and the other so to close them down eventually. Then they moved me to their

Unknown Speaker  21:13  
head office in Baker Street, called the classic, not the recently classic, but the very old classic company many, many years ago, and that was our head office,

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and I remember

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one one morning

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coming into work, remember this war time,

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walked up the road, because I heard of the the CHASS mouth been bombed very badly,

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very badly damaged,

Unknown Speaker  21:42  
and I'm going to look at it this certainly island. It was in a very bad state. Obviously, it was pulled down. And this two sword cinemas next door to madam, two swords where the cinema actually stood is now where the London planetarium is.

Unknown Speaker  21:57  
Sorry, man, yeah.

Unknown Speaker  21:58  
Mentioned about the new setters,

Unknown Speaker  22:02  
just to mention the fact that the equipment we had at the Waterloo news theater was bth equipment, straight through, throughout

Unknown Speaker  22:10  
so BH, PTH equipment. The equipment we had at Waterloo news theater was

Unknown Speaker  22:19  
BH, sound of, I believe bth projector, and the lamp house was a Cayley type lamp house, but I can't tell you the model number.

Unknown Speaker  22:28  
Okay, Goon

Unknown Speaker  22:30  
mentioned this coming again, the classic. I went to one or two there cinemas around London, more or less local to where I lived, tooting and around the area. And the cinema was called the Vogue cinema near Trident Broadway.

Unknown Speaker  22:45  
That was a feature cinema.

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From there,

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I left the company to go back to this

Unknown Speaker  22:58  
cinema at Clapton junction, as I mentioned, the Imperial cinema and the globe cinema in northco Road, SW 11,

Unknown Speaker  23:09  
once again, I departed again from the Imperial cinema and the globe CINAHL to go to another cinema company called the members cinemas limited. This was a little cinema on mother Bridge Road. It's called the Star kinda mile cinema, Star Ken mile with a K.

Unknown Speaker  23:29  
I started that cinema there, and more than often, I always worked at very small companies, because I got a lot of experience from projection. And also, when you work work for a very small company, you help the tube injections to rewiring in the roof, new tubing conjugate Warners and the other where, if you work for a very, very big company, they usually have a house engineer. So as I say that I worked the

Unknown Speaker  23:55  
stock kind of mile in Fulham and then

Unknown Speaker  23:59  
been a wartime projectionist.

Unknown Speaker  24:02  
I had a special deferment from labor exchange,

Unknown Speaker  24:07  
not to go into any other work, and had a different from labor exchange for three months,

Unknown Speaker  24:13  
because when I went for my medical, I was grade three, so obviously I was unfit and as a reserved occupation because it was a morale booster

Unknown Speaker  24:25  
to the public.

Unknown Speaker  24:28  
As I say, working at the cinema at Fulham, they requested, would I like to go down to Rickmansworth? I mean, in those days, Rickmansworth, to me, was miles and miles away from London.

Unknown Speaker  24:41  
So they said, Would I like to go? And I thought it'd be nice experience.

Unknown Speaker  24:45  
So I went to Rickmansworth for about seven months,

Unknown Speaker  24:50  
and when I arrived there, as I say, my mother and father are very upset, and as I said earlier on, that they were different done, but I thought a wonderful experience. Then the.

Unknown Speaker  25:00  
Desire to go into digs and don't get as food rushing in those days.

Unknown Speaker  25:05  
So when I arrived at the cinema, I like to find some digs. So I spring to one lady cleaners there, and she picked me up with one of her spare rooms in the house just around the corner from the cinema

Unknown Speaker  25:17  
and and from this day, this this land lady, I stay with us. So she was a cleaner, so now we still, she's not living at the same address, but close by. But we still send one another Christmas cards. And now this is way back,

Unknown Speaker  25:34  
as I say, war time.

Unknown Speaker  25:37  
So I stayed there. It was very, very pleasant in the country there, I just come home once a week, and I just have an early night, say about seven o'clock, and a day off, and I just come back to Battersea

Unknown Speaker  25:49  
and

Unknown Speaker  25:52  
and as I say, I was there for about seven months in Rickman was very, very nice little place, and I noticed love My little swimming in the mornings down at the acrodrome, dinners and open air pool, like whatever you like to call it,

Unknown Speaker  26:08  
as I was there for about seven months.

Unknown Speaker  26:11  
For some reason, another I clashed with the manager. Very unusual, because I'm a very pleasant person. I think I'm quite friendly person, but I can't remember what it was. It wasn't very serious, but

Unknown Speaker  26:24  
I had a clash with the manager, so I requested to go back to full of my game. I always said, You can't do this descent. That's what I'm going to, you know. So I went back to full on Star kill them all

Unknown Speaker  26:36  
there for a short while,

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and

Unknown Speaker  26:42  
while I was there, Oh, one other thing I'd like to mention, while I was working for this company,

Unknown Speaker  26:49  
I used to go one day a week to one day other cinemas in Islington,

Unknown Speaker  26:55  
called The

Unknown Speaker  26:57  
new Victoria cinema,

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new North Road,

Unknown Speaker  27:02  
and that was my weekly trip to Islington. In fact, that the cinema still stands, but I believe it's a factory. I believe now

Unknown Speaker  27:11  
that's my one day a week trip to Islington. And also I used to go to one of the other cinemas one day a week in South it was called Plaza Southfields. I've got to finish. Still stand, not sure, I think is a snooker Hall and close by to woman tennis,

Unknown Speaker  27:28  
and that that's in one was called a plaza,

Unknown Speaker  27:31  
Plaza, Southfields, I believe,

Unknown Speaker  27:40  
running,

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that's okay.

Unknown Speaker  27:48  
I may be repeating myself. I'm not actually, but I will start going with the style kind of mile. Fulham,

Unknown Speaker  27:56  
I had a friend of mine

Unknown Speaker  27:58  
still around these days who works at the Metropole Victoria,

Unknown Speaker  28:04  
a very big cinema.

Unknown Speaker  28:07  
And from time to time, I just got into the projection room

Unknown Speaker  28:13  
there. And

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the chief projectionist at the Metropole Victoria,

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chap called Peter Jackson, who came from the Empire lesser square.

Unknown Speaker  28:24  
I believe in those days the Empire square projections there. They all, all cheap projectors, all seen the projections there. And as I say that so I went on to see my friend in the projection room

Unknown Speaker  28:36  
there. And my friend, at any time, was going to be called up for the RAF. So this two projections that the Metropole said, What would you like a job here?

Unknown Speaker  28:50  
So, so what an asset. Is a very, very big cinema. I said that. I mean, in normal seminars, you just have two projectors, but the Metropole

Unknown Speaker  28:58  
cinema in Victoria had three projectors and special slide lanterns, Rene grass machines, and as I say earlier on, that I only worked for small cinemas, but so I said, No, I don't, I don't think I could handle it. That was quite experienced, but it was a very big show,

Unknown Speaker  29:17  
so projection said, well, Troy, I said, one of the thing is that I don't think I can move over from form to here just like that, because I've got a special deferment with that company with this arrangement for my card for

Unknown Speaker  29:35  
what would you call it? I can't

Unknown Speaker  29:38  
think of a special card actually it was taken out on the legs with this company.

Unknown Speaker  29:45  
And Peter Jackson said, Well, I don't think she'll get a problem there. He said, Come in support, not really. I said, it's a very big show,

Unknown Speaker  29:53  
and

Unknown Speaker  29:54  
I'm one. I said, No, but Sarah, and cause the money is more tracks, because there's a big.

Unknown Speaker  30:00  
Oh,

Unknown Speaker  30:01  
and so cheap project says, Well, would you like to come along and work alongside of your friend before he goes

Unknown Speaker  30:10  
into forces?

Unknown Speaker  30:12  
Big move for me, it's a Goon, so you'll be working on with your friend. So as I say, I let this stock in. Mile Fulham, there's a lot of moans and groans, but I went was in the same profession.

Unknown Speaker  30:27  
So I went to the Metro Victoria.

Unknown Speaker  30:30  
And

Unknown Speaker  30:32  
they were big cinemas. They belong to what they call the Heinz brothers. And they were very, very good people to work for. As I say that the behind brothers. There was one called Phil, one's called Sid. I can't think the other person name, but the cinemas that they had was the

Unknown Speaker  30:51  
cinema in Kilburn, the government state Kilburn,

Unknown Speaker  30:55  
the truck at Tower road.

Unknown Speaker  30:59  
Big cinema down in Mile End Road, I can't think name of it,

Unknown Speaker  31:04  
and the Trocadero Erwin castle.

Unknown Speaker  31:07  
So worked then, and eventually my friend got called up, and I took over his position.

Unknown Speaker  31:13  
And

Unknown Speaker  31:16  
everything was

Unknown Speaker  31:17  
very, very good. And when, as I say, in those days, we showed two big feature films in one program. We used to start that program on Sunday, finished Saturday night.

Unknown Speaker  31:29  
And they were really two big films, where, normally the week after it was called a pre, pre release date from the West End. And we used to have two big program, two big films on one program, eventually, the week after it would go out to the cinemas outside around London and up and down the country, or say around London, where, once one film will go to one circuit, one to the other. What we used to have booking dates in those days, north of the Thames and south of the Thames. And

Unknown Speaker  32:00  
as

Unknown Speaker  32:02  
I say, when I got my first week salary

Unknown Speaker  32:06  
picked up from the office, and I went back to

Unknown Speaker  32:10  
Peter Jackson, Chief of Jackson,

Unknown Speaker  32:13  
and I said that

Unknown Speaker  32:16  
I've got a feeling chief that Chief, that I've been overpaid. I

Unknown Speaker  32:20  
said, No, you haven't been over paid over week. We always

Unknown Speaker  32:24  
get extra money in our pay packet,

Unknown Speaker  32:28  
and this went on practically week after week. Got extra money because there was always crews outside the cinemas. But she sat the engine the week, and they were very, very good. So I was there the

Unknown Speaker  32:42  
metropolis as I say, I knew the projection box before him, and as I said, my friend was called up, and I was working there. And also I had another friend who

Unknown Speaker  32:51  
worked in the film studios. I suddenly been in a studio before

Unknown Speaker  32:55  
this was Robin Park Studios.

Unknown Speaker  32:59  
And now

Unknown Speaker  33:01  
again, I used to go down on my day off and I look around. I didn't know anything about dubbing and double head and all this top thing, but they're going, I just go down see him,

Unknown Speaker  33:13  
and I'd look around. And the same thing applied there. He was getting into the forces. So I

Unknown Speaker  33:18  
was quite friendly with the two projections at Mountain Park Studios, and

Unknown Speaker  33:24  
said, Well, I'd like to work down it is the same thing happens at the Metropole, you know, come and work here. And I said, Well, I'd love to get into studios, but I said, I've only been at the Metropole few months,

Unknown Speaker  33:38  
and I

Unknown Speaker  33:40  
suppose I was ever about nine months or 10 months

Unknown Speaker  33:44  
and

Unknown Speaker  33:48  
one, what my other one, what my friend

Unknown Speaker  33:52  
Peter Jackson, gonna say the chief

Unknown Speaker  33:56  
so my friends are Goon sort

Unknown Speaker  34:00  
of thing. And as I say that I got to know dubbing This ain't no but going down now my days off and looking around.

Unknown Speaker  34:08  
So eventually I did take the job there again. I was getting more money because it was a studio job.

Unknown Speaker  34:14  
And I went back to my friend Jackson metropole at I said,

Unknown Speaker  34:18  
I want to leave the end of week. I'll give a week's notice in

Unknown Speaker  34:21  
and it was terribly upset, and

Unknown Speaker  34:26  
as they were friends, and as I'd like to go, so I said, I'm only leaving on one account, because it's a film studio, so fit another cinema. I wouldn't have left because the myth of it was a prestige cinema. But I said I'd like to get studio experience. And it was a terrible week with

Unknown Speaker  34:45  
the with the two projectors there and it come along that side of me sign up because I want to give my notice in. And they kept saying each day. He said, Would you want no but more money? This morning, I said, No, Peter. I said, it's a studio job. I'd like to take it.

Unknown Speaker  35:01  
And

Unknown Speaker  35:03  
eventually I left to go to Merton Park. So this is where my Merton Park studio days started. Though we left on very good terms Peter Jackson himself, but he realized the end of the week I was off money here and there, but obviously it's better for me to go into studios. Roughly what dates was it?

Unknown Speaker  35:23  
What the mount Park thing? As I say, I can't remember dates at all, but fun enough. That's one, but not the exact day, mind you, but fun enough. I can remember that day that I left the Metropolitan mountain, and I think it was roughly June of 1943

Unknown Speaker  35:42  
so just one day I can remember, but other days I can't. But that one always sticks in my mind while I don't know. Anyway, I went there and I ran the preview theater from running rush, is this that and the other occasionally switch around. I went across to the dubbing theater and did dubbing,

Unknown Speaker  36:00  
and I was ever about,

Unknown Speaker  36:04  
it's very hard to say how long might be. What?

Unknown Speaker  36:10  
26 years, 27 years, 28 years, I'm not sure, but so very, very, long time. But what did you leave?

Unknown Speaker  36:20  
No, I'll tell you what actually happened, but they will come to that event, because there's a lot to say. And as I say, it's running about

Unknown Speaker  36:30  
June 1943

Unknown Speaker  36:34  
when the studios met a lot of people. And also there was a subsidiary company called San service attempted to add a 16 mill division. They used to hire libraries. Also they used to hire mobile shows

Unknown Speaker  36:48  
with a projectionist with a small vein.

Unknown Speaker  36:51  
And

Unknown Speaker  36:56  
Merton Park Studios was a company with about 12 companies within the group, and each producer had its own name of company, like rotary films and other names I can't remember fan

Unknown Speaker  37:10  
in the early days there, Sydney box was there.

Unknown Speaker  37:14  
And as I say, that each one had its own producer, and it was a very, very busy studio.

Unknown Speaker  37:21  
Each one was doing a sponsor film, say, like for Pilkington glass or Ford Motor Company. And is a very busy studio. We had about 18 catarooms there.

Unknown Speaker  37:34  
And as I was a very, very busy studio. And

Unknown Speaker  37:39  
as I say that the that we had two stages there called A and B,

Unknown Speaker  37:45  
and

Unknown Speaker  37:47  
so they were always very busy. But a lot of names that passed through there that are quite big names, technician wise these days, and people used to want to call it a training ground as such. And they can say that they got all the experience from man Park Studios. And as I say, they had a separate, a separate company called San Susan that did sponsor film on 16 mil. Eventually, these films that we did in the studio were reduced to 16 mil,

Unknown Speaker  38:18  
and that was a very, very busy library.

Unknown Speaker  38:22  
And been reminded by many yaspar, I should mention these separate producers. It came under the film bridges. Film Producers Guild. Their head office was in St Martin's lanes.

Unknown Speaker  38:38  
I'm

Unknown Speaker  38:42  
going back on myself, actually talking about Mountain Park Studios. The early name the company was called publicity films, I believe, before I went there, they did these three minute shorts for advertising for the cinema

Unknown Speaker  38:56  
venture. From that, we went on to, sorry, I'm jumping on a bit here. But also we did the

Unknown Speaker  39:03  
films for the children film Foundation, and we made quite a number of them. And the people of COVID became stars to remember our fan with Gene Simmons, Michael Crawford.

Unknown Speaker  39:19  
Our common films, but the one that Michael Crawford made, it was none, by the way. Remember, he was a child star,

Unknown Speaker  39:26  
and

Unknown Speaker  39:29  
the film was called, come blow your horn.

Unknown Speaker  39:34  
Where, if I believe the story right, is that. So he practices with a corners, and I believe he goes into a full competition, and he wins,

Unknown Speaker  39:45  
as all this practices and taking place in the build up.

Unknown Speaker  39:48  
And

Unknown Speaker  39:50  
also, while Michael Crawford was there, his pet hub in those days was collecting cheese labels

Unknown Speaker  39:59  
and.

Unknown Speaker  40:00  
Mean, I've just been reminded by Manny Jasper about Jimmy Hanley. I can remember one film very, very well. I

Unknown Speaker  40:09  
remember the time Jimmy Hanley had a little bit of a limp. I don't know if he was in the Fauci before this film, or he was in the Fauci, but he had a limp. I don't know if there's any connection, not but I can remember the set very well, on a stage that wasn't very big, but it's quite sizable. We built a whole complete set

Unknown Speaker  40:27  
for what we used to have in the old days called Lions corner house, and it was all dressed and the tables and waitress what are these called nippies. It's all built as a wartime film. I'll come and where it was shown. But Jimmy Henry was in this film, and to see this set of the interior of lions Corner House was fantastic.

Unknown Speaker  40:52  
One of the other features I remember quite well. I can't think the lady artist was at that particular time. She was unknown. But there was

Unknown Speaker  41:01  
a film called mine folk.

Unknown Speaker  41:04  
And on the stage, they built an interior of a canteen

Unknown Speaker  41:09  
in

Unknown Speaker  41:11  
wartime factory in an interior stage and what have you. And there's more or less like,

Unknown Speaker  41:18  
like a variety show as such, really. But I can remember the films being made by butcher butchers films.

Unknown Speaker  41:25  
Also we went on to the well known films of Scotland yards and Edgar Wallace films.

Unknown Speaker  41:34  
And

Unknown Speaker  41:36  
both these films were made in collaboration with Merton Park Studios and our glow Anglo album agents this country was run by Mr. Goon and Mr. Levy, cone and Levy,

Unknown Speaker  41:47  
and we did quite a number of Scotland Yard. Susan, ago, this one, I can't remember offhand how many I was, but the first

Unknown Speaker  41:56  
film that we made, I can't remember Scott in the yard on echo Wallace, but it was called white white boy, and

Unknown Speaker  42:02  
it was made by a director, very good director, young director called Ken Hughes, who now lives in Hollywood. And I did contact him about couple years ago.

Unknown Speaker  42:13  
And we make quite a number of these films. And both Scotland yards and the other Wallace is I worked on every one of them, and also involved in the dubbing

Unknown Speaker  42:21  
bodies films were made, actually was that at that particular time we were getting American features over that were running for about two and a quarter hours, so they wanted to slot in another film that wasn't too long as a second feature, as some second feature was roughly about 10 minutes or and a quarter. But the Scotty Arts Series run 40 minutes. Niagara Wallace has run 50 minutes, so could flood him with a miracle feature.

Unknown Speaker  42:49  
Features.

Unknown Speaker  42:54  
The Dublin theater at Merton Park Studios was known as number one theater and just across the court, way outside the building, across the courtyard was our number two

Unknown Speaker  43:06  
theater that was just purely for viewing and running rough cuts and rushes and whatever. But

Unknown Speaker  43:14  
if they showed rushes as such as I say in

Unknown Speaker  43:18  
theater number two, actually, the first screen rushes is shown in the dub in theater, and

Unknown Speaker  43:26  
there was always a book, and I believe half past one or quarter to each day for rushes in the dub in theater.

Unknown Speaker  43:33  
The Dublin theater projection equipment

Unknown Speaker  43:37  
was a simplex projector. I believe this simplex projector was brought across in wartime, I think they had problems getting the country now come by boats and what were the bonds and the other but they've got a new simplex projector for the states also, also had West electric sound

Unknown Speaker  43:54  
and the lamp house by mum likely, I think was a Stormer. Eventually, we did change the arc length in the projection room in the Dublin the we had eight Dublin dubbing heads, Western Electric

Unknown Speaker  44:10  
in those days, the chief of sound was we had two or three. Actually, the first one, I believe, that I met when I first started, was an American BECTU partner, a Canadian champion. Then we had red law. He was a very, very good type of mixer, very quick, very good, I believe, originally came from Paramount news. And he was at Paramount news for many, many years.

Unknown Speaker  44:37  
And the other chiefs of Sam we had, I can't I think Mom was called Mr. Smith,

Unknown Speaker  44:47  
as others, I can't remember,

Unknown Speaker  44:50  
but talk about dubbing

Unknown Speaker  44:53  
during the war. We have the Canadian Army film units based

Unknown Speaker  44:59  
at in.

Unknown Speaker  45:00  
Of using one of our cutting rooms

Unknown Speaker  45:03  
and

Unknown Speaker  45:05  
also did their dubbing there.

Unknown Speaker  45:10  
We did dub their newsroom,

Unknown Speaker  45:13  
purely an army newsroom,

Unknown Speaker  45:16  
and I believe those three personnel a was a

Unknown Speaker  45:23  
camera man. I think I'm not sure what his Christian name, Michael, often his name was Noel,

Unknown Speaker  45:29  
and two women officers who did a cutting, this, that and the

Unknown Speaker  45:39  
other stuff.

Unknown Speaker  45:41  
If I remember, like, as I say, my brain doesn't function like it did years ago. But I believe we did another nous rule frame,

Unknown Speaker  45:49  
and this was dubbed in about eight different languages. So obviously we had the mixed up for the soundtrack. We used it, obviously, over and over again, but each one had a different contract for the different languages.

Unknown Speaker  46:12  
Yes,

Unknown Speaker  46:14  
as saying that Democrat, this was wartime. We always we all took our turns in doing fire watching. And I believe we got two, two and six months. I think it was in those days, and there was some bomb damage at Merton Park Studios on the powerhouse that was badly damaged. And even from this day at home, I've got pictures of this bomb damage on the powerhouse of burnt Park Studios. And when we do fire watching,

Unknown Speaker  46:43  
as I say, next door to the number two theater across the court way, we had camp beds and we slept there also was a part of the camera room as well. So we used to have all these little bunk beds, and in between us, there used to be camera tripods and other bits and pieces. So that was quite enjoyable.

Unknown Speaker  47:06  
This part of the studio was connected with David Hamilton and Lord Nelson.

Unknown Speaker  47:12  
Since the last the the studios have gone now and pulled out, but the front part of the building is a preservation order on on the premises, as I say, it's connected with labor, Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson, and this is where our camera was, and is aware the

Unknown Speaker  47:31  
number two theater was based. And also along the road, just the way along the road, just opposite, there's a hospital there called the Nelson hospital.

Unknown Speaker  47:45  
And just opposite their next door to the studio, there was a pub called

Unknown Speaker  47:50  
the leather bottle, where we used to go and have our drinks and whatever. And I remember for many, many years we had a makeup man, a resident makeup man called Jack Craig, and

Unknown Speaker  48:02  
they used to like to have a drink,

Unknown Speaker  48:05  
drop a beer, but he always said to me that water, as I say, was our recent makeup man. But he always told me that he was working on a production. He would not touch any drink at all, because he thought it was unfair to the artist to make up the faces or any other things you have to do with your breast smell in a beer. He would never drink beer, but when he finished, he did like to have a drink. And Jack Craig was there for many, many years and and he was a great chap, brilliant job.

Unknown Speaker  48:36  
His brother was an artist as well, called Gordon Craig.

Unknown Speaker  48:41  
He's been dead some years now. I don't know Jack. Jack Craig is to love. I just don't know. But had a great opportunity at that particular time. His brother, as I said, was an artist, was in the toys sketch with Lauren Hardy in person, and I had the great privilege to go along and see his brother at the Brixton

Unknown Speaker  49:01  
Empress, and we've taken backstage, and I met Lauren Hardy in person. It was great, but they were very tired, and obviously Hardy was all sweaty and everything, but

Unknown Speaker  49:14  
it was a prejudice be introduced to them. And so that was my great day. In fact, I believe also at home, I got the variety program of the Empress Brixton, and I still keep it home, but like all these little bits and pieces, always a job to find it. But that was a great day for me. Also. I.

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
Park Studios. We did quite a lot of features, similar features, I believe, tied up with Anglo albums. I can't remember offhand now, but we did quite a number of these features that had quite big stars in it. One was Sydney Chaplin and a lot of American stars, but there was always one American star in it, male or female from America. So as I say, these are some more single features so they could be shown in America with an American artist in it. But it's quite a number. I'm sorry to say that I can't remember, but there were quite a lot of big stars. Oh, there was one Cesar Romero,

Unknown Speaker  0:34  
and as

Unknown Speaker  0:36  
I say that when he used to wait at the front lodge to be taken home his car to come along. There were some young ladies

Unknown Speaker  0:45  
waiting of his autograph,

Unknown Speaker  0:48  
and he signed them and

Unknown Speaker  0:51  
and he said to the girls that, do you want to live to anywhere? They said, We would like to have lived to the underground station at South Wimbledon. And there's about three of these girls, and he was good enough to put them inside, take them inside the car, and he took them down to the railway station. So he was nice chat bow. I think most people know Cesar Romero.

Unknown Speaker  1:12  
I remember on one of the

Unknown Speaker  1:15  
features, it was shot on a boat, I believe it belonged to a film director, and there was going across the channel to France, to a place called

Unknown Speaker  1:33  
there was one lot of rushes I was showing that involved a boat, and I believed it belonged to the film director. And there was going across to a place called doville.

Unknown Speaker  1:41  
And they filmed around Deauville and myself in a travel fanatic. I showed the rushes, and I thought myself, I love to go there, and I've been to travel since two or three times because I show the rushes. It's such a beautiful place travel in doverville. So very, very shishi place. But very, very nice, lovely,

Unknown Speaker  2:05  
from time to time. For some reason, some of the denim films,

Unknown Speaker  2:11  
as I say, obviously saying denim films, I mean denim studios, there's one or two extra shots to be

Unknown Speaker  2:18  
to be shot, extra shots. Maybe it was because of studio space, I just don't know. But we did do some extra shots at Mountain Park Studios. One of the films is called Tony pepper with Burnham miles. And also we did some extra shots. I don't they're extra shots, but shots they wanted to do because, say, this studio space might have been filled at Denham was a film called Reach for the sky,

Unknown Speaker  2:44  
and the other one was called on approval with Clyde Brooks

Unknown Speaker  2:48  
and talking about our second features that we did on quite a number films, we had Clyde Brooks daughter called Faith Brook take part in these films.

Unknown Speaker  2:59  
By the way, if I can sort of flash back again to my cinema days down

Unknown Speaker  3:07  
at the pitch house Rickmansworth,

Unknown Speaker  3:10  
we did get some sad news at one

Unknown Speaker  3:13  
Saturday afternoon,

Unknown Speaker  3:16  
they was making the film.

Unknown Speaker  3:22  
Can't stop Sorry,

Unknown Speaker  3:30  
just out from the beginning,

Unknown Speaker  3:33  
as I say, the particular time when I was at the pitch house ripens with and Denver Studios was what, four miles away, six miles away,

Unknown Speaker  3:43  
we had some sad news on one Saturday afternoon,

Unknown Speaker  3:50  
that in those days they used to work Saturday mornings. I suppose there are no hotels were in the afternoon on show. But this took place on Saturday morning. They were doing some effects, foreign effects and explosions on model boats, I'm not sure. But anyways, the effects and explosion things and the sad news was one of the chats got killed on that production doing the effects. So that was a sad day.

Unknown Speaker  4:22  
Yeah, I can remember on a couple occasions we had strikes down at

Unknown Speaker  4:28  
Merton Park. And one was that, in those days, they were shooting black and white, but also we were doing some color films as well. But while we had a strike, the the electricians, the ETU came out and strike, and we joined them as such, that that because they were shooting color, color film, they was using all these big lamps called brutes. They wanted, I believe it was another three items, and they are more, but I wouldn't pay it because they were having these Brutus on color. So we came out and strike, and I've.

Unknown Speaker  5:00  
It was out for a few days. And if I remember after they won the day,

Unknown Speaker  5:07  
I could remember on that occasion, an outside let came in, and in the studio they built a boat. It built on rockers or hydraulics. Must have

Unknown Speaker  5:17  
been a very expensive production, because normally when you got a boat rocking those out of frame, as such, they would rock the camera. But on this particular time, we had hydraulics, and the film was called our Girl Friday. And in the film, it was the unknown, Joan Collins, Kenneth Moore and Robinson here,

Unknown Speaker  5:42  
if uh, another occasion, I can remember, we were doing a second feature called the, I think it was called Little Red monkey, and there was American artists in their mouth star. But I can't remember his name, but obviously, by the title of film, we had chimpanzees in the film, and he's been on the arm, and he had to be taken across the Nelson the whole Nelson in the hospital and have a Tecnis injection. And anytime that a scene involved people with heads bandage or arms band, bandage up in any way, the Nelson hospital were very good enough to supply us with a nurse to come across the studio and do the bandage for us, so that that when it was on the screen, it was correctly bandages. It banded up properly. So I didn't explain myself very well,

Unknown Speaker  6:30  
but one of our producers winning the organization. Organization was a check called Compton Bennett, and I believe on this particular film, Sydney box was a producer, and as a very well known film, and very well made film, called a civil and they both went over to Riverside studio to make this film. And as you know, most people saw the film. That was a very, very good film.

Unknown Speaker  6:55  
Mention the as you would know it, styled James Mason, and I can't think the actual lady in the film

Unknown Speaker  7:05  
and Todd.

Unknown Speaker  7:09  
Can I say that or not?

Unknown Speaker  7:11  
Just come to my mind the female star lead was anto,

Unknown Speaker  7:22  
one of our film editors we had there

Unknown Speaker  7:25  
by the name of Kath Miller, been there quite a number of years. Just

Unknown Speaker  7:30  
a little while along from the studio, there was a new pub being built, and they wanted people to write in to get the name of this new pub a name,

Unknown Speaker  7:42  
and there was a competition writer descent the other and this woman, film editor Kath Miller, won the prize. And the pub is called Emerick, Emma Hamilton. Emma Hamilton,

Unknown Speaker  7:56  
so I can't remember if she got a prize for it or not, and might have been a few beers, I don't know, but I

Unknown Speaker  8:06  
Ed, but who was studio management?

Unknown Speaker  8:12  
I

Unknown Speaker  8:15  
mean, who else was sort of working there on this sort of stuff at Mountain Park at that time

Unknown Speaker  8:22  
she was there for years, the construction manager, Eddie Turner.

Unknown Speaker  8:30  
And then there's Ronnie Curtis, and yes,

Unknown Speaker  8:40  
for record purposes,

Unknown Speaker  8:43  
okay, running

Unknown Speaker  8:46  
the studio managers we had that particular time open Park Studios. I wouldn't say this is in the correct order, but one was Mr. Bill Williams, Mr. Alex Snowden,

Unknown Speaker  9:02  
and Jack Greenwood. Jack Greenwood was also studio manager and also producers on the films that I mentioned above. I'm not on all films. I don't believe, but maybe correct or not. I can't remember, on the Scotland Yard series and Nick of Wallace is in the early days of the feeders.

Unknown Speaker  9:20  
The producer was

Unknown Speaker  9:22  
Alex Snowden.

Unknown Speaker  9:29  
We had, we had our own casting director by the name of Ronnie Curtis. He was based in St Martin's lane, but obviously, when production took place, he was down at the studios and

Unknown Speaker  9:40  
lot of stars that are well known, alive or dead today can thank their career to Ronnie Curtis because he gave him a break.

Unknown Speaker  9:52  
Also that particular time his wife Elsie. Elsie Curtis was the Warner mistress of Merton Park. I.

Unknown Speaker  10:01  
And

Unknown Speaker  10:03  
they've got a son called Tony Curtis. For some reason another, he'd be called Junior.

Unknown Speaker  10:09  
And on all occasions, I used to keep a scrap bit of film, a carton film, in the projection room. And if I was not busy, and cause,

Unknown Speaker  10:19  
obviously he was a youngster, this junior, at that particular time, and I used to in between times. I had the time I used to show these cartoon films, and I shared the same film over and over again. I can remember is a cartoon film and a person for cigarettes called called penguins. And I shared that thing for so many, many times. And their son, Tony, is now a scenic designer, set designer,

Unknown Speaker  10:48  
trying to think the right word, set designer, I believe that's the right term. Not sure

Unknown Speaker  10:53  
his name has been mentioned on quite a number of films with the credits on the screen.

Unknown Speaker  11:02  
I

Unknown Speaker  11:04  
I cut it growing. I'll just add my memory jogged

Unknown Speaker  11:09  
when the event of commercials came along. TV commercials. We dubbed them at Merton Park Studios.

Unknown Speaker  11:19  
We also set up our own separate guild

Unknown Speaker  11:22  
commercial company. I can't remember the exact title now, but the film guild was the same with that film. So I can't remember the exact time, but they had on their own preview theater up in town, the back of the Delft Delph theater, alongside of it, called St Anne's court. And we used to have our clients there, and we had a viewing theater. In fact, I went up there to open up the viewing theater, and I was a resident projections there for quite some time. And I returned to Merton park again. And one of the producers we had there was rayon, but obviously there was many, many more. But also getting back to the studios at Merton, at that particular time, we had

Unknown Speaker  12:01  
a studio manager called Jeff Busby. Was originally a chap in the sound department, and became became a studio manager. So he done very well for himself, but

Unknown Speaker  12:14  
sadly that he's passed away some years ago. A nice guy, a real union guy seems strange to become a studio manager, but that particular time, we had an outside let from the Walt Disney Productions, and they used Mountain Park Studios to shoot a few scenes, but is also used as a base because they were working out in Switzerland. I think it was zerma, if I remember, likely a film called third man on the mountain.

Unknown Speaker  12:43  
But every few days, the rushes would be sent back here, and I had the privilege of showing rushes to Walt Disney himself. So I felt very, very proud about that,

Unknown Speaker  12:56  
and a very, very ordinary man, not big headed in any way. I thought this was a great guy, so I had the pleasure For for doing projection for him on his rushes. You

Unknown Speaker  13:29  
This is Manny Jasper. Here it is now the 24th of July, 1989

Unknown Speaker  13:36  
and resuming the interview with Albert kritov at on, remember, BKs, BK STS,

Unknown Speaker  13:48  
we're running Erwin now.

Unknown Speaker  13:54  
Okay, okay, run. We're just gonna start once going on this tape, and as I say, there's a little bit more history. I can tell you about Merton Park Studios, but very, very little we did have a chap called Ken Anakin who came from free Street and came to the guild within the group as a script writer, and a bit later,

Unknown Speaker  14:14  
directed the films. He was directed was a film just recently been on television called men. They're flying machines.

Unknown Speaker  14:22  
Also, we had a young lady director at Merton Park Studios called Jill Craigie,

Unknown Speaker  14:30  
and she made Doctor film, documentary films, she wrote and direct. And there's a film about housing.

Unknown Speaker  14:37  
Sorry, that can't remember name, but Jill Craigie eventually married

Unknown Speaker  14:42  
Michael foot the MP

Unknown Speaker  14:46  
the styles we had in the past down at Mountain Park, but Fred Emerick, Kay Kendall,

Unknown Speaker  14:54  
Sorry for the pause. I.

Unknown Speaker  15:00  
Sure Tony wager, start that one again. What we're from?

Unknown Speaker  15:06  
We'll start the whole blood again, from the people, the stars you met, because

Unknown Speaker  15:14  
I switched it on the bit too late.

Unknown Speaker  15:17  
So we got past the can Anakin thing didn't Yes, and the stars we had the studio, wasn't it?

Unknown Speaker  15:25  
The stars? There's many, many that I can't remember. There's a few that I can give you. Was Tony wager, Donna doors, Sally, Ann Howes, BECTU letter Clark, Ronald shiner, faith, demerg, Lord bridges from the USA. Also, Gene Nelson from the USA, Kathleen Harrison, Ben Lyon. Ben Lyon, I'd like to mention the fact that sir

Unknown Speaker  15:54  
to mention Ben Lyon

Unknown Speaker  15:59  
with his radio show, his life of the lions. Ben Lyon came to Merton Park Studios as a base for 20th Century Fox to do screen tests, and they used Merton Park to do the screen tests for the artists and I ran the screen test before sending them off to Hollywood.

Unknown Speaker  16:21  
Talk about Bin Laden, his sons, photographer, I think you were fairly friendly with him. Yes, his son,

Unknown Speaker  16:29  
Richard Lyon, I got to know quite well. And we were very, very friendly. I met him on another number of occasions. We went out, and he was,

Unknown Speaker  16:41  
I believe, at one time, at an antique store in shop in Kensington. Then he went on to commercial photography. And I met him many times at different functions for the PKS, Ts and our

Unknown Speaker  16:59  
conferences and seminars.

Unknown Speaker  17:04  
Another check I got to know very well was Harry Fowler. The first time I met Harry Fowler was in a film called The dark man with Maxwell Reed. I believe that Maxwell Reed was the first husband of

Unknown Speaker  17:18  
Joan Collings, and our got to know Harry. He was down the studio many times. The first time I met him, he went to women and bought a grand phone record. And in studio two, we have a grand phone turns over. He asked me if I'd be good enough to run the record he just purchased, and I ran it for him. He's quite happy and out. We're very, very friendly, and we went out together in the evenings. We're both fans of Speedway,

Unknown Speaker  17:45  
and we often went to New cross and Wembley

Unknown Speaker  17:53  
and other Speedway circuits around London,

Unknown Speaker  17:58  
talking about that. I remember when I worked at Merton park, you came by motorbike, and once or twice he gave me a lift back on

Unknown Speaker  18:09  
me.

Unknown Speaker  18:10  
Yes,

Unknown Speaker  18:20  
another

Unknown Speaker  18:22  
outside company that used to use Merton Park shoes a base was a CWS Film Unit. Their their main base was in Manchester, but always there's a co op, isn't it? Yes, CWS the Co Op, and they use Merton Park as a base. As I say. They were based in Manchester, but it came down, and they did a lot of shooting films around London and outside of London,

Unknown Speaker  18:48  
also on the CW filming. The chap was in charge of the head of the filming was a check called George Wynn.

Unknown Speaker  18:58  
And George Wynn, I believe it's one or two sons were involved in the camera side. So it was a very family unit. The

Unknown Speaker  19:07  
films we shot in the studio was called

Unknown Speaker  19:11  
Stop Yes, George Wynn, as I say, that also shot outside, but also built some very, very big sets in the studio itself. There was one film called Men of the people, but an unknown star called billowing

Unknown Speaker  19:28  
there was also for another production, the car was called Men of Rochdale. And in the studio, we had a very, very big set of a street scene of Rochdale itself,

Unknown Speaker  19:39  
talk about people working on cameras. We had a

Unknown Speaker  19:43  
chaplain called Morton Lewis on the cameras, and that was the son of Ted kid Lewis,

Unknown Speaker  19:52  
who's the world champion. Wasn't he boxing? I'm sorry, I can't remember the actual talent. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  20:00  
Running,

Unknown Speaker  20:01  
sorry, another production I remember was a very, very big cinema feature called the criminal, and it starred Sam Wanamaker and Margaret said, and the director was Joseph low Z and the producer was Jack Greenwood.

Unknown Speaker  20:18  
Remember anything about that film? Specially,

Unknown Speaker  20:21  
not random. One

Unknown Speaker  20:23  
of the many stars we had from America was a check called Lloyd Bridges. And I don't have to mention name, because I think most people do know his name, but there was, I think, mentioned early on in this tape where a director or producer used his boat to go across to France, and they went across to troville

Unknown Speaker  20:43  
and doville. So when they came back, they showed the I showed the rushes. And because I'm a very keen travel fiend, I like to look at the rushes of this particular part of France. So I made my way today on one of my holiday trips, and I loved it. And I've been back two three times since,

Unknown Speaker  21:03  
okay, at the studios with a chat.

Unknown Speaker  21:06  
It was a film editor by name Dan Burt very, very nice chap indeed. And that particular time we were doing an army film. And cause, obviously, in the dubbing stages, you need effects, explosions and other noises. We went into Studio One, and they dished out a very big square film bin, and they put exposes inside this film bin, when then it detonated. The the explosion grew the film into pieces. Part of the bin got stuck up in the ceiling, and a chat recording. The sound was red law, who got a piece of shrapn on his leg. And I also got to thank red law, also for, as I say, red law was the head of the sound department. I've got to thank him for introducing me to the BKs, TS,

Unknown Speaker  22:02  
okay, as I said earlier on in this tape that we made the

Unknown Speaker  22:09  
chimpanzees commercial pretty tips, and they're still running to this day in SAP. In fact, some of them have been revived and they were made 15 or 20 years ago. Now. Can remember from time to time when the spare time had from from the projection room, if I was quite I love to go onto the stage and see other people working. So I always used to leave a little note of projection box to say where I was in case I was wanted for projection and I can remember the chimpanze chimpanzee commercial, where they're supposed to be taking off plumbers, and the set consisted of a room with tables and the wash base. And what they were doing actually underneath the sink unit, there was Morris like a toy

Unknown Speaker  23:01  
shooting Spanner.

Unknown Speaker  23:03  
And there's two chimps involved in this particular scene. And what actually happens they're supposed to be undoing this collar under the sink unit, and behind the set, there was one the prop men to get the cue to turn on the water express through onto the chimps face. And the chimpanzee would dress up with a little shirt and little shorts, and the little t shirt added stripes across it, and cause they shot this scene, and Colvin got the cue, because they were soaked through. And obviously, as you know, in the film business, you had to shoot the scene two or three times, and and always, and as always out of sight. They were always on chains. And the minder, as I say, when they shot the scene, as I said, it was wet, but obviously they've got to shoot the scene of going. And the chimpanzee went on the side of the set with the handler, and the handler was going to help him off his little pullover, but he didn't need this tool, because the chimpanzee took his own wet T Shirt off to shoot the next scene.

Unknown Speaker  24:09  
I can remember a film being made of Mountain Park Studios with the goons. The

Unknown Speaker  24:13  
only person that was missing from this

Unknown Speaker  24:17  
trio was

Unknown Speaker  24:19  
Harry seek, but I can remember the sets. One set was an Interior Museum, and the other one was an interior of a prison with the iron bars. And

Unknown Speaker  24:33  
as you know that Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, and Spike Milligan was terrible for keeping to the script,

Unknown Speaker  24:40  
and after a while it can, can be quite funny, but when this happens over and over again, and the continuity girl was a bit up the wall because we wasn't going by the script, and I don't know she lost her temp or not, but she wasn't very happy about it. But also, Peter cells weren't very happy about it, because this particular.

Unknown Speaker  25:00  
Scene they were shooting with Spike Milligan

Unknown Speaker  25:04  
inside the prison cell, and on the outside was Peter Sellers. And as I mentioned earlier, Spike Milligan won't keep the script. And of course, it put off Peter Sellers that continue to go and other people. And in the end, they shouldn't have seen over and over again. But in the end, Peter Sellers himself lost his temper, and the side of the board of the prison cell push his fist against the set and damaged his knuckles

Unknown Speaker  25:32  
because he lost his temper.

Unknown Speaker  25:35  
Was that in the film, no, not in the film. That's

Unknown Speaker  25:42  
just come to mind is Tommy Trinder, the old variety comedian who just recently died, and he was doing a commercial for food creams on stage B at my bark studios. And I can remember that very, very well indeed. And that was made, as I say, during the war, and just recently, I met

Unknown Speaker  26:05  
Tommy trender, and I mentioned about this

Unknown Speaker  26:09  
short, few minutes commercial fall for the cinema for few cuckoos. And as I say, after many, many years, I spoke to Tommy trender and I mentioned about this film that he was making, his memory was so good, he mentioned the studio where it was shot before I asked him where it was shot and shows as good his memory was, and I'm afraid of he'd be sadly missed

Unknown Speaker  26:35  
moving okay.

Unknown Speaker  26:37  
The studio is our camera department was run by a chap called Ted warringham, and I just found out recently, he's passed away, and he looked after our camera. But I believe for a short while, he went away from Merton Park Studios, and the camera department was taken over by Roy Moore's. Then after a short while, Ted warner came back, and he joined his friend Roy Moore's

Unknown Speaker  27:03  
I believe Tim won came from one of the camera companies, which one? But

Unknown Speaker  27:10  
I think was Vincent, actually, and obviously coming from the camera manufacturing business, he knew the ins and outs of camera. So very useful person to having the studio camera workshop.

Unknown Speaker  27:24  
Yeah, another person I can remember coming down the studio. This was weekend work, and the picture was made at

Unknown Speaker  27:32  
sheppan, and it was Tommy still in half or six months. And they did the shooting during the week at the studios, and then we had to do some sound effects of tap dancing. So weekends, Saturday and Sunday, we would play the film onto the screen so that for guidance with the foot movement and everything for tap dancing. For

Unknown Speaker  27:58  
Tommy still,

Unknown Speaker  28:02  
the young lady that played the lead with Thomas too in this particular film. I'm sorry to say that I can't remember her name, but I remember when she came down to the studios, she was more or less

Unknown Speaker  28:14  
expecting a baby, and this particular morning, there was a music stand actually in the studio. And before she arrived for a session, the first assistant director bought a little a baby set and put it on the music stand, so that when she came in to start a session, she was so surprised. And it was a thank you from the unit.

Unknown Speaker  28:38  
What comes to my mind as a very, very sad case. This is where a Film Unit was going down to the still works at Ale, and the director was David Villiers. I can't remember the cameras name or the camera assistant, but

Unknown Speaker  28:52  
alas, that David Villiers got killed in this accident, and I believe the camera system got killed. I'm not sure, but

Unknown Speaker  28:59  
the cameraman came away from that accident with

Unknown Speaker  29:04  
damaged foot, but I believe he's got a slight limp now, but he won the very lucky ones. But I was told actually, because obviously I wasn't down location. But what I was told that, apparently,

Unknown Speaker  29:18  
when this molten metal over, overfilled or came out to the container, apparently came over and the unit run away from the actual accident. But I was told it had run towards it and under they could have all been saved.

Unknown Speaker  29:39  
As I say that I was in a very fortunate position that when I was a cinema projectionist, it's entirely from Studio, entirely different from Studio dabbing, and by dabbing, there's nothing to do with polishing your shoes. But I was in a fortunate position that, as I said early on this tape that I used to visit the studio and.

Unknown Speaker  30:00  
See my friends working at dubbing. And dubbing consists of where, when they're in the cutting rooms, the actual reader film has reels separate but synchronized, where you would have reader music

Unknown Speaker  30:17  
dialog and say three or four musics and other tracks. And what actually happens when it comes to the projection room,

Unknown Speaker  30:27  
they've got all these sound reproduces, where these rules were gone,

Unknown Speaker  30:31  
where you were put on the

Unknown Speaker  30:35  
repro machines, where you put on

Unknown Speaker  30:39  
dialog, music and the effects, in order, say, one, two and three, and also you put the pitch up. But these all must be synchronized. And on the on the mark, there's markings that on each film where it's synchronized, so that when you run up, they'll run up. And synchronization,

Unknown Speaker  30:57  
what actually happens was that

Unknown Speaker  31:00  
the feed down to the camera mix on the console in the theater

Unknown Speaker  31:09  
is controlling each running control from each of these machines and now fed through to a sound camera and getting the different levels these four or five tracks or so were Goon to the main master track as what we call mix or married track.

Unknown Speaker  31:29  
Okay,

Unknown Speaker  31:31  
on music sessions as such, especially on musicals or any piece of film material involved music. A lot of the music, any kind of musical, the music is always pre recorded before the picture was shot. And at the same time, they would shoot what they call a guy track. In the old days, it used to be on a disc, but it would be on tape now with the markings on the front of cues and

Unknown Speaker  31:56  
bleat marks on the beginning for when the artist starts and stops.

Unknown Speaker  32:01  
So what actually happens? You shoot the music, but that's kept the main recording copy for the cinema release. But as I say, there's a working disc or tape for guide for the artists, and they take this on location or in the studio, and this is a guide for them.

Unknown Speaker  32:22  
Okay? Yes,

Unknown Speaker  32:24  
often again, when you go on location, you're shooting sound, possibly might be a period film. And when you're shooting on location, you can have quite a number of noises you don't wish to be on the actual track, such as airplanes. So what actually happens that track, the sound chap will shoot a track for that. But what actually happens that will come back to the studio, and they will call the artist into the studio for post syncing session. Posting session is where the pieces of trims, a small piece of films, are put into loops and run round, and the artist as earphones on on his ears. And same time a picture runner is a sound track they shot on location and with all these other noises on the track that they don't wish to have. And this is called post sinking. So once they've shot the new soundtrack, the other film track that was shot on location is scrubbed, and also the artists have got to have lips Exactly. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Got to watch what's your projection very carefully.

Unknown Speaker  33:34  
When we was making our Scotland Yard series, we had our own card, a water card that used to be the tab cars used by the police some years ago, and the chappy that used to drive, it was our studio driver, because the actual car was used for taking the most important artists back to their hotels or their homes, but it was also used for the pictures of the Scotland yards in production. And I can remember one time just before they were leaving the studio to go along to the Kingston bypass to do some filming, and they put the police sign on and and the bell on top of the car. And as they were going down to the location, a real police car came along and pulled them in and asked them about the bell and the other things on the car. And they told me there were a Film Unit, and the real police car officers mentioned to him that would they be good enough not to put the bits and pieces on the car till they get to the location? And I can remember another instance, actually, as I say, we made quite a number of these films

Unknown Speaker  34:41  
a young child or a boy or girl member or fan, but wrote to the studios, wanted to know why the police car on each film as the same number plate,

Unknown Speaker  34:52  
and in future films, we made up different number plates for

Unknown Speaker  34:57  
filming. It's.

Unknown Speaker  35:00  
Yeah, we just mentioned earlier on this tape, but we mentioned the driver, the police car, as I say, he was actually a studio driver, and his son just

Unknown Speaker  35:11  
trying to think of his answer. But obviously the name, the surname, was Elliot, and he started in our post room, then he moved on to cameras himself as a camera assistant, and he now is a camera operator working on all the very big features.

Unknown Speaker  35:31  
I've been a member of the BK STS for many, many years. Can you just see what the BKs British? Oh, the British. British kind of matter about sound and Television Society.

Unknown Speaker  35:43  
I've been a member for many, many years, and as time progressed,

Unknown Speaker  35:49  
I went to many, many lectures, and obviously at the end the lecture as an open

Unknown Speaker  35:58  
discussion with the audience,

Unknown Speaker  36:00  
there was a tape machine involved. And after a while, I got to operate this tape machine at the end of the lecture for recording the discussions for the journal.

Unknown Speaker  36:12  
And I did this many times. Also. I did slide shows, film shows, and helped the lecture in any way I could. And I was awarded with the Honorary Fellow, the big one, Honorary Fellow, delete the fellow, honorary member of the becast ts. And after many, many, many years passed, I was still doing this work, and I was offered the Roland Chase award. Are so pleased to receive?

Unknown Speaker  36:40  
What sort of

Unknown Speaker  36:42  
people were in BKs? Can you who was the sort of Secretary in the Chairman and the committee? Can you remember

Unknown Speaker  36:52  
in the early days about BKs TS meetings where it wasn't called BKs Ts, it used to be just called BKs, and our lectures were worn often every Wednesday evening at film house in Water Street. And you had to get there about six o'clock, six o'clock in the evening to get a

Unknown Speaker  37:11  
seat. And very, very nice to actually, because we had a small buffet there. We had sandwiches, tea, coffee and cakes. And we'd love to get there very early to say we could have a nosh and get a seat. But as I say, the lectures were every Wednesday, and each lecture, lecture, obviously was a different style. For one week, they will be on film, projection and dabbing. Another time on cameras, another time it was on sound.

Unknown Speaker  37:42  
Did because I was going to mention that the type of Fletcher was the very latest developments and the latest scientific research on all these things, yes,

Unknown Speaker  37:58  
the

Unknown Speaker  38:00  
the film house where we had our lectures. I belonged to Grandma British. And in the actual theater where we had our lecture was there their view in theater. And also there's Noel theater alongside where they run double head. And I was very friendly with the chief projections there who made the bookings for the theaters. Was a chap by name of Abbot. I can't think of his Christian name, but he was very, very good and very interesting person to listen to more often. I used to get to the lectures early to have a chat room, and he took me to his workshop in the building. And he was a man for repairing the cameras for the Goon on British news, and also you to take pieces home. I believe he lived in Harrow, and he made bits and pieces in the shed with his lathe to bring back a few days later, to put this camera right for the for the news.

Unknown Speaker  38:56  
Another thing about I've got this first Abbott, that is part of a big Yeah. Are you still running on that? Yes, keep running. And

Unknown Speaker  39:08  
to say, to mention about Mr. Abbott, two or three sons were in the film business. In fact, one of the the abbots was the chief of sound at Merton Park Studios, and

Unknown Speaker  39:20  
he was a very strong World Man. He did a very, very good job at being head of sound, but he was disabled, and it was amazing how he managed to do the work.

Unknown Speaker  39:32  
Was John Abbott, yes. John Abbott, I'm not sure which habit it was, but he was a W mixer at Associated British studios at Elstree. John Abbott is the camera man. I'll beg your pardon. I've just been booked right as I say, it was a cameraman, but another one of the boys of the sons was a sound mix Associated British studios at Elstree,

Unknown Speaker  39:57  
mentioned about the chief of sound, Ron Abbott, as I.

Unknown Speaker  40:00  
Said earlier on this tape that, sir, he was very disabled, and his car was especially fitted out

Unknown Speaker  40:07  
to drive the car. But when he used to arrive at the studios, when he got out the car, he's in such pain, but he was a very, very brave man. But when he came to do a day's work, he really did a day's work. He answered the phone the second and also did the Dubs. And in those days,

Unknown Speaker  40:25  
when you were dubbing, you were shooting on what they call photographic film, and you're running down a lot of sound stock, and you're running the the tracks on the projection room when they run, as I say that, sir, yes, certain volumes on certain tracks, music, dialog, what have you. If you missed a queue, you'd have to stop and put another 1000 foot roll of optical film on the sound camera. These days, they don't have this problem because they're shooting on magnetic they can stop and start and run back and pick up the sink again. So really they had a lot of problems in those days. So if you was sound records in the theater, sound mixer, you had to be on your toes.

Unknown Speaker  41:09  
Took a lot of concentration, and also breathing down the back of your neck. You got the producer and director, and this is very off putting, and you really had to be a very strong character to do the job.

Unknown Speaker  41:20  
Because I remember in those days putting the wedding on location with the sound. They had a great big sound. Then, yeah, and the sound camera,

Unknown Speaker  41:29  
the sound cameraman, had to take tests, yes, off of every rolls. It's

Unknown Speaker  41:38  
very,

Unknown Speaker  41:40  
very technically those days. I know anybody can do it.

Unknown Speaker  41:45  
Yeah, so,

Unknown Speaker  41:49  
my memory joke by Manny here, who's acted on the interview with me, he mentioned about this sound truck, especially the one we had at Merton Park studio. It was a very, very big van. It was a converted biscuit van, one of the big Kelly Palmers, or watte, one of the big manufacturers. And this was fitted up with

Unknown Speaker  42:09  
a sound camera. As I say, this sound camera was optical camera, and inside had charges. You had banks and banks of batteries, and those go to on locations. And this particular van they had in use when all over when all over the country, and it's kept in good speed. It was a very solid type of Van.

Unknown Speaker  42:32  
To mention the this particular soundtrack is Western Electric with variable density. Manny was just saying, He's talking about all these complications where he got pushb bolter sent in the other

Unknown Speaker  42:45  
and compression and man he wasn't too short, it was. But I said to Manny, it must be to sanctity with sex.

Unknown Speaker  42:55  
I think my word

Unknown Speaker  42:57  
Mountain Park Studios no longer stands now. It's now housing estate, but when I was there, obviously a lot of people got their notices and leaving the company. And there wasn't many people left. But I had to be on the fortune ones to stay and office staff. And what actually happened the two studios there

Unknown Speaker  43:21  
went over to what they call forewarning. This is forewarning is where you bring your own production company in makeup, carpenters, another person involved in film production and Merton Park Studios asked me if I would like to stay on to run the rushes and also to point out one or two things for people coming into the studios, and obviously looking after studio rushes, I made the bookings and sent the receipts into the office for booking the amount of time they used in the theater.

Unknown Speaker  43:57  
So obviously you have strange people come studio people like electricians. The setting, the other use coming. I was shown with a pair house was another bits and pieces, another tradesman that came in. I showed them all around. But after time, they all got to know where it was. But I just had to be there to run the rushes.

Unknown Speaker  44:15  
So you're more or less in charge. Well, I don't there

Unknown Speaker  44:21  
was studio manager. I can't remember fan, but more or less I was the only I was the only person

Unknown Speaker  44:30  
old.

Unknown Speaker  44:35  
There's

Unknown Speaker  44:38  
fore warning they had to close down, close. And as I said, was all poured down,

Unknown Speaker  44:45  
full warning for, are you still shooting? But

Unknown Speaker  44:48  
for warning for quite a number of years, actually.

Unknown Speaker  44:52  
And course, in as I say, it closed down. Eventually I went and and myself. I was out of work, and.

Unknown Speaker  45:00  
And

Unknown Speaker  45:04  
looked after you when you went, Yes, yes.

Unknown Speaker  45:09  
I got my redancy play because I was there for so many, many years. And also I now that I'm retired, I receive a pension from the Norwich union through the Merton Park Studios pension fund.

Unknown Speaker  45:22  
Then I was out of work for a short while after the studio closed, and I had friends in the BBC projection department, and I told them what I was out of work. And they said, Would I like to join their projection team?

Unknown Speaker  45:39  
And at that particular time, well, for some time, actually, I was never very keen on joining the BBC.

Unknown Speaker  45:48  
I always preferred to work for a smaller company, but my wife persuaded me to go for the interview

Unknown Speaker  45:55  
and take the job. So I rang up my friends and arranged an interview for me, and as you know, when you join the BBC, you go as temporary staff. So when I just interviewed, they said, Albert, would you like to take holiday relief? So I said, Yes. So I stayed on holiday relief for a short time. Then the project senior, senior projectionist said, would like to go permanent.

Unknown Speaker  46:24  
So there's a lot of paperwork filling when you go permanent, and also you have to take a test. Doesn't matter how many years you've been in business, you have to take a test with the BBC. You're more or less like going as a new boy. So I passed, and I stayed permanent when I was with the BBC for about nine years,

Unknown Speaker  46:43  
and also I now receive a very small pension from the BBC. There was a city or evening when I first went to the BBC, I started at

Unknown Speaker  46:53  
Lion grove. Lion Grove was the old films belong to Gainesville pictures, and I started my

Unknown Speaker  47:04  
job there, and as as the BBC policy is to move staff around. So after that, I went to the old film studios of healing, that now belongs to BBC Television Center and other premises around London. The idea is to move you around, is that anytime a projection is taken ill, you can go to those premises you're walking and start machines up. The machines in the the BBC are all different types of makes or equipment. So when you walk in, you don't walk into a strange place. You can walk in straight up and start, start machines up.

Unknown Speaker  47:40  
Yes, I was very, very very happy. But the ending with the BBC, they're very good people to work for, but I'm afraid the money wasn't very, very big pay. But if you went to other companies such as ITV

Unknown Speaker  47:56  
London Weekend or Thames for the same position, the same job, you would often get more money for the same type of job. But the point is, it was no good for me saying I'd like to go to Thames or London Weekend because my age was against me, they wouldn't be interested.

Unknown Speaker  48:15  
What sort of sort of jobs were you doing?

Unknown Speaker  48:18  
Because they did use a lot of films, yes, yes as no as a.

Speaker 1  0:02  
This is Maddy josper interviewing Albert Crito. This is tape two, and the date is 24th of July, 1989

Speaker 2  0:17  
with the BBC. They're very, very good people to work for very good conditions. And as I say, if you keep your nose clean, you got a job for life. But as I say earlier on, that the money was not all that good, but I had very happy nine years with the BBC.

Unknown Speaker  0:34  
Were you doing? Maybe

Speaker 2  0:38  
little well, you got moved around, if I was at Lion Grove, I've been working on nationwide, I was classed as as so I've gotten they want to call it stopping this right when I was at Lion Grove, I was allocated to nationwide and Panorama, and so I'll stop the draw UPS mention nationwide and panorama. The unit was called current affairs, and I was allocated there for running rushes, because in line Grove, we never had such thing as dubbing facilities, though, just purely three theaters and purely for running rushes and preview work or cut sequences. And I looked after studio number four. Though there wasn't four studios four theaters such, but it was known as studio four, and each morning we'd I'd run cut sequences for nationwide and also for panorama. And more than often, this was on 16 mil, more than often, running sequences for run through, whether done alterations or pieces added to it when it was running the projection room a matter of 15 minutes or so, was taken from the project room and taken straight through and put on transmission.

Unknown Speaker  2:15  
Laboratory. No

Speaker 2  2:16  
no laboratories in I say there's no laboratories. There was laboratories at Television Center. Oh, yes, they did their own process, yeah, processing, yes. And they're going to say I was working at Television Center on different types of production. He was involved in many, many production. We might be on projection on 35 mill or 16 mill projection room at Television Center was a very wide open plan projection rooms you know about. So about five or 616 mill projectors for separate picture and sound. The other side of the projection room will be 35 mill projection with the same facilities.

Speaker 1  3:04  
This was this in black and white days, or had color, oh, no, color, yes, color. So when they shot 16 mill colors transparency, was it, or was it negative, positive?

Speaker 2  3:21  
Sometimes you was in what sometimes you have negative sometimes in the between rules,

Speaker 2  3:33  
as I say in runnings, 16 mill cutting sequences, more than more often, some parts that the real will be in negative form, but the actual road that you're running through on the 16 mile projector will go out on transmission with separate Pritchard salmon, and more often, certain parts of film will be negative. But this can be reversed electronically when it goes out in transmission. Weren't they worried about

Speaker 1  3:59  
damage? Do they make no no.

Speaker 2  4:10  
Some time ago, the BBC made about seven in the series connected with the royal family. I can't think of name the title now, but they were, they were very well made. But one evening, Prince Charles came along down to see the cut sequence, because these were always vetted before they went on transmission by the Royal Family. But this particular evening was booked us down for overtime, and Prince Charles arrived about half past five. I didn't actually do the projection that particular theater, but I was another cubicle on other films, but I was working overtime also the projections that was going to show the film for the Prince Charles the project, as I said, this projection was open plan. So I was projecting this particular particular film, and he was going to the viewing theater this particular role film. And obviously there's quite a number of people with him. When he arrived, and he walked past and he smiled, and I just didn't know what to do to what to say, I think so. So all I did was say Good evening, sir. But when I go into my wife home and told him that I'd seen Prince Charles, I said I didn't know what to do to curtsy or what have you. So all I said was, Good evening, sir. And he gave me a smile, and I mentioned this particular preview theater right about half past five, but from about one o'clock they polished. All the theaters already been cleaned by the cleans, but it was repolished. The view and table obviously wasn't moved. But the chairs in the actual were in the preview were just ordinary chairs, and they were taken out and armchairs put in for the occasion, and also the the projection room in television centers on the first floor. And also the same thing applied with the lift, it was all cleaned up. Had been cleaned two or three times before his arrival. While this film was being projected, there was two entrance actually, to the viewing theater. On either side was the security men that usually follow Prince Charles around. One was at one entrance and one in the projection room. Good. I've just been reminded about games with studios, but the games were studios. In particular. I can go back to games with line go, but I will mention that in a moment. But talking about games with studios at Islington, I never been inside a studio, but that particular time, I was doing my day's relief at this particular cinema in Islington, in my tea break, I love to go along about five minutes walk from the cinema. I was doing the day's relief to the game of studios at Islington. And I often used to stand outside. And I'd love to go in studios. And I've never set foot in the studio before, but I was just fascinated just to stand outside this studio to Islington, and the studios has been used on number occasion by the crazy gang, by Flanagan and the other, the other, the gang. But I believe the actual studios in this early day, they're very, very old and very open outside. But I was told it was, at one time, a bonded warehouse.

Unknown Speaker  7:47  
This was before the war. Was

Speaker 2  7:49  
it this around during the war? During the war? Yeah. Okay, yes. Another thing I just remembered, as I say, I really recorded my cinema days, but one particular cinema I was working at was this imperial cinema at Clapham Junction. And it was a two with a derby. And there was this particular news rule, one news all Goon one British news. And in those days, at Lion Grove in Shelby's Bush belonged to Goon once, but in the same building, though, besides the studio down in the basement was the process and laboratory for the news and cause we had plaster all outside the cinema this evening, the derby will be screened at last shown on the news rule and my job was to go down to Shepherd's worship line Grove, go down and pick up the small piece of films, about two or three minutes of the Derby, and then rush back and join it in with the news. It was shown at same particular night. In those days, it was really something to the show. The same night was like now you got video tape. Now you can play it and play back straight away, but all this fast to rush down and brush back with this small can of film with the Darb. So that was an experience. I never thought that in those days that I'll be working at line growth,

Speaker 1  9:24  
because the lab boys must have worked pretty Oh yeah, pretty quick, yes. Mentioned about

Speaker 2  9:29  
bench, about waiting for this piece of film in the Derby, and I was there for, say, about 10 or 15 minutes waiting for this piece of film. I tried to age my way along to see if I could get farther into the building while I was waiting for this film, but they put the block on me, talking about unions as such as I say, I went to the Mount Park in June 1943 and I was never. In any film unit of any calm when I was in cinema. But as I was going into film studios, I was requested to join the union. For some reason, on those days, they had studio projectors in NAT key and also in the ETU, and I was advised to join the ETU. And after some years, they requested that I joined the NAT key because also had a particular time there was NAT key electrician. So what happens? They took Naki electricians into the ETU and the ETU projections went into Naki.

Speaker 1  10:36  
I think they just swapped with the ACTT as well.

Speaker 2  10:41  
I'll come out. You shot, that didn't you? Yes, Goon, as I say this, this was what happened with the unions, the the projections of the win, the in the laboratories, they come under the

Unknown Speaker  10:57  
act. That was another little spot.

Speaker 2  11:00  
Yeah, but, but film laboratory projections was always act as I say, that I had nine happy years with a Beeb, and then, because I was 60 years of age, I had to go. So there again, I was out of work, and I was sitting around and my, my my late wife had a son, so obviously was my stepson, but And he was started out as stills photography man and doing photographs for brochure, like furniture, clothing and this type of thing. And he went on to bigger things and doing women's magazines. Then he got the opportunity to shoot still for Vogue magazine. So he was more or less classed as he won the seven photographers in the country, top for photographers in the country. But he always wanted to go to a movie direct him eventually did actually to work, to do commercials. But the only thing is that he had to direct the commercials with another director alongside him because he had no act ticket. But eventually he got his ticket, and now, this particular time, now, he lives in Hollywood. What was his name, Michael Bukowski, Michael Bucha and as say, he moved to Hollywood. He's been there some years now, directing and writing commercials. And this particular time that I was out of work, he was doing commercials here in England. And this particular job that I did go to eventually, he did his dumping dubbing. This is in St Anne's called just off Water Street, called mag masters. And I was out of work and nothing doing 60. And obviously my age is 65 and my wife said to her son, when you go around your dubbing theaters around town, and when you go to mag masters, ask them if they want a projections, a dubbing projections, you know, a good one. So on his rounds, and he did most of his dubbing at McMasters in St Anne's court, and the company have only just recently started up in those days, and he just happened to be in the theater. And the actual McMasters company is run by two kind of directors, a role. So the record is in the theaters to theaters, then the working directors. One is called Steve Cook, and the other one is called hold. It's horrible minute. Let me talk a minute. Two directors was Steve Cook and Dave Maiden, and as I say, My stepson was Taunton. Do you know anyone who wants to studio projections? And strange enough, they did one of projections. One of the projections was leaving. And actually the projectionist was leaving, he was going to want to leave the business, go on the stage. He was going to a school to train as a mime artist. So I went along for the interview and got the job. And I was working for five years. And a very small company, but a very, very busy company, and I pleasure of working the projection partner on Dublin. I met so many celebrities on the voiceovers, people like David Jason and many more. I. And it says, commercials. Was it? Yeah, commercials, yes.

Unknown Speaker  15:08  
So of course there would be, we would have the

Speaker 2  15:10  
lot of voiceover, Warner celebrities, but they're going the the brain boxes. Of brain box has gone, but I was there for five years, very happy years, and they came a lot of young people in the projection. We had two projection rooms there. There again, there was no open plan with dubbing heads the sector, but they're all young chats. And obviously I was the oldest one there, and the other two projections more or less near my age. And the young people that gave me the greatest, greatest respect.

Speaker 1  15:40  
And also, you presumably taught them a bit, a few tricks and things. Oh

Speaker 2  15:45  
yes, yes, yes, as I say that, talk about little things, about tricks of the trade, different things they were very grateful for. And

Speaker 1  16:01  
yes, I was going to say that one of the things that we older people in the industry had been doing was training the young ones that came out. Yes, and I think we did perform quite a useful service, because I've plenty of young chaps who are my players? I still see their names up,

Speaker 2  16:25  
but I shouldn't, but as you were saying about tricks of trade, for instance, when you get a slight picture jump on the screen, you got gate adjusters. Is that in the other but when you do just these adjusters on the gate, sometimes you still got to jump. And I sort of mentioned the fact that it was pretty jump. There's not much you do about it, son, obviously, some could be done, but obviously can't do it now because we're working but, but I managed to show my little piece of cardboard and little piece of packing piece and make sure, obviously, don't put too much tension on gates and got a lot of trouble, but there are little tricks and trades as well as

Unknown Speaker  17:05  
a very useful thing. Instead of taking all the older ones, people

Speaker 2  17:14  
said to me in the past, and I've been doing this job for many, years, and people say to me, as you pick all this up, you know, you're so interested. I mean, you're not just showing a bit of film. You've seen another, bits and pieces about projectors, this, that and the other, and I say they're going you just picked up as you go along. It's what we call years of experience. You pick it up by experience and learning

Speaker 1  17:40  
from other people, yes, and then passing that knowledge on to the young,

Speaker 2  17:45  
yes. But also, as I say, though you've been in business many, many years, you can't know everything. You're always learning. But as I say, that McMasters now, I believe he's been going for about seven years or so now, and I spent five years with them, and they're very, very good, but they're going I was 65 they would love to keep me on, but obviously, because of my age, I had to go. But they treated me very, very well, and they asked me what I'd like for farewell present before I mentioned about the present, actually also brought a lot of work into the company, because when I found I was working in Wall Street, I met many, many friends. I mentioned about the studios, they came along and they look at the equipment, met the bosses, and also brought a lot of work into the company as well, from people who make commercials as well. But when I departed, because I was 65 they said to me, oh, but what would you like for a present? And so we don't want to give you the huge thing about a watch or anything like that. They said, we know you love travel, but would you like to have a holiday, either in Holland or Paris, because Paris is my second love. I've been there so many times. They gave me a present of a long weekend in Paris, also, I believe, since spending money, but they gave me a gift that to go and enjoy myself. And when I arrived at my room in Paris, they laid everything on the hotel room, four star hotel. When I arrived at the hotel, in the room I got there was a bottle of champagne waiting for me from mag masters. Do you still

Unknown Speaker  19:41  
visit them when? Them.

Speaker 2  19:42  
Yeah, began because I got to take something in for Max and I was just going from time to time

Speaker 1  19:49  
because I suppose all these years have been in this tricky bus. No, hundreds and hundreds of people may all know, especially when you're being active in BKs.

Speaker 2  19:59  
Yes. Hey. And I think also, when you're on projections while viewing dominant, you meet the celebrities. You just can't help

Unknown Speaker  20:07  
you get in the directors and the producers, yes, because

Unknown Speaker  20:10  
your connectives, you know, we have close liaison together. I mean, they bring the films in, or they want to talk about something,

Speaker 1  20:18  
about the film. Of course, you must very closely. Want to come

Speaker 2  20:21  
up to project rooms and come up with the editor. They might just do a minor adjustment, even in the projection room. It was anything too serious, I would take it back to the cameras.

Speaker 1  20:32  
You're also a member of the veteran cinema

Speaker 2  20:35  
veterans. I think I mentioned it tonight.

Speaker 1  20:39  
No, you mentioned the BECTU. I thought I mentioned on the other words, Goon to all the reunions and yes,

Unknown Speaker  20:55  
and yes, I'll meet man something

Speaker 1  21:00  
about one. Just record it, of course. Now you've retired, I don't suppose you put your feet up and just sitting No,

Speaker 2  21:22  
I can't, I can't sit still. No, are you sure? No, you're just running back. Oh, you didn't tell me. No, I find that I don't lay in bed too long. Possibly, ladies might be up past eight, nine o'clock, but no, I find a lot of things to do because I love walking, I love swimming. I love my travel. Try and get away soon as I can. As I say, that my mind, people say to me, oh, but don't you get fed up with nothing. I said, No, I love walking,

Unknown Speaker  21:55  
work at the PKS lectures and

Speaker 2  21:57  
give them occasionally. Yes, not so much now, but occasionally. But as I say, getting back to mag masters art, I retired from time to time. They used me for holiday relief, but I wasn't very keen on doing that, actually, because I had to pay income tax. So they said, Oh, please, would you do it? But I do it to help me out, because even when I'm retired, I have to go, I mean, you've got to go through the usual channels and pay your tax. So I work with mag masters, and I paid my income tax when I was retired. But I'm not very keen on it, because I feel it should be taxed, but they are, but also

Unknown Speaker  22:38  
bit too much. You kept not get knocked

Speaker 2  22:41  
off. Very, very true. Yeah. But as I say, when I went back to my mag masters, I don't on off holiday reef, say, for about three weeks or five weeks, or the odd day when somebody was the oldest any other and and I said to him at the time that I don't really want to do because I've got pain contacts, I always said, try and help us out. So why do, as I say, holiday relief. I worked and I paid income tax. It keeps you busy. Yeah. Anyway, as I say, paying income tax, there was a few bob to pay my rates and other bits and pieces of electric and that thing, but, but as I say, I love my walking and I love my travel swimming. I don't mind. I love swim, but I'm not a very good swimmer, but my favorite pastime is walking and traveling abroad. And as I said, mentioned about Paris, I've been to Paris about 18 times, and I love it there. And people turn around and say, Oh, but don't know why, because it's like London busses. Of course, you got a little caravan as well as a caravan down in Kent in a place called the Isle of Sheppey. I go down there most weekends. It's a quiet life and and what I do actually, I mean, my bookshelf at home is full of travel books of different countries as that now, and I take them off and read them from time to time, read bits and pieces. And the whole shelf is full up with travel books. And one shelf has got film technical books from the past.

Speaker 1  24:18  
Also, you still keep it, meet a lot of people in the industry. Oh

Speaker 2  24:23  
yes, yes, yes. I don't disappear. I think it's a type person I am. You know that I like to mix with people and see people and go and see people. I think that's my nature. And

Speaker 1  24:38  
it was very nice retirement, love life. That's yeah, I