behp0231-bill-hughes-summary
SIDE ONE
Born December 1931 in London, evacuated twice to Devon. Grammar school in Kingsbury, left in 1948 saw a job for a post boy at AB Pathe in Film House. When he got there the jobs had all gone so he went down two floors to United Artists, where Bill Smith took him on at £2 12shillings and sixpence a week [£2-62.5 pence]. Stayed in the post room until his National Service in the Royal Air Force; returned to UA in 1952. Sent to the Baring Department – he explains what work was done there – he only stayed a week, then moved to advertising sales which was part of the publicity department under Joe Pole. The man who was his immediate superior dropped down dead and Hughes was promoted to take over the job of Export Print Manager. He gives details of the various tasks he did and talks about the pressure to get prints out. It would seem that his work was very similar to that of Dave Davies [Interview No 230] whose work dovetailed into Hughes work.
SIDE TWO
He talks about the difficulties he experiences with the negatives and print material that had been damaged in the USA laboratories; he also talks about the problem of providing prints for television from all the various “Scope” type systems and says that there are fewer and fewer personnel who understand what is involved. He remembers the 1960s as being the best period for him because there were many productions being made in the UK, either as US or English productions.
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