The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

Jan. -Feb., 1953 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 21 that he was elected to the Board of A.C.T. Films Ltd., from the first. Private life ? Notwithstanding his service to the Union, Frank manages a spot of gardening, canary breeding, a weekly visit to the cinema and occasionally to the theatre and ballet — all of which he enjoys in company with his wife. Though he took a W.E.A. course in industrial relations during the war, he does not read much now. He is also a member of the Bexley Labour Party, and was happy to be at the meeting with Charlie Wheeler when R. J. Minney was adopted as prospective Labour candidate. Frank is now Progress Supervisor at Pathe Labs, Wardour Street. He insists that workers should have a share in management of industry, but that this demands certain responsibilities on the part of the workers. As a negotiator for A.C.T. for many years he has had to study the business, and he strongly believes in the principle that a good Trades Unionist must also be a good worker and carry the team spirit on to the job. STEVE COX is one of the few of our members with two film careers — eighteen years in the labs, followed by nearly ten in shorts and documentaries. He started in 1925 as a washing boy, joining his brother Arthur, at the Vickers Filmcraft Labs in Acton Lane (a subsidiary of the Wardour Film Company), when tinting and toning were all the rage. Some two years later he went with his brother over to Elstree Film Labs, where Garry Alderson was in charge of the technical side. This was before A.C.T.'s time, and the boys on the job thought the amount of overtime they did, which was unpaid, was excessive. They all decided they had had enough; but the governor, Garry Schwarz, called them to his office individually — in order of seniority. Steve, then on the drying cabinets, went in last, stuck out for payment of overtime, and the governor agreed he should get it. The result was that he was always sent home after normal working hours, while the others continued doing overtime without pay. But after two months of this, they all got paid — thanks to Steve's boldness in front of the boss. By 1931 he had worked up to being a developer, under Jim South and Syd Twyman, along with Bert Craik, George Irons, Bill Shepherd and Eric Van Baars — Sam Simmons being in the cutting rooms. But it was that year that the Elstree studios suffered one of their periodic slumps, the labs closed down and Steve was unemployed. So back to the drying cabinets again, at Humphries. On night work Steve managed to save enough to get married in 1933. But he agreed with his wife, Doris, that night work was no use to newly-weds, so back again on the day shift. But in February 1934 he was on the dole for two months, while his wife was expecting a baby. Fortunately he got back to Elstree by the time David was born in October. George Elvin had just become General Secretary of A.C.T., and after a meeting in the Church Hall, Boreham Wood, Steve joined A.C.T. But it was at Brent Labs that Steve first came into prominence. One of Bert Craik's first jobs as Organiser at the beginning of the war was to meet Steve, with Dave Roberts, and discuss forming a nucleus of members there. Steve's first recruit was Chris Tanzelli; the membership grew and Steve became Shop Steward, until Kitty Blair took over when he left in 1943. Long years of working in darkrooms had injured his health, and after six months' illness Ralph Bond helped him get a job in the Cutting Rooms at WTorld Wide. His first picture was The Battle for the Oilfields, a compilation film in French edited by Peter Tanner, made for the Ministry of information by the original Cineguild team, David Lean, Tony Havelock Allan and Ronnie Neame. His first credit as Editor was on Every Drop to Drink, a short for the Metropolitan Water Board, directed by Mary Francis. At World Wide and as a freelance he has since cut films about cotton mills, the Navy, the Army, the rubber industry, sewers and road safety, including foreign versions — all these Steve has found interesting, largely because of the variety of their educational content. The one he recalls best is Power in The Land, sponsored by the E.T.U., which traces the history of electricity from Faraday to the splitting of the atom. He is now associated with Max Mundon at Film Workshop. For real relaxation Steve likes nothing better than a half of Guinness and a game of darts at one of the locals in Chiswick. And if you look inside his wife's handbag, you will find that Dot has brought three darts with her too, for she is Ladies' Champion at the Crown. Needless to say, young David, now 18, has taken after his parents. " Provided your eyesight's good," says Steve, " darts is a sport you can perform even when you're seventy." It is also a good social sport — and so it was, of course, that Steve got roped on to A.C.T.'s Social Committee for four or five years. Steve has served on the Shorts Committee since its inauguration, and is also on the Editorial Section Committee. But the job he has had — " Oh, for as long as I can remember! " — is Teller at annual general meetings. With Eric Pask and George Irons, Steve is always there to count " Those in favour " and " Those against " without making any mistakes. Maybe that's the secret of his character. He makes no distinction among his A.C.T. friends whether they be politically to the left or the right. And in the Editorial Section he admires the way there is " no class distinction " between Shorts and Feature members — that Section, he believes, has paved the way to the all-important harmony between Shorts and Feature members. American in India — Cont. Once confident, Rusi Banker worked out his set colours and costume colours. They represented his own choice and they were real Indian colour schemes. I think that the only colour that I imposed on him was the Technicolor grey scale to be used in place of whites. This is a photographic problem which he readily understood. When it came time to leave Bombay and fly East on around the world by way of Bankok, Hong Kons:, Tokio and back to California, I felt that Rusi Banker was standing on his own feet and no longer feeling doubtful about his national colour inheritance. When The Queen of Jhansi is shown in America, perhaps it will help us to understand the Indian better, and recall to mind our own struggle for political and artistic independence and freedom. — From " Production Design," the S.M.P.A.D. Journal.