The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

March 1955 CINE TECHNICIAN 37 and was shot on ortho-stock sensitised slightly to red after purchase. The results were quite reasonable, and Mr. Gordon felt there might be some scope for a similar system now for producing colour newsreels — it had the advantages of speed and simplicity and cheapness. Next came a spell of free-lancing and an assignment to cover the Balkan War in Turkey. His equipment was an old inside box Prestwich with a 3in. and a 6in. lens, with which he covered among others the Battle of Adrianople. There were no P.R.O.'s then — one had to fend for oneself, buying one's own rations and transport (horses, not jeeps!) Horses were enormously expensive and hard to get — luckily he found a Turkish police inspector who was short of funds and sold him some police horses! The great problem was getting one's films back — one had to ride with them to the nearest railhead and despatch them and hope for the best. Though some material was lost, most of it got back. This was the last of the old wars — and he met most of the famous old-style war correspondents and war artists. Ashmead Bartlett, of the " Daily Telegraph," became one of his great pals. Following this came a period of working in features with Brightonian and Magnet, and then as a Territorial he was called up to serve in First World War. Gas gangrene laid him up in hospital; afterwards he did newsreel jobs for War Office and joined the then equivalent of the Army Film Unit. End of the war found him in Russia as war photographer with General Ironside's army — he had to combine jobs as soldier and photographer. He covered evacuation of Archangel in stills and cine. Back in England he joined Billy Jeapes who had purchased the Topical Budget back from the government. Then Beaverbrook, who had bought the Pathe Gazette wanted someone to cover the Irish Troubles — so Ken Gordon went to Ireland to run the Irish edition. His pictures of the Black and Tans were not popular with Irish audiences who were liable to puncture the screen with revolver shots. Returning to England, he worked with Pathe on the Pictorial, Eve's Review and the Gazette. He did first slow-motion shooting for newsreels, notably on Grand National and Derby, and also on fights — very " dodgy " with the slow stocks then available. Talking of fights, Ken Gordon recalled his experiences when he covered the Siki v. McTeague fight in Dublin on St. Patrick's nig-ht. Siki was a negro and the I.R.A. has threatened to blow up the theatre. Ken Gordon, Frank Basill and Tommy Scales were escorted to the theatre by armed guards; during the fight the theatre was suddenly shaken by an explosion, the I.R.A.'s cartload of " cheese " had gone up several streets away. Anyway, McTeague won. This period saw the beginning of the newsreel war over exclusive rights. Pathe Gazette bought the exclusive rights of the Grand National and all the other reels " pinched " it. This meant that on that day practically every cameraman in the country had a job covering the National, either with Pathe or with the other newsreels. This went on for a number of years, until Castleton Knight took over G.B. News and got the rights for the National. Pathe built a scaffolding from which to shoot the race; an attempt was made to overturn it, there was a fight and a lot of people got broken heads. Nowadays the rights are shared by all the companies. In those days cameras were hand-cranked, only hand-held automatic cameras were Aeroscope and Sept. The rights for the last Cup Final to be played at Stamford Bridge were held by the Topical Budget. The match was won by a penalty goal, Ken Gordon, " pinching " with a Sept, was the only one to get that penalty. (A Sept holds 15 feet of film!). One of the best "pinches" ever was when Dan Yates — a famous character amongst newsreelers — got a slow-motion camera into a tree at the Canal Turn at Aintree. Coming to the last war — cameramen were accredited correspondents with the Services. The early days were a bit difficult as the little bits of paper issued by the M.O.I, as passes were often ignored by the authorities and the cameraman thrown into jail. Ken Gordon filmed in London during the blitz — and was then accredited to U.S. 8th Air Force, then to the Navy, and after that to the Army for D-day. This was a marvellously organised job. After the Normandy landing he went right through to the finish at Luneberg Heath and then on to Berlin where he spent a hard but interesting six months. His next major assignment after the war was in Palestine, where he got a scoop with the first pictures to be taken of illegal immigrants. After Palestine — Transjordan, and there, Ken Gordon said, he would leave the story, and let his audience see some pictures, including some extracts from the 1911 Durbar, illustrating various types of newsreel coverage. A lively discussion followed the showing of the films, and the meeting ended with a vote of thanks proposed by the chairman of the Technical Committee, George Hill. .j :; ;. .. .i .: .; ,; ;, ;; •',: t: :• ;: :: :: r. i: :: :: :: :: :: t; i: i: :: n n :; s; •: n ti u :i t; i: :: r i_^M^LJL.iliilL U-LLLL£1J The Delhi Durbar, 1911