The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

Nov. -Dec, 11)38 THE CINETECHNICIAN 1 1 CRICKLEWOOD, n.w.2 The Valuable FREEHOLD PROPERTY STOLL STUDIOS Edfwcre Road, Temple Road and Laofton Ro»d, CRICKLEWOOD. N.W 2. EXTENSIVE RANGE OF BUILDINGS TOTAL FLOOR AKEA OP ABOUT Square 73,000 Feet -■lb Bp.„aat OMlc.t. Orr..,B( |MOL » ork.bof. tit. SALE BY AUCTION GODDARD & SMITH ON THE PREMISES On WEDNESDAY, 26th OCTOBER. 1938 A STUDIO PASSES by — SIDNEY COLE O UT of the door came a ducal carriage complete with coat of arms, accompanied by a man who clutched in his arms an assorted heap of w ash basins, pipes, taps and toilet-roll holders. The auction sale of the contents of Stoll Studios at Cricklewood wrs over, and the buyers were beginning to take away their lots. The ducal carriage had once figured proudly, and the other objects less glamorously but no doubt just as usefully, in a chapter of the history of the British film industry which had now come to an end. At a moderate estimate the value of what was offered at that three-day sale was £200, 000. When the results of the three days offering and bidding were totted up. it was agreed that Stolls were lucky if they had got more than £6,000 for the lot. The ducal carriage was knocked down at £12 LOs. The contents of the star dressing room answers the query "What price glamour'.1'' with fifty bob. A .Mitchell camera (cost when new £1,20(1) which had been sent back to Bell & Howell within the last two years for overhaul at a cost of £250, whose eleven lenses cost at least £150, and which, moreover, had been remounted recently at a cost of £180, whose six magazines are worth £2."> each, and whose tripod is valued at £75, went for 9350. The price is no reflection on the camera — it is merely another straw in the wind that has been blowing steadily against the British film industry for the last two years. The Stoll back projection apparatus w as the pride of Desmond Dickinson and the other Stoll technicians who invented and constructed it themselves. It gave some of the best back projection results this country has seen, besides evoking the admiration of visiting American executives. So that when it was knocked down at £250 the buyer THANK YOU, MR. STANLEY [Continued from previous page) than, if as good as, our own men. The original reason for foreign cameramen being allowed to work here was because producers said they could not make good pictures without them. Did thej make good pictures with them? I don't have to answer this question. The conditions of the industry answer it for you." It's good to be alive, isn't it? Yours, More in sorrow than in anger, THE ASSOCIATION OF CINE -TECHNCIANS . got— if I may be sentimental for a moment — not merely a good piece of apparatus but something of the constructive endeavour and pride of craftsmanship that British technicians have shown in the past and are willing to show again whenever they get the chance. "Ninety-eight film tins" were offered without receiving a bid— the bids could not have been less, it was remarked, it there had been film in them. A developing and drying machine went for £2 10s., and a printing machine for 15/-. The cinematograph rights to a large number of stories by such authors as Phillips Oppenheim, Alfred Tennyson, P. (J. Wodehouse, Reginald Berkeley, Maurice Hew lett. Baroness Orezy, Keble Howard, Morley Roberts, Selwyn Jepson, Edgar Wallace and H. (). Well's luyers. Indeed no bids at all were made for in. except £1 for the rights of Wells's novel This was made 1>\ a gentleman who turned out mthor's son. biank Wells. lound no any of tl "Kipps." to be the jood prices, as did the ing everything specific Tin moviolas fetched fairh still cameras, but generally spea ally connected with Him making received low bids, and articles of general use. such as Tansad chairs and general fitments, did well. Several miles of cable and flex were sold for good prices, but not for future use in supplying light for a lew more British pictures. They went to scrap merchants because the copper the\ contain is valuable in these days of rearmament. In the last year or so there was a revival of interest in Stoll's, because of the modernisation of much of its plant. Five pictures were made there during the first six months ol 1938, apart from shorts. Things looked a little brighter despite the slump. But this was the last gasp. Negotiations lor the use of the building and site for aircraft work put a stop to production. Stolls had worked at the Cricklewood plant for 17 y< ars. since 1921. They had known the heights of successful supers and the depths of non-production. But the history of the Stoll Company itself goes back earlier. About 1918 the American companies did not have their own distributing organisations in this country but marketed their product through English firms. Stolls started as the marketing medium for Samuel Goldwyn pictures, and did very well. They decided to try production for themselves. They hired the old London Film Co's. Twick