The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

May 1954 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 101 Alf Tunwell, Frank Fuller, Cyril Stanborough (who should have been taking this still), Sid Cole and Sash Fisher join in talk, jests and memories of the old days. Pollard Street. That was the first meeting we came down to attend and I believe at that meeting it was announced that we had got the boys in from Shepperton. Of course, it then went out of our hands at the Bush. Reg Groves : What you are really saying is that organisation started at the old Bush Studio. Bill Allan : Yes. The basic reason we got down to it was not so much for more money but that Hitler had come into power and we got worried in case the many refugees coming over might take work at less than we were getting. Sash Fisher : It seems to me there were two separate forms of organisation, because we at B. & D. started entirely on our own and the first meeting at the Blue Posts was when Henry Harris was elected as Vice-President. Henry Harris : I think the thing ties up because if you remember I said when I started that we went down to the Blue Posts and to my great surprise there were a lot of other people there. Sash Fisher : We just got a very hush-hush notice that there was going to be a meeting of a new Union which would cater for all technicians. It was very secret. Harold Elvin : Six months before Cope there was a meeting at B. & D., at which there were representatives of every department. This was six months before the Blue Posts meeting. Henry Harris : Two Studios were anxious to get things going but we didn't know about each other, and it was Cope who got us together. It was the Shepherds Bush people who got hold of Cope and he knit it together. Ken Gordon : I think Alf Tunwell was the link between Cope and those of us not in the Studios. Stanborough : Roy Kellino was another one. It was through him I knew all about A.C.T. Harold Elvin : When the question of what we should call ourselves was raised I suggested we should call ourselves a trade union. When I reported this back I was asked not to represent the men any more and Roy Oxley was sent in my place. Every section of B. & D., Sound, Camera, etc., had one representative at this meeting, which was called to talk about forming an organisation. Sid Cole : It seems to me you want some sort of picture as to what things were like in the industry. That is why people wanted a Union. Ivor Montagu : Anyway, the point is that Bush was working some months before the Blue Posts meeting, and was the first to pay any fees, and B. & D. got as far as a delegate meeting without getting any money in. There were people in Wardour Street and they sent Cope, who had been brought in by Bush, round to the various Studios. That was really the first meeting, the one at the Blue Posts when everybody got together. Henry Harris : You must remember everybody was seething with discontent because of conditions in which we were working. I remember working twenty-two hours. I remember going home one Saturday for my first Sunday off in a month and I was mad with my wife because she started dusting the room when 1 was asleep. Sid Cole : If you worked overtime you got 2/6d. supper money. Henry Harris : That didn't apply to cameramen. Cyril Stanborough : I was working at Twickenham Studios in 1933 and we worked seven days a week. We finished on Sunday night and started in again on Monday morning and for two years we worked every week-end. That was the beginning of A.C.T. I remember I was approached by Roy Kellino who was at the Bush and came round as runner for Cope to say they had the idea of forming an Association. I was naturally interested and paid my 2/6d. right away. But for two years, apart