Film and TV Technician (1957)

May 1958 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN 275 of a Camera-Plane donated for use on one of the days! If this whole operation had been a commercially sponsored venture it would have cost an estimated £3,000! Old Days I have had several enquiries about the film Mill on the Floss, which was made at Shepperton Studios, then called Sound City. Most of the enquiries were for a list of Credits. To the best of my knowledge, the film was shot in 1936. It was produced by John Cline, the artistes were Frank Lawton, Fay Compton, James Mason, Geraldine Fitzgerald, to name a few. It was directed by Tim Whealan, 1st assistant Phil Brandon, I forget the 2nd assistant, 3rd assistant Michael {Around the World in 80 Days) Anderson. John Shimar was imported from America as Lighting Cameraman, Operator Hone Glendenning, 1 pulled focus, then went on as second operator. As for the rest of the crew, my mind is a complete blank. Perhaps someone has a better memory and would be good enough to write in. L.C.C. Our congratulations to brother member, script-writer Donald Ford on his being re-elected to the London County Council for Lambeth/Brixton, with a tremendous majority. Donald Ford is also a Parliamentary Candidate, in a constituency that looks like a good bet, so I may have another item after the General Election. Congratulations, too, on their election to the L.C.C, to Organiser Fred Tonge, and to Lord Faringdon, who for many years has been a very good friend to A.C.T.T. whenever film matters have come up in the House of Lords. A Prize To help sell our Journal and obtain a wider distribution to our members, I am going to propose that a competition be held with a prize offered to the member who obtains the greatest number of subscriptions, say, during the months of July, August and September. I shall put the question of the prize up to the F. & G.P. Committee and I shall suggest that from next month on a subscription form be inserted in the Journal. If each reader tried to get one friend each month to subscribe this Journal would really be able to do the job itnended and perhaps make a profit. How about it? Fred Jacobs' Golden Jubilee Fred Jacobs, holder of A.C.T.T. card number 136, has a special reason for celebrating the silver anniversary of the Union. For him it is a golden jubilee year. " Jake's " father wanted him to join him in the music-engraving business. But Jake, as young men are wont to do, thought otherwise and on March 12th, 1908, he joined a French firm of manufacturing agents in the City named R. Prieur & Co. The firm shortly afterwards took over the London agency of the Lux Film Company and opened an office in Gerrard Street. Jake was thus transferred to the new office to become a projectionist and something of a super salesman. Ruffells and Jury were the big exhibitors in those days, and after viewing the films, they would buy copies according to their liking at the modest sum of fourpence a foot outright ! Jake sold them two-reclers, three-reelers and even an epic ten-reeler, an Italian film entitled Nero and Agrippina. His First Talkie From 1915 to 1918 Jake was in the army in France, serving with the Royal Fusiliers and spending most of the time in the trenches. Returning to his old job at the end of the war, he stayed only a short while, then left to join the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company in Endell Street as an Assistant Editor on features. He stayed there until 1922. Then came a spell with Ideal at Boreham Wood as assistant to H. W. Kemplen, Ralph Kemplen's father. It was with Ideal that Jake handled his first talkie, doing a small job of re-editing on Rio Rita, a musical starring John Boles and Bebe Daniels. In 1932 he deserted the feature world to become chief cutter for Pathe News, a job he held until 1946, when he moved on to the illfated Metro News, which ceased after only a year. It was at Pathe that Jake acquired his nickname. From 1948 to 1950 Jake worked as a freelance on both features and documentaries for various British companies. During this period he returned to Pathe for a short time and edited several advertising films for G.B. Screen Services, as well as a children's feature star ring the teen-age Jean Simmons. The next five years until May, 1955, he spent mainly in Paris as Chief of the Film Department for the Productivity Division of E.C.A., M.S. A., etc. During these years in Europe working for the Americans, Jake visited Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. On returning to England he handled all the material for the 'resenlation from Genera] Council film taken at Geneva for the United Nations, on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. It was a fitting development to Jake's varied career when television claimed him. He spent six months with Associated Rediffusion to complete a series of children's TV films entitled Colonel Crock and another six months with the BBC news and newsreel department at Alexandra Palace. To complete the record, Jake has been working with British Transport Films for the last year. It is easier to record a career than to sum up a personality. His fifty years in the film industry seem to have left no mark of physical strain on Jake. Perhaps his youthful appearance and agility — he travels up from Brighton daily — are due to his calm, unruffled temperament. Or perhaps being the eldest of a large family made him specially selfreliant. Jake's golden jubilee was marked by two presentations, one made by Edgar Anstey on behalf of his colleagues at British Transport Films, and the other, which was a cheque from the General Council of A.C.T.T., by George Elvin.