John Grierson and the G.P.O. Film Unit, 1933–1939

NOTES

• Grierson , J. February 1936 . Cinema and the Public Service February , an address before the Post Office Telephone and Telegraph Society, 17
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• Cavalcanti , A. 1938 . Documents on Celluloid . Life and Letters Today , 19 ( 3 ) : 88 – 94 . (88)
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• Apologists have included: Orbanz E. Journey to a Legend and back Berlin 1977 Sussex, E. (1975) The Rise and Fall of British Documentary (London); Rotha, P. (1973) Documentary Diary (London); Watt, H. (1974) Don't Look at the Camera (London). For a recent critical approach, vide Kuhn, A. ‘British Documentary in the 1930s and “Independence”: Recontextualizing a Film Movement’, in: Macpherson, D. (1980) Traditions of Independence (London). Low, R. (1979) Documentary and Educational Films of the 1930s (London) presents and informative and relatively balanced account of the films of the documentary movement.
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• Rotha , P. July 1974 . The Times July , 17
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• Low 88 – 88 . Vide Taylor, P. M. (1981) The Projection of Britain (London) for a general examination of official views on national projection in the interwar years.
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• For an examination of the documentary movement's involvement in Empire publicity, vide Swann P. The selling of the empire: the E.M.B. Film Unit and Imperial Trade Propaganda, 1926–1933 Films and Empire Stead P. in (forthcoming)
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• 1934 . Report of the Select Committee on Estimates 65 – 65 .
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• Appendices to the Report of the Select Committee on Estimates, 1938 284 – 285 . In 1937, the Post Office spent 85,000 pounds on publicity, the War Office, 32,225 pounds, and the Ministry of Labour, 6250 pounds.
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• Foster , H.S. 1939 . The Official Propaganda of Great Britain . Public Opinion Quarterly , 3 : 263 – 271 . (263)
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• This new appointment was noted in A New Art for New Needs; Public Relations The Times 1933 October 9 Arthur Willert had an analagous post as head of press relations with the News Department of the Foreign Office.
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• Huxley , G. July 1933 . The Times July , 14 Everard, S. (1949) The History of the Gas, Light and Coke Company (London), pp. 346–347.
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• September 1933 . Kine Weekly September , 28
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• February 1926 . New York Sun February , 8 He took the term from the French ‘documentaire’, meaning travelogue.
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• Grierson had become familiar with Walter Lippmann Public Opinion 1922 Edward Bernays (Crystallising Public Opinion, 1923) and other publicists whilst studying in the United States.
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• Tallents , S. 1935 . Post Office Publicity 6 – 6 . London
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• August 1933 . The Times August , 10
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• Robinson , F.P. June 1934 . PRO T160/742 F13860/03/1 June , note of meeting with R.D. Fennelly, Board of Trade, 27
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• Tallents , S. 1932 . The Projection of England 41 – 41 . London
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• November 1933 . Kine Weekly November , 2
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• November 1933 . “ Government Competing With The Trade ” . In Kine Weekly November , 23
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• M.N. Kearney to the Secretary, Board of Trade, 23 Appendix 13, Minutes of Evidence, Report of the Select Committee on Estimates, 1934 1933 November
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• Simon to Buckland, POST 33/4927 M19592/1935 1933 August 31
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• Robinson to Simon, POST 33/4927 M19592/1935 1933 September 14
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• “ Memorandum submitted by the Post Office ” . In Appendix 12, Minutes of Evidence, Report of the Select Committee on Estimates, 1934.
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• Minutes of Evidence 43 – 43 .
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• Tallents , S. 1968 . The birth of British documentary . Journal of the University Film Association , 20 ( 1 ) 2, 3; reprinted by Film Centre, unpaged.
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• Baird , T. 1939 . The Film and Society . Life and Letters Today , 20 ( 18 ) : 87 – 95 . (92)
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• Minutes of Evidence 45 – 45 .
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• Anstey , E. 1948 . “ Film Centre ” . In Informational Film Yearbook, 1948 21 – 24 . Edinburgh (21)
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• Robinson, note of meeting with Gardiner Grierson Tallents PRO T160/742 F13860/03/1 1934 August 17
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• Robinson to Tallents, PRO T160/742 F13860/03/2 1934 December 19
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• Tallents to Robinson, PRO T160/742 F13860/03/2 1935 January 8
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• Robinson . March 1935 . “ Government Propaganda Films ” . In PRO T160/742 F13860/03/2 March , 19
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• Cuthbertson to Polden, PRO T160/742 F13860/03/2 1934 July 24
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• Anstey . 21 – 21 .
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• Arts Enquiry . 1947 . The Factual Film London
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• B.B.C. to G.P.O., POST 33/4927 M19592/1935 1934 June 13
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• Watt . 80 – 80 .
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• Board of Trade memorandum for the Moyne Committee, PRO BT55/4 CCF 2 1936 April The Board registered 506 foreign feature length films in the same period.
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• Elton , A. 1939 . Documentary Films and the Theatre . Cine Technician , 5 ( 23 )
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• Grierson , J. 1934 . The G.P.O. Gets Sound . Cinema Quarterly , 2 : 215 – 221 .
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• North Sea earned over 4000 pounds in domestic rentals in its first year. This was especially impressive because its release coincided with that of the much more expensive and heavily publicized American film The River Pare Lorentz 1937 Forbes to the Secretary, The Treasury, 14 June 1939, POST 33/5199 M16682/1937.
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• Minutes of Evidence, Moyne Committee PRO BT55/4 CCF 2 1936 May 26
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• Grierson , J. 1935 . Four Million Audience for Propaganda Films . The Commercial Film , 1 ( 6 ) : 3 – 3 .
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• Tallents to Robinson PRO T160/742 F13860/03/1 1934 August 17 J. Grierson, ‘Four Million Audience for Propaganda Films’, The Commercial Film, 1, no. 6 (July 1935), p. 3.
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• April 1937 . Stewart Committee Report April , 12 POST 33/5089 M18036/1936
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• Baird , T. 1938 . Films and the Public Services in Great Britain . Public Opinion Quarterly , 2 ( 1 ) : 96 – 99 .
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• H.M. Customs and Excise estimated 903 million cinema admissions in 1934 and 990 million in 1939 British Film Institute Cinema Admissions and Gross Takings, 1934–1952 1954
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• 1940 . Kine Yearbook
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• Robinson, note of meeting with R.D. Fennelly, Board of Trade, PRO T160/742 F13860/03/1 1934 June 27 in reference to the Weather Forecast group of G.P.O. shorts, trade shown in October 1934
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• Woolfe . July 1943 . “ Memorandum on the British short film industry ” . In BT64/156 IMI 4935 July ,
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• Minutes of Evidence, Moyne Committee 1936 June 30
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• Buchanan , A. 1945 . Film and the Future 32 – 32 . London
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• Draft Report of the Short Films Committee of the Cinematograph Films Council, BT64/4501 IM 1687 C.F.C. (5) 14 1940 July
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• June 1934 . Kine Weekly June , 28
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• Grierson . 1935 . Is The Free Film Show A Menace? . Kine Weekly , October 17
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• Quigley to Tallents PRO T160/742 F13860/03/1 1934 March 9
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• Beddington to Kingsley Wood, PRO T160/742 F13860/03/1 1934 July 20
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• Rotha . 117 – 122 .
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• Crutchley to Robinson PRO T161/948 S46284 1936 March 17
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• Croom-Johnson , H.P. December 1938 . New York World's Fair: Films. Grierson, Guedalla, Rotha Situation December , 7 PRO BW2/214 GB/30/1
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• Grierson . 1939 . World's Fair and Royal Visit Are Our Greatest opportunities in 1939 . Kine Weekly , 3 January : 254 – 255 . 12 ‘Propaganda in its Working Clothes’, World Film News
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• 1939 . Guide to the Pavilion of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the British Colonial Empire One exhibit illustrated both “the land of the English village, the Welsh mountain and the Scottish glen … and a newer Britain, where great schemes of social security … protect the whole working population”.
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• Rotha . 240 – 240 .
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• Forbes to the Secretary, The Board of Trade POST 33/5199 M16682/1937 1939 June 14
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• Foster . 264 – 264 .
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• Report of the Stewart Committee
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• Crutchley to Trentham POST 33/5555 M11692/1940 1938 May 18
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• Crutchley . May 1939 . The G.P.O. Film Unit May , 25 PRO INF 1/726 P1/30/2 HP (VII) 47
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• Watt . 125 – 130 .
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• Rotha . 233 – 233 . For a full survey of the planning of the M.O.I. Films Division, vide the introduction in: Pronay N. ⇐p; Thorpe, F., (1980) British Official Films in the Second World War (London), pp. 1–56.
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• Spottiswoode , R. 1950 . A Grammar of the Film 95 – 95 . Berkeley
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