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The Museum Is On The Footage Detectives

Hope you caught our slot on The Footage Detectives yesterday evening on the great TPTV channel. It was Episode 234 and is available on their Encore service if you missed us. Noel and Sarah made us look as if we knew what we were talking about, so that was a real result for us! Thanks again to everyone at TPTV for the great few hours we spent in your company, and the excellent results. 

TPTV Meets Ribbon Of Dreams on The Footage Detectives

We mentioned in a blog about a month ago how the TPTV film crew visited us and filmed the new Exhibition just before it was opened by Mr TPTV himself - Noel Cronin. Well the results are now available for all to view and will be featured on The Footage Detectives this Sunday 5th July at 5pm. What, you don't know about TPTV?! Well have a look at the trailer HERE, find the channel and add it to your 'Favourites'.  We know the show will be as much fun to watch as it was to shoot. Thank you Noel, Sarah, Neil and camerman Conor.

John Brabourne and Murder On The Orient Express

Ribbon of Dreams

100 Years of Elstree Studios - Part Fifteen

Visit our new Exhibition - open now!

With his familial links to Prince Philip through his marriage to Earl Mountbatten's eldest daughter, it is no wonder John Knatchbull, Baron Brabourne, brought Princes Charles and Edward to the set of Murder On The Orient Express in 1973. His professional name was John Brabourne and he was a very successful film and TV producer. He had two Oscar nominations for producer for Romeo And Juliet and A Passage To India, and was chairman of Thames Television at one stage. 

Agatha Christie was not happy with previous film adaptations of her novels, and it took Brabourne and Mountbatten to persuade her reluctantly to agree to this production. She did later say that Albert Finney was her Poirot, apart from his too-small moustache.

The interior scenes were shot at Elstree Studios, directed by Sidney Lumet and photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth. The film was hugely successful in the States with its all-star cast. And Mountbatten, Charles and Edward and Brabourne spent a day in 1973 visiting the filming. Unfortunately we haven't come across any photos yet, but we are still looking.

The Friends And The Reservoir

We had a Friends gathering last week to hear from John Cartledge about his new booklet The Story of Aldenham Reservoir. Taking us through the history of the building of the dam and reservoir, the purpose behind it and following the story through the centuries. He told us about the many incidents including the aircraft accidents in World War 1, and the gradual lessening in popularity of the lake for swimming from its heyday in the 1930s to the end of the sixties. Although sailing and angling continued up to the turn of the century, the many problems of ownership and dam repair in recent years have led to a decline in its use. At least the Park Run is still using the Reservoir.

And the booklet is available from the Museum for £3.

Ribbon Of Dreams Launch

We were honoured last night that our new exhibition, Ribbon of Dreams - Celebrating 100 Years of Elstree Studios, was launched by Noel Cronin.  The head of Talking Pictures TV, and well-known from The Footage Detectives (Sunday at 7pm), cut the gold ribbon to open the doors.  Noel and his daughter, Sarah and her husband, Neill spent a couple of hours filming the exhibition and the team for a future programme. A great deal of fun was had by all.

This is a special exhibition in many ways - not only is it our 20th temporary exhibition in 13 years, it is fitting to celebrate a studio complex that has dominated the town for so long on its anniversary.

We show how the studios have changed physically over the years, the disasters that have befallen them, the great films that were produced and how they were made, and the stories behind the films.

Look out for the interactive model of the mine chase from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, and you might bump into R2-D2 as well.

Hope to see you soon.

The New Exhibition

Our new exhibition Ribbon Of Dreams opens next week on Tuesday 2nd June. Celebrating 100 years of Elstree Studios we have models, small robots, costumes and props from the films, and the background to some of the most popular films made in the studios.  You'll find a complete Timeline and lots more.

Looking forward to seeing you...

The First Welsh Oscar

100 Years of Elstree Studios - Part Fourteen

Ribbon of Dreams

If I was to ask you who was the first Welsh actor to win an Oscar you'd probably say Anthony Hopkins (won two) or Richard Burton (nominated seven times - never won). But you'd be wrong because the first was won by Alfred Reginald Jones in 1946. 'Who he?' I hear you ask. Much better known as Ray Milland, he was born in Neath and started his career as an extra in two films at Elstree Studios in 1928.  He soon progressed to a leading role in The Flying Scotsman in 1929. Snapped up by MGM he moved to Hollywood in 1930 and never looked back. He won his Oscar for The Lost Weekend in 1945.

Here he remembers those early days in Elstree :

"Yes, I remember Elstree. Good Lord, I should. It was the first studio I ever saw! It was the first place I saw Joe Grossman - and the first place I ever saw an actor in broad daylight! It was the first place I ever did any acting - if you could call it that in those days.  It was there I got my first contract... And that's where I received my first fan letter. I still have it.

I remember the first picture star I worked with. Her name was Pauline Johnson.  It was the first place I met Hitchcock and Harry Lachman. I never got over it. I don't think I ever will. They're here in Hollywood with me as I write. Only Hitch is a hundred pounds lighter, and Lachman's mood is much lighter!

Last summer (1947) I bumped into Joe Grossman again - but he is still the same.  Nineteen years have made no difference to him, but I hope Elstree has changed since that first day when three pictures were shooting on the same stage : The Manxman with Carl Brisson; Blackmail with Anny Ondra; and the picture that I was in, The Flying Scotsman. We couldn't hear one another think. We went back a couple of months later and remade them with sound and dialogue. Yes, I remember Elstree.  I don't think I'll ever forget it."
Some film historians say that The Flying Scotsman was the first British talkie, and not Blackmail.

Ray Milland (1907 to 1986) made over 170 films and tv shows.

A Coach From Clacton

With only a dozen or so viewing days left for our current exhibition, it was great to host a coach of EastEnders fans on Saturday all the way from Clacton. We managed to squeeze them into our space, though not all 50 at once! Lots of selfies were taken and many a "Get Outta My Pub" quotes were heard.  Thanks for coming all this way everyone - hoped you enjoyed the visit!

Woman In A Dressing Gown

100 Years of Elstree Studios - Part Thirteen

Ribbon of Dreams

This week we dip into the mid-1950s and a film that caught my eye while watching an excellent history of Elstree made by David Puttman. Once again Elstree was in the vanguard of film history. Woman In A Dressing Gown was one of the first of the 'socially realistic dramas' that were to dominate British films for the rest of the decade and into the sixties. Filmed in 1956 and released in 1957, it was written by Ted Willis of Dixon Of Dock Green fame, and directed by the experienced J Lee Thompson, the film explored a tragic relationship. This was the first time a lower-middle or working class family had been the subject of such a film, and the producer Frank Godwin called it 'the first kitchen sink movie'.

Anthony Quayle and Yvonne Mitchell play the husband and wife. She is very disorganised and always in her dressing gown, while he is having an affair with a much younger work colleague played by the luminous Sylvia Syms. Things go from bad to worse, but you'll have to see the film to find out how it all turns out - one reviewer thought the ending 'rings entirely false'. No doubt it will be shown on TPTV if it hasn't already. The film earned some awards at the Berlin Film Festival and a nomination for a BAFTA for Sylvia Syms.  Once again Elstree was in the forefront.

100 Years of Promo

100 Years of Elstree Studios - Part Twelve

Ribbon of Dreams

Elstree Studios has always promoted itself in any way possible. After all it needs the business to keep on coming through the stages, and to keep its name in the forefront for any aspiring producers and directors.  Here are a couple of examples of adverts and flyers - one from 1932 and one from the last few years. Pretty easy to tell the recent flyer.