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100 Years of Elstree - Part One

With the 100th anniversary of Elstree Studios approaching towards the end of the year, there are plenty of local events to celebrate. And we will be adding photos and other items from our archives and from Paul Welsh's collection to get the party started!

We start with two important visitors to the Studios - one royal and the other literary. The first is George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they were the Duke and Duchess of York visiting in 1929 when the first British talkie Blackmail was being filmed by Alfred Hitchcock.  That's Joe Grossman on the left - the Studio Manager at the time. More about him later. Interestingly, in 2010 Elstree Studios was the home of the production of The King's Speech about George VI's speech problems.

The second is George Bernard Shaw on the set of Arms and the Man in 1932. Of course he lived up the road at Shaw's Corner in Ayot St Lawrence, so it wasn't that far for him to come in to the studios. With him are leading actors Barry Jones and Anne Grey on the left and the director and writer Cecil Lewis on the right. Barry Jones said that GBS was happy for the play to be filmed exactly as written, with one small tweak.