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Joe Grossman And The 1936 Fire - 90 Years Ago Today

100 Years of Elstree Studios - Part Four

As mentioned last week when we were talking about the legendary Joe Grossman, Elstree studio manager during the 30s and 40s, we mentioned his involvement with the fire that decimated the studios on the 9th February 1936, 90 years today. The fire is now part of local legend and it's effect on the British film industry is well known. See our Newsletter 31 from last January for how devastating it was for British & Dominion and Herbert Wilcox here. It's common knowledge that he and Anna Neagle watched the fire from his house atop Deacons Hill Road.  Less well known is Joe Grossman's part. He was Chief of the Elstree Fire Brigade and so was responsible for the attempts to contain the blaze.

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He later wrote:

"...the disastrous studio fire in February 1936 which destroyed the second block of studios, comprising three of our own and three which were occupied by British & Dominion Films Ltd., Herbert Wilcox's production company.

"The fire, which destroyed property and equipment to the value of over £500,000, was the biggest that had ever occurred in British filmland, and it put a considerable number of the industry's personnel out of work, some unfortunately for a long while.

"Associated British were able to carry on because by the combined efforts of fourteen fire brigades, a marvellous piece of fire-fighting was done. After a strenuous fight of over eight hours, the brigades succeeded in saving one of the big sections of the studios, the selection belonging to us."

    

One estimate puts £500,000 value in 1936 as over £40 million today. So it certainly was a serious situation at the time, even if the insurance money helped Herbert Wilcox recover by using other studios.