DB7

Pinewood celebrates 70th birthday

Pinewood was set up in the 1930s

Pinewood Studios is celebrating its 70th birthday by burying a time capsule in its grounds. The capsule contains a filmography from 1936 to the present day and scripts and images from the latest Bond film Casino Royale, starring actor Daniel Craig.
Films made at the Buckinghamshire studios include Ill Met By Moonlight, Carry On movies, Peeping Tom, Whistle Down the Wind and To Sir With Love.
The capsule will remain sealed up for 100 years.
It will be buried by Tourism Minister Shaun Woodward.
Long history
Pinewood Studios was founded when Charles Boot, a builder with movie ambitions, bought Heatherden Hall and its estate in 1934.
A year later Boot met J Arthur Rank and the two became partners in the studio project, investing £1,000,000.
The studio's first film was London Melody in 1936.
The James Bond movies have a long history with Pinewood, beginning with the first Bond movie Dr No.
Filming for the most recent Bond film, Casino Royale was done on set at the studios.

Moor Larkin

The 1957 brochure issued by the Rank Organisation states:

"The first picture to be made in it's entirety at the Studio was 'Talk of the Devil'."

"Three years later, after war had been declared, came government-inspired standstill of production and, for Pinewood, mobilisation as a food store. Later the Royal Mint made copper coins there..."

"The overall picture of the growth of Pinewood is, in fact, almost impossible to separate from the growth of the Rank Organisation both at home and overseas. The Rank Group had secured full control of Pinewood in 1944...."

The brochure has a double-spread featuring

The Directors:
Julian Aymes
Ken Annakin
Anthony Asquith
Roy Baker
John Paddy Carstairs
Basil Dearden
Clive Donner
Cy Endfield
Lewis Gilbert
Brian Desmond Hurst
Philip Leacock
Jack Lee
Joseph Losey
Ronald Neame
Ralph Thomas

The Contract Artists
Stanley Baker
Susan Beaumont
Dirk Bogarde
Jean Carson
Michael Craig
Jill Dixon
Diana Dors
Peter Finch
John Gregson
Anne Heywood
Jill Ireland
James Robertson Justice
Kay Kendall
David Knight
June Laverick
Belinda Lee
Ronald Lewis
David McCallum
Patrick McGoohan
Virginia McKenna
Keith Michell
Kenneth More
Muriel Pavlow
Eric Portman
Beth Rogan
Donald Sinden
Betta St John
Maureen Swanson
Mary Ure
Norman Wisdom
Tony Wright

The brochure closes with a paragraph about The Future.

".......Above all, the Rank Organisation offers them the personal satisfaction of taking part in a pioneer venture - of producing a picture programme of a size, scope and quantity never before attempted in Britain. And the pioneer spirit can be felt in each department of the studio.......... Pinewood looks to the future with confidence. For there is mutual goodwill, ingenuity and the combined creative skill of a close-knit team to tackle any problem - and find a way to triumph."

Steve Crook

No mention of Powell & Pressburger? Shameful
They made The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and quite a few other films there.
Powell's Peeping Tom even shows some "behind the scenes" shots in the studio and it shows people driving out through the main gates. But I wouldn't expect that to be included in a 1957 brochure about the studios.

Steve

Moor Larkin

The Lists are of the people they currently employed I think, as opposed to a list of alumni. There were others, such as Margaret Rutherford mentioned, as: "also to appear in Pinewood Productions next year.....". I guess it was just a Trade PR exercise........

Moor Larkin

I caught a brief snatch of a radio interview with Roger Moore this morning on Radio Five. He was talking about his UNICEF stuff but also there seemed some context about the 70 years of Pinewood......

I can't see any 'listen again' options on the web.

Roger (he declared Roger would do, when addressed as Sir...) remarked that he felt that he could recognise every tree, in old films/TV shows, those trees had became so familiar to him, filming in the pine-woods behind the studios.

He also mentioned that he did his very first screen-test at Pinewood, in 1947 along with another newbie: Claire Bloom. Jean Simmons was around and about too, that day. This fascinating insight was fully exploited by the interviewer, who paused and then asked, "Who do you think was the best Bond?"