Harold Baim

[julian_craster]

Are you old enough to remember Harold Baim, the short film producer who

provided hours of tedium in British cinemas?



If so you will find these websites of great interest:



Harold Baim Film Library:

http://www.baimfilms.com/



A tribute to the great city of Birmingham

http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/



The latter has clips to view from the Harold Baim Classic 'Telly Sevalas Visits Birmingham' (part of a series, to be followed by ......Rugby.....Nuneaton etc.)



Why not share your Harold Baim memories with us ....



Remember, it was Harold who brought us Michael Winner !



Roger

[cardew]

Baims film's were all made possible by the Eady Levy, a tax on cinema tickets supposed to go to support British films.



In practice you had to sign over the rights to the money to the distributor of the usually American film your short was showing with.



This entailed getting frequent statements of how much Eady Levy the distributors were getting, particularly when you were paired with a popular film, something I remember with irritation from the time when an action documentary I was involved in went out with Sylvia Kristel's mainstream follow up to 'Emmanuelle', 'Private Lessons.'

[orpheum]

I remember them only to well.Wasnt it Global-Queensway,the name of his company.You had to sit there for 20minutes and watch this utter drivel.I remember that on some occasions i just had to go out of the auditorium till the film was finished.One i remember was about speedway or cross country cycle racing.Oh what fun!These shorts replaced B features and were heralded on trailers as "With Full Supporting Programme".Just typing this on a Sunday afternoon brings all those memories back

[julian_craster]

Global-Queensway was a different operation, run by Arnold Louis Miller and his wife.

Arnold was the chap who brought us the Pauline Collins feature SECRETS OF A WINDMILL GIRL,,,



I understand that these 30 minute travel shorts attracted Eady Levy at DOUBLE the rate of a 60 minute 'B' film, which is why the distributors liked them so much ...



Can anybody confirm this ?

[Mr Cosmo]

When Michael Winner attended the Chichester Film Festival as a guest I asked him about THE COOL MIKADO and he said the idea was all Harold Baim's who knew that the Gilbert And Sullivan songs were about to come into the public domain and that he thought making a film containing their music would be a big success. THE COOL MIKADO turned out to be possibly the worst film ever made complete with poor sound, cardboard sets, terrible acting and sloppy direction. Winner dismissed the film as a TV special (although I don't think it has ever been shown on TV) and he clearly didn't like talking about it - although he was gracious enough to autograph my video of it.

On Harold Baim's website, he is credited with bringing Michael Winner into movies.

The one good thing - well 2 actually - that Harold Baim produced was SWINGING UK and UK SWINGS AGAIN which showcased bands like Unit 4 + 2, The Applejacks and The Four Pennies. They have now proved to be interesting historical documents.

See THE BAIM COLLECTION

[julian_craster]

A 30 minute feature on legendary UK film producer Harold Baim is on radio again tonight....



Some of it is very funny !



BBC Radio Four

11.30 PM

Friday 1st January

[julian_craster]

Harold Baim's Britain on Film on BBC4

To be Screened : Wednesday 27th July 2011, 20:30 on BBC Four

A record of Britain and its people as seen through the lens of film-maker Harold Baim. Extracts from Baim's archive of bright and shiny cinema shorts from the 1940s to 1980s reveal a world that has gone forever.

The BBC also have a rare photograph of the great man himself :



And a clip from Harold Baim's master work Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham
BBC - BBC Four Programmes - On Film, Harold Baim's Britain on Film, Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham

Telly Savalas, former star of US cop series Kojak, narrates this pun-filled tour of early 80s Birmingham scripted and directed by film maker Harold Baim. Discover the Aston Expressway, an over-40s dance contest and the "shoppers' paradise" to be found within the Birmingham Bullring.

Wikipedia on Harold Baim:
Harold Baim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Nick Dando]

I think I recognised some of the voice-overs. Apart from Telly Salvalas, I'm sure that I heard Valentine Dyall and Ed Bishop talking about London.

Anyone else?

Nick

[julian_craster]

I thoroughly enjoyed the programme - more Harold Baim films please !

Interesting that we did not hear Pete Murray with the Nottingham film ......I wonder why ?

Harold somtimes used radio DJs such as David Jacobs, David Gell and Terry Wogan for commentaries, as well as actors such as Valentine Dyall...

As the Harold Baim films were all shot on 35mm (and some in Panavision in the 1960s), the image quality was outstanding, especially for those titles that have been restored to HD, generally those Baim films that have been screened in full on the Sky Arts Channel - see the list below.

If you are a Sky subscriber, you can view these titles on-line without extra payment.....

Of course, full HD restorations of such special interest films are expensive, and to make them commercially viable, it does need major broadcasters such as Sky and the BBC to agree to acquire them for screening.....

Sky Arts Channel links:

http://www.skyarts.co.uk/...cs/article/baim-archive/

http://go.sky.com/vod/con...ent/default/promoPage.do



Harold Baim titles on Sky Arts

Floating Fortress
Aircraft carrier HMS Victorious is the subject of the first film credit for Michael Winner, as Associate Producer. It has a detailed tour of the ship and some marvellous aerial photography as the ship sails the Mediterranean. After seeing the attractions of Gibraltar we learn of all aspects of the ships day to day operation during the passage to Malta, even down to the navy recipe for grog. Watch out for a glimpse of a 24-year-old Michael Winner on deck.

Delta 8-3
A detailed look at Britain’s 1960 Vulcan Delta-Wing Bomber Force with iconic images of our “Cold War” nuclear defences. We watch the training of a new crew for V-bomber “Delta 8-3” described as “dedicated to Peace”. Based at RAF Waddington the V force proves to the world “Britain can play her part”

Playground Spectacular
This is Blackpool in 1960 – well before package holidays, a time when a family car was not that common, not every home had a telephone, there were two TV channels in black and white, and everyone loved the parade of girls in swimming costumes as an afternoon’s entertainment. Uniformed police were evident almost everywhere and men wore a tie when accompanying their families to the beach. Marvellous!

Girls, Girls, Girls!
Another film from Michael Winner, this time featuring three beautiful girls who share a flat in London. One of them, Tania Mallett, went on to play Bond girl Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger. There are only three things on the girls’ minds; getting a job, being beautiful and getting engaged

Jugglers And Acrobats
This film was made to accompany the cinema distribution of the first Beatles film “A Hard Days Night”. It shows some of last jugglers and acrobats from the Variety Circuit. As in all Harold Baim films there is a gentle script which tells us some facts and figures; it also acknowledges that this is a record of a form of popular entertainment which is dying out.

Big City
A classic travelogue exploring London in 1962; two-way traffic in Bond Street, crowded Fleet Street, a glimpse from the Park Lane Hilton Hotel where concrete is still being laid to make the upper floors. There are many surprises and details in the unseen film about London; unseen since its first cinema release nearly fifty years ago.

S.S. France
In S.S. France we glimpse of life on board the world’s largest Liner back in 1974. The ship held the title of the longest passenger ship ever built at 316 meters, until the construction of the 345 meter RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Our guide is Nicholas Parson’s who takes us on “a tour de France” as the ship sails from Southampton to New York in 1974.

Terry Savalas Looks At Birmingham
Actor Telly Savalas narrates Harold Baim's 1981 tour of Birmingham, when colourful markets took over the Bull Ring, and a giant antiques emporium took over 1.5 million square metres of city.

Pete Murray Looks At Nottingham
Harold Baim's last 'Quickie Quota' film from 1986. A study of Nottingham takes in its streets and caves, its architecture, mounted police forces, factories and leisure activities.

[Johnallan]

One wonders if Telly Savalas actually visited the cities about which he narrates or was he paid to read from a script in downtown New York. I doubt he would have been in such awe of Birmingham's road system if he had had to drive through it.

[Film Man]

What a terrible programme!!! I wanted to know all about Harold...all we had was one still!!!! The footage was very hit and miss, why bother at all? As a cinema projectionist my face used to drop on finding a 20 minute Harold Baim short...why 20mins when Look At Life and Pathe Pics were just 8 mins? Punters used to phone and ask what time the show started...missing out the Harold Baim presentation...they were that bad! Harold and EJ Fancey should have statues put up in Wardour Street to show the public who were responsible!
Film Man.

[julian_craster]

One wonders if Telly Savalas actually visited the cities about which he narrates or was he paid to read from a script in downtown New York.

He never went to any of the cities - his commentaries (scripted by Harold Baim) were recorded in a dubbing theatre in Wardour Street, London


I wanted to know all about Harold...

The fact filled, witty BBC Radio Four doc on Harold (presented by Laurie Taylor) may still be online

[Steve Crook]

The fact filled, witty BBC Radio Four doc on Harold (presented by Laurie Taylor) may still be online

It's not often that you see "witty" and "Laurie Taylor" in the same sentence

Steve

[orpheum2]

What a terrible programme!!! I wanted to know all about Harold...all we had was one still!!!! The footage was very hit and miss, why bother at all? As a cinema projectionist my face used to drop on finding a 20 minute Harold Baim short...why 20mins when Look At Life and Pathe Pics were just 8 mins? Punters used to phone and ask what time the show started...missing out the Harold Baim presentation...they were that bad! Harold and EJ Fancey should have statues put up in Wardour Street to show the public who were responsible!
Film Man.

Unfortunately the cinemas never advertised the fact that they were showing a Baim short,just the usual full supporting programme.So by the time you bought your ticket you were trapped.Though as i menmtioned above i would often come out of the cinem till the short finished.They were truly awful.

[Edward G]

Julian,
I'm too young to have caught these first time around (good job, as I would rather have caught measles) but I just hopped onto the website and sampled the unique delights of "Telly Savalas Visits Aberdeen". It's so lame, yet there is a grim fascination as you continue watching, strangely hypnotised, to see if it can get any worse. It does. Old kojak must have needed the "lolly" really badly! And all rounded off with the classy salute "Farewell Aberdeen - here's looking at ya'"!

[julian_craster]

Unfortunately the cinemas never advertised the fact that they were showing a Baim short,just the usual full supporting programme..

Here is an exception, with Harold's film getting a mention (in the 1960s, practically all of Harold's films went to distributor United Artists, with whom he had a contract to supply films on a regular basis...) :

[Nick Dando]

I like the look of that poster, as I was born on Guernsey at around the time Tom Jones would have been showing.

Nick

[orpheum2]

Do you think that the strapline at the bottom was put on akin to health warnings on cigarettes.you know watching this film could damage your health?

[didi-5]

It's not often that you see "witty" and "Laurie Taylor" in the same sentence

Steve

Is this the same person who writes the University of Poppleton column for the Times Higher?

[julian_craster]

Is this the same person who writes the University of Poppleton column for the Times Higher?

Yes...I think he used to be a sociology Professor at York University. but now retired from there