A NEW ZEALANDER VISITS ELSTREE

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 28, 18 January 1935, Page 14

A NEW ZEALANDER VISITS ELSTREE

Rapid Strides Made By England’s Hollywood Y first experience of a visit to the famous Elstree Studios was to call with my letter of introduction at the head oftice of the company at Film House, in the famous film row of Lon-don-Wardour Street-writes Geoff T. Dunne in the "Otago Daily Times." rom here we were whisked away in a handsome limousine northwards through the beautiful Middlesex countryside to the Garden City, ngland’s Hollywood-HDlstree. Arriving at the gates, we were of course, held up by the sergeant-at-arms who has definite instructions to keep all sightseers and busybodies from entering the grounds, but on showing our passes We were made very welcome, and were here met by another friend, Mr. Clarence Elder, who is the company’s supervising art director. We comenced our tour, through the beautiful grounds, past the tennis courts and flower gardens: the general routine for taking visitors Around was not adhered to in our case, as, being from so distant a country and being personally acquainted with the neads of the studios, we were givea a xeal insight into the entire business. No stone was left unturned to see that we were shown every possible phase of the manufacture of a modern talking picture. : "Blossom Time," the famous musical story of the- life of Franz Schubert, was the major production on the sets during our visit, and on being introduced to Herr Tauber, the famous star of this attraction, we were surprised at the command of English this celebrated tenor has, During our cconversation we asked Herr Tauber if he enjoyed making pictures in whick the greatest portion was singing, and we were interested at his reply, which was in his own words: "I sing because I love to sing." The settings to this picture were an. eye-opener to us, and the. wealth of detail that the studios go to in the preparation of the sets, and the speed with which they are prepared is something of which the average picture fan has no conception. We suggested that some of the beautiful settings in ‘Blossom Time" would have been ideal had they been in colour, but the studio executives 2dvised us that at the moment the Spicer Dufay system, which the company is using, was not quite ready for this attraction, and so, rather -than have any hold-up, they were producing this film in black and white, but that their next picture, "Radic Parade of: 1935" would be produced at least 50 per cent in colour. When we saw a few hundred feet of film on this system, which is of the three-colour variety, we were convinced that when if is seen by picture-goers they will be amazed at the remarkable strides made in colour photography. Lunch at the famous restaurant was one of the sights that in itself would have been well worth the trip to Hstree. Here seated all round us were celebrit-

ies of all phases of life. Some as butlers, others as kings and queens, and all dressed according to the various parts which they were playing. Sitting on the right of tis at a table was the rubber-faced comedian Leslie Fuller in the snappy clothes he wears in his picture "Doctor’s Orders." We later saw him acting on the set, and this is one of the funniest films, if the scene we saw was anything to go by. that has ever been made. We laughed so heartily during one of the sequences that we were requested to get off the set, and had to disentangle ourselves: from the mass of electric leads which conduct the power to the powerful arcs and the sound equipment, and found ourselves outside looking at the remainder of this show through one of the sound-proof windows. Back again in the restaurant, we saw seated on our left a bevy of 10 beautiful girls, also appearing in the Leslie Fuller film. and persons who think that all the beautiful girls live in Hollywood need

only a trip to Wistree to convince them to the contrary. In the foreground was no less a person than Richard Tanber partaking of a small mid-day meal, and with him was his boyhood friend. the director of the film, Paul Stein. Permanent employment is given at these tremendous studios, which cover the space of something like 50 acres, to about 1400 men and women daily, and thousands and thousands of actors and actresses dnd extras during the course of a year. The films, of course, after being taken and recorded, are printed in the B.I.P. laboratories, Which in themselves for anybody at all interested in this class of thing are a real eye-opener, and the miles and miles of feet of film which every month pass through those laboratories is. again proof positive of the tremendous strides made by this everincreasing industry in Great Britain,