Distribution Services in the UK 1946 to 1959 Finding Audiences in Cinemas, In Schools and Village Halls Through the Central Film Library
In present times when everyone has access to a huge variety of moving pictures it is not easy to imagine a situation in 1946 when this was not so. While entertainment cinemas were plentiful, alternative means of seeing films were thin on the ground. Thus public access in substantial numbers to “moving pictures” in 1946 was confined to the cinemas where entertainment films were screened with the occasional documentary film together an advertising section.
So that government, in the shape of the COI, might make use of cinemas for information films, it had to fit into the normal pattern of the cinema “evening” programme that was offered by the occasional slot for a documentary film and the section reserved for advertising. These sections offered a few prospects for the use of moving pictures as a means to communicate government information films to the general public.
Another route to an audience, albeit a much smaller audience, was through the use of 16mm film. Some organisations notably community groups, village halls, schools or industrial groups and many more might have access to 16mm projectors that could be supplied with films on a loan or rental basis. Government in the shape of the MOI and then by COI built up a fleet of mobile film vans with a projector and operator who could visit a wide range of organised groups to screen films.
In this context the Distribution Section of Film Division provided a crucial part of the Film Division operation. For without an effective distribution and marketing operation and the audiences they might find, the films would have little purpose.
Thus the three distribution strands from 1946 to 1959 were:
- Making use of opportunities in the cinema
- Finding audiences for the 16mm films supplied by the Central Film Library
-making use of the arrival of television from 1952
Cinemas:
The use of the cinema by COI from 1946 was known as obtaining “theatrical distribution”. Arrangements had been made during the war time for some documentary films and for short public service films, known as “cinema trailers” to be shown free of charge. The arrangements had been made with the Kinematograph Renters Society (KRS) and the Cinematograph Exhibitors Association (CEA) who between them controlled the cinema circuits in the UK. The arrangements provided for free annual screenings of up to 12 documentary films and 30 short “cinema trailers”. Under this arrangement COI films were shown in some 4700 cinemas with an audience reach of some six million. While the formal agreements appear to have come to an end around 1951 COI continued to offer suitable documentaries and cinema trailers for showing in cinemas through individual cinema circuits such Gaumont and Odeon.
The term “cinema trailers” referred to short films to be screened in the advertising section of an evening programme in a cinema. This section consisted of a number of paid commercials for products together with a number of “trailers” for forthcoming entertainment films. The use of cinema trailers for government messages had started during the war years and continued into the post war years with trailers about health and safety notably those involving the personality of Richard Massingham and the arrival of the National Health Service explaining the reforms of the new Labour government under Prime Minister Attlee.
Maintaining relations with the cinema circuits was the responsibility by the Distribution Section. Examples of the outcome of these arrangements are as follows:
In September 1951 the films “Eldorado” went into the cinemas along with a re-issue of “Tunisian Victory”. In August of the same year “Soldier Apprentice” together with “Local Newspaper” were accepted.
In May 1953 distribution Section reported that the film “The Open Window” had been accepted by United Artists while “Coronation Ceremony” had been accepted by the Curzon Group despite the large television coverage.
In December of the same year Distribution Section (under John Maddison) reported increasing interest by cinema distributors in COI films.
In September of 1955 the ad hoc placement of films in cinemas produced a three week run at the Empire Leicester Square of “Tough On Two Wheels” a film about the motor cycle industry made for use overseas.
Television
Alongside the use in cinemas 1946 had seen BBC Television make a slow post war restart.
In March 1951 Distribution Section reported that four films and one Cinema Trailer had been televised by the BBC.
In May 1952 a further four COI films were transmitted.
In April 1953 six films were transmitted. The use by BBC of COI documentary films on television appears to have declined after this point. Very probably this was because BBC was increasing the amount of its own production.
In 1955 what was to become the major use of television for government information purposes were the Short Public Service Films that eventually came to be called Television Fillers together with paid time Television Commercials.
The gradual appearance of commercial television into the UK by ITV from 1955 also provided a potential outlet for COI documentary films in addition to the BBC. In January 1956 it was reported that discussions with Granada Television were exploring possible use of a number of COI films.
Television Fillers (aka short Public Service films)
As seen earlier cinema trailers were the fore runners of the Television Fillers that were to take off in 1955. The establishment of commercial television in 1954 with breaks in programmes for advertisements led to the suggestion by the commercial television companies that they would welcome short films, 30 seconds to 2 minutes with government messages on health and safety that could be screened free of charge at the discretion of the companies.
This arrangement was initiated by the Independent Television Stations in 1955 when Norman Collins then Managing director of ABC Television wrote to the then Director General of COI Thomas Fife Clarke on 8 August1955 proposing a series of short public service information films on subjects such as road safety, prevention of accidents, public health and fire safety. He said:
“The programmes of this company start on exact schedule timings but there are bound to be occasions, eg outside broadcasts, when in addition to the paid advertisements there will be short periods of time to be filled in. This company would be fully ready to use the type of film I have outlined if such films were available. (NA: INF 12/1100)”
The use of television fillers by the ITV network (formed between 1954-1962) became well established by 1959.The deal between ITV and HMG was that each regional station would be supplied with a “library” of around 100 television fillers by the COI. The actual decision about which filler to broadcast and when it was broadcast was to be made at the discretion of the ITV station. This decision was in order to establish a clear distinction between fillers and paid time commercials where the decision about what to broadcast and when was determined by the sponsor and the media buyer. The fillers would be used to “fill” unsold advertising time or when programmes under ran their scheduled airtime.
As might be expected a number of rules governing the nature of the television fillers and their usage were gradually evolved. They are well set out in a note by COI to Treasury (Fleming to Slater: 29 June 1973: as follows:
2. The policy of ITV on the free transmission of public service fillers is:
Television fillers on subjects in the health, safety and welfare categories are accepted. These have to be approved at the script stage and in finished form by the Independent Television Companies Association and by IBA itself.
If a subject in the approved categories is also being publicised by COI in paid advertising time, that is, as a commercial, transmissions of the free-time filler are suspended for the duration of the paid campaign and resumed at the discretion of the companies. The resumption is never later than six months after the end of the campaign.
If a national advertising campaign is being conducted by COI in media other than television advertising, existing free-time fillers on that subject are not shown by ITV, but the transmissions may be resumed at the television companies discretion on the same basis as b. above. (NA INF 12/1100)
In practice these rules were not onerous. Relations between COI, and the ITV companies were very amicable. A similar arrangement was made with the BBC though the BBC were insistent that the films shown by them were not simply those transmitted by the ITV companies. The consequence was that the operation with the BBC was on a smaller scale.
On the face of it, the scope and transmission opportunities might not appear to have been very significant. However as part of the arrangements the stations were asked to log their use of fillers and these logs demonstrated, over time, a remarkable level of usage. By 1969 some 25,000 transmissions by ITV stations and a further 10,00 screenings by BBC were recorded during that year. By 1975 the ITV screenings had risen to 40,00. The value of this amount of airtime was estimated at the time to be of the order of £8 million was based on ITV rate cards. (NA: INF 12/1100).
This level of transmission value can be compared with the costs of production of the Television Fillers. While the overall level of expenditure on production of the television fillers varied from year to year a useful snapshot is contained in a memo of April 1976 (JNR Barran to John Hall) that gives production expenditure for:
1972/73 at £192,100 1973/74 at £243,900 1974/75 at £138,800
The actual number of fillers produced in 1975/74 was 46. Generally production costs varied between £4,000 and £7,500 but quite often the cost of a filler could be a good deal less.
While smaller in number the BBC also maintained a library and used television fillers albeit on a smaller scale. In 1973 it was noted that the BBC logged about 650 transmissions annually. As a comparison with ITV the figures are somewhat misleading since BBC transmissions were national whereas ITV were regional. So a more accurate comparison required multiplying the BBC figure by 15 (the number of ITV regions) giving a total of just under 10,000. As many transmissions were in the afternoons they were particularly useful in terms of reaching audiences of housewives, mothers and young children with relevant subjects.
One particular area of difficulty with the BBC was its reluctance to show fillers that were also appearing on ITV. COI made some adaptations of ITV fillers but the overall situation was not totally satisfactory despite many discussions.
Distribution Section handled the physical supply of Television Fillers advising the television stations of the production of new fillers with some background about the nature of the message. So that the television stations were free to make their own decisions about what to screen and when each station was provided with a library of fillers from which to choose. In time this library might consist of some 400 television fillers at any one moment.
As new fillers on a particular subject came on stream older items were withdrawn when the sponsoring department decided that a television filler needed refreshing or the message changed. The Distribution Section thus maintained the library and a catalogue of up to date television fillers.
Film Division were also, over time and informally, able to influence the apparent random nature of transmissions. In order to maintain links with the 15 regional stations and make sure that the “libraries” were in good order, Distribution Section provided a member of the distribution staff, - for many years Ron Salmon - who travelled regularly around the stations. In this way good and friendly relations were built up.
Similar discussions were held with sponsoring departments to keep them in touch with levels of use by stations. One consequence of these close connections was that the COI was often able to influence stations to screen particular television fillers at times of concern to departments thus enhancing the value of the operation.
The extent of the use of television fillers and the ability to influence transmissions of particular fillers meant that they were particularly useful to departments who did not have the financial resources to mount paid advertising campaigns.
Central Film Library: (CFL)
`As with other parts of Film Division the roots of the CFL went way back to earlier times to 1927 as part of the Imperial Institute (later Commonwealth Institute) with the aim of distributing films of social and educational value.
During the Second World War the CFL remained with the Imperial Institute though possibly under some sort of control by the by the MOI. Its role became that of the agency charged with distributing officially produced films to augment the limited opportunities offered by cinemas for public service films. Taking a leaf out of the concept of taking film messages across the country by train as pioneered by Lenin, the CFL created a fleet of mobile film vans equipped with projectors and screens. The films were shown to audiences in schools , village halls, factory canteens and even churches. These vans and the loan of films handled not only COI films but also films produced by Crown Film Unit.
This activity continued after the formation of COI in 1946. The number of film vans rose from 50 to 144 operating from 12 regional distribution bases. The film vans continued in operation until 1952 when as a consequence of financial cuts they were mostly disbanded. Though there is a memory that in 1960 the last vans were then operational in Scotland under the auspices of the Scottish Office andwere just being phased out
In 1946/7 the CFL library consisted of 1,221 titles with 81,550 prints being dispatched during the year. As well as CFL there were two sub-libraries: one for Scotland and one for the South West of England. They each held roughly 750 titles and each achieved roughly 5000 dispatches of prints. The total costs of the library operation was approximately £37,000. There were of course further costs incurred in running the fleet of film vans.
There followed a situation around 1951/2 when government cuts due to overall economic conditions, led both to an overall reduction of expenditure for film production and also a reduction for distribution by CFL. These reductions followed the report of the Salisbury Committee on economies in the Home Information Services. It also became embroiled in the debate in the House of Commons on the future of the Crown film Unit.
In the course of that debate the Financial Secretary to the Treasury: John-Boyd Carpenter drew attention to the costs of distribution in the context of savings of £600,000 which were being effected in 1952 in the COI as a whole. He said the “the film distribution service for Crown, now part of CFL, and other (unspecified) films has taken up a very substantial proportion of COI’s staff”. While not precise he went on to imply that some 150 staff were employed in London and the regions dealing with Crown films and would be saved with the abolition of the Crown Film Unit.
At the same time films from the CFL that had been available on loan free of charge to organisations such as schools and other organisations equipped to handle 16 mm projection, were no longer to be free of charge. The Treasury now insisted on a change to distribution by making sale and hire charges that came into force in June 1952.
The effect of the charges was immediate. In the July 1952 CFL noted that the dispatch figure for the month of 1,835 prints was only 24 % of the equivalent dispatchs made one year earlier in July 1951. The figures were to recover very gradually driven as much by the increasing numbers of films available and the increasing use of films by a variety of organisations. Thus by July 1955 the number of prints dispatched had risen to 3,352. The question of making charges was not reversed until 1967.
The reductions in bookings over the this four year period was a significant reduction in the use of films offered by CFL and thereby a significant loss to departments of the exposure of their messages. The films were sponsored by departments in the expectation of achieving a level of exposure thereby justifying expenditure of public money. At that time the production costs of every film had to be individually authorised by Treasury to achieve a specified purpose. Yet the same Treasury put in place a financial obstacle to the films being shown.
The operation of CFL required potential users as borrowers or purchasers of films to register, thus providing a database that provided a record of the different types off user such as schools, community organisations, Women’s Institutes, adult education and the like. A monthly report in February 1953 noted that there were 6,362 registered users. In the same month 4,506 films were despatched providing an income from hire and sales charges of £22,700.
It also provided a mailing list for an annual catalogue of available films which was supplemented by mailings about additional films as they became available. For example in February 1953 a supplement to the 1952 catalogue was issued listing 26 new films.
By December 1955 despatches for the previous month from CFL totalled 4,795 and the number of registered users was then 13,227.
The management of CFL was the responsibility of the Distribution Section though CFL itself was housed in a building in West London at Bromyard Avenue.