And so it was that around August 1975, having found lodgings just over the road from my new Boss’s house, where Derek’s wife, Anne, said that it would be no trouble to cook an extra evening meal each night following work, I started my new job at Derann Film Services. The regular business trips to Wardour Street and Soho, London were always exciting, calling into the offices of the many small 35mm film distributors, in the search for 8/16mm rights. Derek and I made a great team, my knowledge of the fantasy film genre paid off after all those years of reading Famous Monsters and books written by the likes of Dennis Gifford, while Derek’s field had been musical, comedy and British 40’s and 50’s. Together we had been an unmatchable team! Butchers Film Distributors, whose head John Phillips had produced a handful of movies, including ‘The Night Caller’ in 1965, a science fiction thriller starring John Saxon, was always pleased to see Derek and a whole morning could easily pass in their offices alone. Other distributors included Eagle, Border, Monarch, E J Fancy, New Realm, Supreme, Gala, Grand National, and Golden Era, all small distributors who existed on re-release programmes of older films that still had some life in them at the box-office and a soupçon of new but generally ‘B’ quality European features. While Miracle, Planet Films, Scotia-Barber, Alpha, Compton, Brent Walker and Target* had a good mixture of old and new titles in distribution, their newer titles generally American product. Derek had picked up such a re-release package from Grand National, it consisted of six Elvis Presley films and the western ‘Last Train from Gun Hill’. Derek also had a contact of many years standing in Wardour Street by the of name of Norman Salter. He presided over a small, one man business, called Viscom which consisted of two small rooms. We had many titles from Norman, including ‘In Search of Dracula’, ‘Victor Frankenstein’ and ‘Brutes and Savages’, mostly for 16mm rental. He stored his 16mm prints on the stairs leading off Wardour Street up to his office, and was frequently to be found in his sub-office, the “Blue Posts” Pub in Berwick Street. Rosalie, his secretary, a former continuity girl, would always phone the pub first, if she needed him. We very rarely needed to look at the product we signed for, as we normally knew most of the films on offer. If we did need to view them we would borrow a 16mm print and it was one of my jobs to view possible new acquisitions. It was a hard job, but someone had to it.
* Sadly, as far as I am aware ALL of the distribution companies listed are no longer in business, the advent of video meant that the market for old or lesser titles was no longer there.
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