Classic Home Cinema was set up in 1988, upon my moving to my home town in Lincolnshire. Derek at Derann was very supportive as I had been in the habit of loaning him product to produce some of his, and later our joint releases. He allowed me to place an advert leaflet on all the chairs of the cinema during an open day, and together with advertising in ACE, thats how we got started.
Previous to that I had been a frequent writer in the various cine publications, ans was wheelin’ and Dealin’ by sending UK prints to the USA and getting USA prints back (mostly Blackhawk) in return. I did the same with a couple of German collectors, and it worked well.
Our first s8 release was a trailer to Mysterious Island, followed by our first Nostalgia reel with old ads, trailer, and intermission. Our first feature was Dracula (1931), and more followed. I have been to the USA 4 times to buy film collections and film negatives, the most amazing being going through the collection of Jeff Aikman of Jef Films… absolutley massive store!
Our printing was done through Derann and Derek took me with him to various distirbuters, labs etc and I was shown the 8mm printer at Denham. It was a shambles, held together with rubber bands, its no wonder film jumped off the sprockets causing those annoying green lab scratches!
Joint releases, and trips with Derek continued and we became very friendly, even enjoying holidays on the South coast. That didnt change until Derek fell ill and could no longer record sound etc. Very sad.
Whilst trading as Classic, we have bought out other companies or their stock, including Cresta Electronics, Perry’s recording gear when their labs/shop closed, The paste striper from Derann that was formally at Sound Services, and a couple of other cine dealers.
We continue to release film, although little as the price is so high, and the German labs that we trasferred to can no longer record sound. I do however still have future releases waiting to be made when the labs can oblige.
My friendship with Derek let him to tell some hilarious tales about other dealers worldwide, there mishaps and crazy ideas. These stories will be related later in FILM COLLECTOR magazine.
© Phil Sheard 2019
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