Ged Jones

A successful retail shop and mailorder business selling film, including many American imports especially those from “Thunderbird”. The shop was a short walk from the sea front in Blackpool , where in 1977 its proprietor Les Syddall, would set up what was simply known as ‘The Blackpool Convention’ at the Queen’s Hotel in 1977, and…

With the prestigeous address of 193 Wardour Street, they were the British importers and distributors of both Columbia 8mm, Castle films (later Universal 8) and the Paramount titles from Marketing Film, Germany. Run by Mr. Maurice Crook and later his daughter, Margaret Crook would take control. They (Margaret and her junior assistant James) took office…

Davelyn Films began life in 1969 and run part time by Dave  and Carolyn West. In 1976 D.C.R was formed and around 1977 he signed a contract with Renown Films for 12 features. Contracts soon followed from Bryanston, Romulus, Robert Kingston and Rank. His enviable catalogue included an A to Z of British film classics…

A short history By Ian O’Reilly The name of Perry’s comes from the founder Keith Perry who worked for a Greek shipping line called Epirotiki Lines. Keith was born in Bedford and worked in the Epirotiki office in Central London. Keith always had an interest in vintage films and equipment, he quickly saw a gap…

This very well regarded Super 8mm distributor started trading on 5thJanuary 1978 according to Companies House and like Powell Films there were based in a very prestigious part of the UK namely 39 Windsor End, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire nearby to the posh Stoke Poges Golf course. The company was formed by an affable gentleman by the…

Powell Films was started by ex BBC cameraman Tony Powell in the early/mid 1970’s when he opened his first shop in a place called Englefield Green which was located near Egham in Surrey, He later re-located to another much larger shop premises in Berkshire called Ascot, which was renown for its famous horse racing events.…

Peter Burt the founder of Mountain/Portland/Mailmaster Films started in the package movie business by selling his own self made 50ft standard 8mm film of Kew Gardens from his photographic shop in the posh Burlington Arcade, London, W1 located near Piccadilly Circus. Peter’s own personal interest was in 16mm film collecting and he was able to…

In 1948 James Beney formed Walton Sound & Film Services as a mobile film library and he was soon making films himself, mostly travel and general interest titles in the 16mm format. In 1951 Walton entered into glamour film market and “Bikini Girl World Contest” was a big seller over all three film formats of…