A Derann Story

During the 37 years I spent with Derann, Derek had many weird and wonderful ideas for brand new sales lines or promotions to help garner further sales. He was generally on the ‘mark’ but not always, as with the vast quantity of GAF View-Masters we had lying around for so many years. During 1979 it…

We all had great times at 171 Stourbridge Road and I think Steve Wellings forgave everyone for the gags we pulled on him…if I remember correctly it was invariably something to do with the Fray Bentos steak pies he used to bring in for his lunch. The outing Derek organised at Pinewood Studios was a…

Here’s an unusual entry into this series. Some of you may remember that when I first joined Facebook, I did a series of articles on the world of Monster magazines on my Facebook page. Beginning with “Famous Monsters of Filmland” and “Fantastic Monsters of the Films”, I took a look at over 50 Movie Monster…

When I joined Derann in 1975 the Super/Standard 8mm and 16mm libraries were a very important part of the business, possibly more so than the sales. Only a new Walt Disney title like ‘I Wanna’ Be Like You’ could generate much interest and get the sales line ringing, in those days. The bookings were handled…

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you just what an expensive hobby film collecting was and trust me Derann, Walton and the other 8mm distributors were not raking in a fortune! By the time the cost for the rights for a title, the master material, the royalty for each print, the negative cost, the…

Our early video cassette releases were all acquired from the same trusted UK distributors and agents that we had been using for our 8 and 16mm releases. Miracle Films supplied titles like ‘Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle’; ‘Blue Belle’; ‘Monsters from an Unknown Planet’, ‘The Fiend’ and ‘Cannibal’, a quick phone call to Tom Blakeley would…

We now fast forward to 1988 and Harry, still thirsting for all things film, is taking a course on genre movies at Manchester University. Here he makes the acquaintance of Gil Lane-Young and after a few months they decide to form a film society to show and discuss genre movies. Harry invites his old friend…

Many of the UK members will fondly recall the name of Harry Nadler, a quiet but energetic and affable gent who was more than a little consumed by his love of fantasy films. He was a film enthusiast through & through, who brought and sold 16mm, a hobby that would turn into a small business.…

It was around 1980 that we first felt the cine mood shift a little. VHS & Beta pre-recorded video tapes were a subject on every-ones lips and we could see the sales of our 8mm films,  especially the features, begin to falter and slow very slightly. By now even our retail shop had a selection…