UK Dealers

One of the small handful of independent 16mm film libraries, in the UK. If I remember correctly  it  was run by Tom Kenny and situated in Glasgow.  From the only advert I could find he was more than just a library as there was also a large range of 8mm projectors,  cameras and other equipment…

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…

Originally run by professional cinematographer, John Burgoyne Johnson. The ground floor was filled with 8 and 16mm movies for sale, while the upper story was a projection room with loads of cinema items. I’m led to understand that on most Saturdays he put on film shows. One show was from a 28mm movie! John’s equipment…

Run by Ron Window, this company had a catalogue of Gaumont British Newsreels, Steam locomotive films along with a collection of 200′ silent Laurel and Hardy, and Chaplin films. They would later set the market on fire with extracts from two Mary Millington films as well as importing many titles from Techno Film of Italy.

With their headquaters at Pinewood Studios, former film producer George Davis and business partner Terry Lens issued a vast selection of titles beginning in 1977. Taking the sleepy  UK by surprise with the super 8 feature ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ they bombarded the country with title after title including ‘Tintorea’, ‘The Slipper and the Rose’,…

Operated by Terry Nunn this popular mail order retailer was operating from the late 1960s, their catalogue was filled with silent classics, both comedy shorts and dramatic features. The catalogue included classics such as ‘Trip to the Moon’ (1902), ‘The Gold Rush’ (1925), ‘Battleship Potemkin’ (1925), ‘Metropolis’ (1926), ‘The Vampire Bat’ (1933), ‘White Zombie’ (1932)…

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…