Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

workhouse, and we discovered the Charlie Chaplin connection. We were
always keen, if there was the possibility, of being able to relocate to this
building, and we kept knocking on the door of the NHS Trust who owned it.
In 1998 they said yes, we could rent it, so we then moved in here. And this
has been fantastic, because there has been the possibility of displaying the
collection and being able to do a lot more activities.
Who runs the museum?
The museum is entirely volunteer-run. There is still a board of trustees,
which includes Ronald and myself; a film historian called Tony Fletcher;
David Eve, who worked in television for many years and who is involved
with the Plaza Stockport and the Cinema Theatre Association and who is a
strong supporter of cinema preservation; and an old friend of the museum
called Edith Head [not the famous Hollywood costume designer], whose
husband’s film collection we inherited. Graham Head collected material
on the Brighton Pioneers, and knew George Albert Smith and recorded
conversations with him. 3 The board will be expanding, probably some time
within the next year, because we want to get it up to about seven people.
Other than that, any other activities within the museum are volunteerrun
and led. We have a group of at least 15 stalwart volunteers who offer
both technical skills and administrative skills in terms of programming
events and so on. Because of this we are able to run a full programme of
events, which are usually Q&As with people from the film industry both in
front of the cameras and behind, talking about their career and illustrated
with clips. Since September 2010, some of the personalities who have
participated in our events include: Ray Harryhausen, probably the greatest
stop-motion animator of all time. The costume designer Julie Harris, who
won an Oscar for her work on Darling (John Schlesinger, 1965), one of
the definitive films of the 1960s British New Wave. Shirley Anne Field, the
actress who starred in such notable British films as Peeping Tom (Michael
Powell, 1960), The Entertainer (Tony Richardson, 1960) and Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960). Peggy Cummins, a British actress
who moved to Hollywood and starred in the cult movie Gun Crazy (Joseph
H. Lewis, 1950), as well as in one of the scariest movies of all time, the British
horror film Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957). Burt Kwouk, most
famous for his role as Cato in the Pink Panther movies, but who has had a
long and distinguished career in film and television. Kevin Brownlow talked
about the technological innovations of the silent filmmakers, and Professor
Sir Christopher Fraying presented an evening dedicated to the Westerns of
the director Sergio Leone. 4
We are now also able to show films in the large space on the first floor. We
recently hosted an evening during the British Silent Film Festival when we
screened the newly discovered silent comedy What Next? (1928), directed
by and starring the British comedian Walter Forde, with a supporting
programme of short films from our unique collection of early Mitchell and
Kenyon films. This was a very successful event, and we hope to be part of
the festival again next year.
3 George Albert Smith (1864-1959) is arguably one of the most important figures of
Victorian Cinema; in fact Michael Balcon went so far as to call him “the father of the British
Film Industry”.
4 To see a complete list of both past and present events at The Cinema Museum, please
visit the museum’s website, www.cinemamuseum.org.uk
77 Journal of Film Preservation / 85 / 2011