Will Barker

William George Barker (1867 – 1951) Film producer, Director, Cinematographer and Entrepreneur.

He took film-making in Britain from a low budget form of novel entertainment, to the heights of lavishly produced epics that were matched only by Hollywood for quality and style.

His early career was that of a commercial traveller. He was evidently successful enough at this, that he was able to indulge his interest in photography. In 1901 he started a business at 50 Gray's Inn Road, Holborn for the purposes of making moving pictures on a hand cranked Lumiere camera, which had bought a few years before and then showing the resulting films to the public -for a fee. This was the Autoscope Company. Like the early Mitchell and Kenyon films, the genre was mainly 'topicals'; for they require the least amount of preparation and expense.

On 1 January 1906 it merged with the Warwick Trading Company with Barker as the managing director. [The London Project: [http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk/view/business/?id=63 Autoscope Company] Accessed 2008-05-05]

Having left Warwick he set up Barker Motion Photography Limited in December 1909 at Number 1 Soho Square, Westminster, London. Now he wanted to shoot film using set stages regardless of the weather. Having already purchased a house called the Lodge Ealing (now renamed the White Lodge, Ealing Studios) over looking Ealing Green, he procured the adjacent property two years later in 1904 . This second house was set back from Ealing Green behind a school on the west-side, and was therefore known as the West Lodge. Having 3.8 acres of land there was plenty of room to build stages, which he did, three in number. Back then, early Edwardian Ealing had two striking similarity to modern day Ealing, it still looks majestic (hence its title 'Queen of the suburbs') -and it still ain't Hollywood. Therefore, the stages were build with very tall glass walls and roofs to make the most of the available light whilst keeping out the British weather. ['Ealing and Brentford: Economic history', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 131-144. URL: [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22579] . Date accessed: 05 May 2008.] By 1912 this had become the largest film studio in Britain and possibly Europe. Many productions were released under his trademark of Bulldog Films.

At that time British cinema started facing two important problems. One was the restrictive practises of the new Motion Picture Patents Company, which prevented English films from being shown to audiences in America. Hitherto, foreign films had prominence on American screens. This cartel effectively put a limit on the revenue that English film-makers could hope to receive for their investment. Secondly, film prints copies were purchased out right by the distributor. This meant a popular film would not earn the film maker any more than an unsuccessful one. However, it also meant that the audiences had no choice but to see ever degrading prints that had become evermore scratched though repeated use. As more and more frames were lost due to multiple re-splicing and general damage, so the action would unexpectedly jump forward whilst the film was being watched. The first problem he attempted to rectify by travelling to America to voice his support at the International Projecting and Producing Company (IPPC) meeting of February 1909. This organisation had been set up in the vain hope of challenging the cartel's dominance. [Segrave, Kerry (2004). Foreign Films in America: A History. Pages 11-12. Pub: McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina. ISBN 0786417641]

He then set about to improve the viewing experience of the public by popularising films which were released on a "rental only" basis. The very first of these "for hire only" films is now considered by film buffs to be the first important British film. This is despite no copies of this production surviving.

This film was a lavish adaptation of Henry VIII. Barker even used some of the original stage sets from Her Majesty's Theatre. He was reported to have paid Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (who was actor/manager of the before said theatre), £1,000 for doing his interpretation of Cardinal Wolsey for the film. After being shown to record audiences, the total film stock was ceremoniously burned before the press to promote hired films as a way of insuring the public saw only good quality stock whilst at the same time maximise his own profits by maintaining control of the prints.

Another entrepreneur and film distributor called G.B. Samuelson, persuaded Barker to make what became another very important British film: Sixty Years a Queen (1913) about the life of Victoria. Samuelson, also heavily financed the production of this film and so further increased his fortune through its success. After Barker made his last films in the 1920s, Samuelson went on in 1924 to found the Southall Film Studio, just 4 miles west in a converted aircraft hanger which stood in Gladstone Road. Unfortunately both studios then suffered from the recession. [ [http://www.southallfilmstudios.com/thehistory.htm Southall Studios] Accessed 2008-05-11]

He died on 1951-11-06 in Wimbledon, London.

List of films

Topicals:

London Day by Day

Film Series: Cape to Cairo (1907).

Feature films:

Henry VIII (1910)

screen composser: Edward German

East Lynne ( 1913)

Sixty Years a Queen (1913)

B&W : Eight reels / 7500 feet

Format: standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 Director: Bert Haldane. Cast: Blanche Forsythe, Mrs. Lytton, J. Hastings Batson, Jack Brunswick, Gilbert Esmond, Fred Paul, Roy Travers, E. Story Gofton, Rolf Leslie. Will Barker Film Company production. Produced by Will Barker, Jack Smith and Ernest Shirley in association with G.B. Samuelson.Scenario by G.B. Samuelson, Arthur Shirley and Harry Engholm, from a book by Sir Herbert Maxwell.

She

Jane Shore (1915) Director: F. Martin Thornton.

References

* Barker, Will. [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/19903 Film & TV Database] . Accessed 2008-05-11.

* Screen Online. [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/519480/ Barker, Will (1867-1951)] Accessed 2008-05-11.

* McFarlane, Brian (2006) Barker, William George (1868–1951), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.

* The Macmillan International Film Encyclopaedia. Fourth Ed. Barker, Will.

Further reading and research

* Perry, George (1981) Forever Ealing: a celebration of the great British film studio. Publisher Pavilion Press, London.

* Ealing Library's Local History Department also has in its archives, photographs and articles about film production in Ealing. [ [http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/leisure/libraries/local_history_centre/ Ealing Libraries and Information Service, Local History Centre. Accessed 2008-05-11]

* Allen Eyles and David Meeker (1992) Missing Believed Lost: The Great British Film Search. BFI Publishing. ISBN 13 978 0851703060.

External links

*The National Library of Wales: [http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/blowup1/25096A leaflet advertising the film Sixty Years a Queen] . Accessed 2008-05-12

* The London Project: The birth of the film business in London. [http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk/]