J. Arthur Rank Family Business Religious Challenge

Joseph Arthur Rank was born on December 23, 1888 at Kingston upon Hull in England into a Victorian family environment, which was dominated by his father Joseph who had built a substantial flour milling business. Joseph is reported to have told his son Arthur that he was "a dunce at school" and that the only way that he could succeed in life would be in his father's flour mill. J. Arthur ventured on his own with Peterkins Self-Raising Flour, but when that business failed he returned to work for his father. That was the business that he later inherited and which became known as Rank Hovis McDougal.

2 Religious challenge

J. Arthur Rank was a devout member of the Methodist Church and in his middle age he taught Sunday School to which he began to show religious film s. This practice expanded to other churches and schools and it led to his formation of the Religious Film Society to which he then distributed films that he had also made. His first production was called Mastership.

When the Methodist Times newspaper began to complain about the negative influence that British and AmericanThe cinema of the United States sometimes simply called—correctly or not Hollywood can perhaps be summed up by the title American film critic Pauline Kael gave a 1968 collection of her reviews: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang''. By way of explanation, she said that t films shown in Britain were having on family life , their editorialAn editorial is a statement or article by a news organization (generally a newspaper) that expresses an opinion rather than attempting to simply report news. Editorials are not written by the regular reporters; rather, they are collectively authored by a was answered by the LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri Evening News who suggested that instead of complaining, the Methodist Church should provide a solution. Rank took up the challenge and via an introduction by a young film producer named John Corefield, he discussed both the problem and a solution with Lady Annie Henrietta Yule of Bricket WoodBricket Wood is a village in the county of Hertfordshire, England, approximately three miles from St Albans. Its railway station is served by a Silverlink County service that runs between St Albans Abbey and Watford Junction stations. Over the years the v. The net result of these meetings was the formation of the British National Films CompanyIn 1934 the British National Films Company was formed in England by J. Arthur Rank, Lady Annie Henrietta Yule of Bricket Wood and producer John Corefield. Origin of the Company Joseph Arthur Rank was a devout member of the Methodist Church and the son of.

The first commercial production by this company was Turn of the TideTurn of the Tide is a 1935 British film directed by Norman Walker. It was the first feature film made by J. Arthur Rank. It is set in a North Yorkshire fishing village, and relates the rivalry between two fishing families. The actors, mostly amateur, spea, a movie based upon a recently published 19321932 is the leap year starting on Friday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 3 British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel January 8 In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees Jan novel by Leo Walmsley called Three Fevers. Having created their movie, British National then had to get it distributed and exhibited, but this proved to be more difficult than making the movie itself. Some commercial screens began showing Turn of the Tide as a second feature, but this was not enough exposure for the company to make a profit.

3 Pinewood Film Studios

Having first created a film production company and having made a movie at another studio, J. Arthur Rank, Lady Yule and John Corfield began talking to Charles Boot who had recently bought the estate of Heatherden Hall at Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, for the purpose of turning it into a movie studio that would rival those in Hollywood, California. In 1935 the trio became owner-operators of Pinewood Film Studios. Lady Yule later sold her shares to J. Arthur Rank and John Corfield resigned from its board of directors.

4 Commercial challenge

The problems encountered in the distribution of Turn of the Tide were addressed when J. Arthur Rank discovered that the people who controlled the British film industry had ties to the American movie industry and that for all practical purposes he was shut out of his own domestic market. American films occupied 80% of British screen time during the era before World War II.

In 1936 Rank arrived at a solution to his distribution problems. Because the middlemen controlled the distribution pipeline from production to exhibition, he decided to buy a large part of both the distribution and exhibition systems. He began by forming a partnership with film maker C.M. Woolf (father of John Woolf ), for the purpose of creating the General Cinema Finance Corporation (GCFC). They then used that company to buy out General Film Distributors who were the UK distributors for Universal Pictures).

5 Rank Organisation

In 1937 J. Arthur Rank began to consolidate his movie interests in both the Pinewood Film Studios and the Denham Film Studios and other interests within a new company called the Rank Organisation. In 1938 the Rank Organisation bought the ODEON cinema chain (named after its founder's own ambition: Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation). In 1939 the Rank Organisation bought Amalgamated Studios in Elstree and in 1941 it absorbed the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation who owned 251 cinemas and the Shepherd's Bush Studios (which the Rank Organisation later sold to BBC Television.) It also bought the Paramount cinema chain so that by 1942 the Rank Organisation owned 619 cinemas. A more complete history is found under the Rank Organisation from 1937 to 1986 and The Rank Group Plc which absorbed the Rank Organisation in 1986.

6 Core interests

Although his critics claimed that many of the films that he had produced under the name of J. Arthur Rank were not exactly in keeping with his original intention of producing "family-friendly" movies to combat crass American commercial interests, he nevertheless kept to his core beliefs. To that end in 1953 he set up the J. Arthur Rank Group Charity to promote Christian belief. The charity later became known as The Rank Foundation.

7 Baron Rank

In 1957 J. Arthur Rank was given a peerage and created Baron Rank, of Sutton Scotney in the County of Southampton. (Sutton Scotney is a small village between Andover and Winchester in Hampshire.)

8 Cockney legacy

The name J. Arthur Rank became a common expression in Cockney rhyming slang.

Rank, Joseph Arthur Rank, Joseph Arthur Rank, Joseph Arthur Rank, Joseph Arthur Rank, Joseph Arthur

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1 Family business