Grand National 1962

1962 – just over a year since I had been appointed Assignments Manager of British Movietonews, I went up to Aintree on the Thursday afternoon before the Grand National.  I drove up there with cameraman Paul Wyand, my boss, who was my predecessor as Assignments Manager.  He was going to show me the ropes.  The idea was that I could go into the offices at Aintree and get all our passes and car parking permits.

The newsreel crews were people of habit.  The idea was that if it worked last year, it will work this year.  For the most part this was true, but new ideas were difficult to introduce. This did not apply, of course, to technical advancement.

As a result of this, we stayed at the same hotel that crews had used since before the war.  It was a Victorian hotel in New Brighton and one could immediately see that it was an hotel of a particular era and that it had not changed for decades, possibly since it opened.

By the time we checked into the hotel late at night, the rest of the crew from London had arrived, but only just.  The hotel was dreary and dark. It was 9 o’clock in the evening.  It was almost closed down.  We could not get anything to eat, but everyone was ready for a drink. The bar was closed. There was a porter on duty.  He was in his late sixties, bent over with a shuffling gait. He had probably worked there since the day the hotel opened.  Reluctantly, he opened the iron gates to the bar, but announced that he only had Bass Worthington to offer.  I didn’t drink Bass, preferring the lighter brown ale.  However, I had no choice.  On reflection I did have a choice, I could have drunk water.  To me, the Bass was awful and I have never drunk it since.

The next morning, the second part of the ritual began.  Jimmy Humphries, our local cameraman and representative, collected us from the Hotel and we all drove to a pitch and putt course, where we proceeded to play golf, of a sort, until lunch time.

We had lunch in a local pub which consisted of sandwiches.  In the afternoon, we all went to Aintree to look over the course and discuss tactics.  One innovation was that, this time, we would be permitted to use a camera car, a utility van.   Mark McDonald, our cameraman from Australia, would operate from the travelling platform while having to shoot 35mm Eastmancolor for Movietonews.  He would operate two cameras mounted on the same tripod. He would share the space on the van with Cedric Baynes of Pathe News.  He would produce remarkable pictures because he would be able to follow the horses for over half the distance of the course, before the road ran out. Cedric Baynes was also using two cameras.

What was remarkable about this Grand National was that British Movietone News and Pathe were sharing the coverage.  They would go on to use the same edited story, finally releasing to their client cinemas a version with their own titles and commentator.  The film would also be sent to Universal News in the United States.

Mark McDonald on the left with Cedric Baines getting ready for the off.

We had a crew in the main Grandstand where they could film the whole of the near side circuit and the finish and record the sound of the great crowd. The start was covered from the outside the of the circuit and then there were to be cameras giving special attention to Valentine’s and Becher’s Brook.

The whole circuit was covered.

All crews within the vicinity of the finish would make their way to the parade of the winner through the crowds.

By now, the newsreels had reached a very high standard of coverage and presentation. They would produce a version of the Grand National 1962 that has never, in my opinion, been bettered, even by live television.

We got to the Grand National course very early. I saw all of our crews safely into their camera positions.  We sometimes had trouble with the opposition taking up too much room, or some “jobsworth” official making life difficult by arguing about the exact location of our cameras.  There was no such trouble this day.  The only recent opposition had been Pathe News. This day they were on our side. Gaumont, Universal and Paramount News had retired from the fray.  From time to time, all the newsreels took part in what was called “Rota” coverage.  This was a requirement when the number of crews at a given location had to be restricted.  Most famous of these would have been material supplied by the “Royal Rota Cameraman”.  Who would cover the close scenes of the Royal Family and duplicate copies of his work would be distributed to the other companies.  However, this Grand National was something different.

Mark McDonald’s two cameras.

I was party to a conversation and heard that a certain horse was in good condition and “had a chance”, racing parlance for a dead cert..  I phoned home to my wife Janet and told her to tell who she could, within the family, about “Kilmore”.  “Kilmore” won at 28 to 1.

The race got under way on time.  All the cameramen did well.  The race had started at 3.15 in the afternoon.  Camera crews or their assistants made their way to the car park where we counted in the various rolls of negative.  When the last of the film arrived and was placed in the boot of Ken Hanshaw’s car, he drove off at high-speed for Liverpool airport.  There, waiting for him, was a light aircraft from Denham airfield, hired as our special courier.

Before 6pm, the film was being processed in Rank Laboratories at Denham, where Movietonews were also located.

First it was be edited by a Movietonews editor, and then an Inter Positive made for Pathe.  Sound tapes would be duplicated. Sound and picture was being rushed to Wardour Street in London for them to complete post production. The story became the whole of the newsreel to be screened throughout the country on the following day.

Now, we had the two hundred mile journey home having had only sandwiches and snacks since the previous Wednesday.

It should be remembered that there was not much in the way of Motorways at that time and in that region.  We had to wend our way by favoured routes, that is to say, favoured by the experience of the cameramen who knew which roads offered the least aggravation.

So we wended our way on to the A34 until we reached Newcastle-under-Lyme.  Here we found ourselves diverted until we came across a motorway which was pointing south, so we drove on it.  It was deserted and we soon wondered if is was finished and whether we should have been on it at all. If we were unlucky, we might have had to turn round and go back to the start.  We were lucky, after many miles, we were able to get off the motorway near a place called Stone and get on the A51.  We went past Lichfield and then got onto the A5, this would take us home.

Mark McDonald and Cedric Baynes on the camera car.

On the way home, we all, Movietone and Pathe crews, met up at The Hinckley Knight Hotel which is just off the A5, Watling Street. There we had a slap-up meal of steak and chips washed down with our favourite booze. Then we went home.

The next day, people would sit in the comfort of a modern cinema and appreciate the wonderful pictures of the race and the horses, the bookies and the crowds.  It would not occur to them what we had to put up with to get those pictures.

© Terence Gallacher and terencegallacher.com, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Terence Gallacher and terencegallacher.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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