A "FILM MAGNATE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23269, 11 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

A "FILM MAGNATE"

Ticket-of-Leave Man Offers Screen

MEETING a man in the lounge of a Blackpool hotel, where he was staying, Claude Henry Hammond, alias John Shaw, 42-year-old bookkeeper, told him he was managing director of the Elstree Film Studios He offered to find him a part m a film, and declared he had travelled to Blackpool specially to engage a Miss Butterworth for an important part m a new screen drama. Hammond's new acquaintance was unimpressed He was a detective

HAMMOND appeared at Preston Sessions accused of obtaining £2 3s credit from the Clifton Hotel, Blackpool, by false pretences. It appeared that when he registered at the hotel as "J. Carter, Balmoral Road, Jlendon, he told the night porter he was managing director of the film studios. Admitting the charge, Hammond asked that 26 other false pretences cases should he taken into account. It was explained that these had been committed within siix weeks of his release on September 28 as a convict on licence. The amount involved was ilzU. Sentenced to 12 months' hard labour, he will have also to complete the unexpired part of his licence—463 days. Hammond, a native of Hugby, stated from the dock that he had not a friend in tho world. "Impossible to go Straight" "I would prefer to go straight, but that is utterly impossible for a man 011 ticket-of-leave and without work, ne declared. , . , "The same thing; will happen when I come out of prison again. Hammond's criminal career dates back to 1913, his sentences including three separate terms of penal servitude —two of five years each, and one of ■ four years. . He deserted from the Army twice, and was finally discharged with a bad character. , . , , In addition, he has been convicted twice for wearing a military uniform and decorations to which he was not After Hammond had been sentenced, a Blackpool mother and her two growiiup daughters told the News or the World a remarkablo story # of their chance meeting with him in London and the sequel. For reasons that will be readily understood they desired that their names should not be disclosed. . They were at Eluston Station, London, preparing to return after a holiday, when Hammond entered the refreshment room, where they were taking tea. Sitting down at the next table, he opened tho conversation by

remarking to the mother, "You lobfc tired, mother." Seeing the rounder daughter reading a film magazine, Hammond broke the news that he was "managing director of the Elstree film studios." "His manner was so convincing that we could only regard hi in as .1 gentle, man," the elder daughter said. "When he heard we were going: to Blackpool ho said, 'What do you say if I co to Blackpool, too?' "He took us to a restaurant outside tho station, and talked a lot about films. He said he intended to book Flanagan and Allen for his next picture, and was going to bring Gracie Fields to Blackpool this summer. He also talked about his Cambridge days, Hold-up Thrills "Before leaving Euston he bought a pile of film books, and at Crewe he got tea and slabs of chocolate for us. "On the journey, he recounted some thrilling experiences with men who had tried to hold him up in his car.

"When we reached Blackpool he took 11s home in a tuxi and then went to the Clifton Hotel. "That same evenin'g he took us allfather included —to a music hall;

"He told my sister she was the ideal film type, and he would make her a star. He also hinted that his interest in her might go further, in the way of a romance.

"Next day he. called again and brought violets. He handed my mother two heavily-sealed envelopes—a long one and an ordinary-size one—explaining that he was afraid to leave Ihera in an hotel safe and asking her to take great care of them. One was addressed to Elstree, the other to a person in Mavfair.

"When Hammond did not come babfc again as promised (he had been arrested in the interval) I telephoned to Elstree. ' :

"They knew of no one of the name which appeared on the envelope, nor had they heard of 'Gerald .Carter*— the name by which Hammond intro« duced himself to us.

"Now he has been sentenced we have opened the envelopes. "We found that the smaller one contained a few blank sheets of notepapsr from the Clifton Hotel. The longer and more imposing one contained ono thing —a copy of the Law Journal!" nrr