CUP FINAL SEQUEL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 195, 15 May 1936, Page 11

CUP FINAL SEQUEL

Dispute Over Filming CLAIM ON COMPANIES London, May 13. The Wembley Stadium authorities are claiming damages from five newsreel companies for alleged trespass, as a result of the photographing of the Cup Final matches on April 25. While Arsenal and Sheffield United were fighting for the Cup the stadium authorities and newsreel companies were engaged in a bitter contest over filming the match. The stadium authorities resolved to obtain their own lucrative and exclusive pictures, banned cameras, and offered a guinea reward to spectators detecting unauthorised photographers. Learning that the film companies had commissioned all the available autogiros in England, the authorities asked the Air Ministry to ban flying over the stadium, alleging that ■it was unsafe. This was refused, and a fleet of autogiros and other aeroplanes, one piloted by Campbell Black, appeared 20 minutes before the match. The stadium authorities arranged for a battery of 20 searchlights in order to blind the cameras. Competition was suspended by the film companies in a common effort to smash what was described as an unjust ban. Four autogiros and 12 aeroplanes flew over the .match in relays, swooping down with telescopic cameras and jockeying for positions to secure more shots. The film companies claimed that they secured hundreds of feet of film from unusual angles. The results were shown in 150 cinemas the same evening, some as far distant as Newcastle, whither the films were sent by aeroplane.