MAN BEHIND COLOUR FILM

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1936, Page 2

MAN BEHIND COLOUR FILM

MR WHITNEY IN ENGLAND. LONDON, March 21. Mr John Hay Whitney, the young American sportsman, who is also the biggest financier behind colour films, arrived in London, yesterday. Mr Whitney is 30 years old, was educated at Oxford and Yale, has a four-goal handicap at polo, and recently inherited £20,000,000 from his father, Mr Harry Payne Whitney. He is the largest shareholder in Techmcolour and in Pioneer Pictures Inc., and backed the production of the first full-length three-colour picture, “Becky Sharp.” He once worked in a Npw York store for £3 a week. Immediately on his arrival, Mr Whitney went to Sandown Park to enjoy some racing. Mr Gay Harrison, managing director of Technicolour’s British branch, stated some interesting facts about the problems Mr Whitney has come to study. “Colour,” said Mr Harrison, “has not stampeded the industry, but it is admittedly here to stay. More and more pictures are being made in colour, and their number is limited only by our capacity to turn out adequate supplies of film. Already the factory we planned has ben doubled. Further, we cannot go until more British technicians have been found. The whole process is new. Chemists, mathematicians, cameramen and mechanics have to be trained, and bear in mind that, beside one of our colour cameras a Swiss watch is as delicate as a sledgehammer. Though we are seeing likely young men all the time —men with brilliant degrees and experience in other lines —we cannot get enough of the ' type we want.” Apart from coming British productions in colour, such as Robert Kane’s version of Donn Byrne’s “Destiny Bay,” Max Sohach’s “Pagliacci,” the Schuberts’ “Countess Maritza,” and Alexander Korda’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” Technicolour’s London plant will have to print all copies of American colour films required for the British Empire.