CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 140, 15 May 1936, Page 10

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

WEMBLEY INCIDENT. Received May 14, 12.45 p.m. LONDON, May 13. Wembley Stadium are claiming damages from five news reel companies for alleged trespass on the occasion of the Cup Final on April 25. Wembley was the scene of two cup final battles. While Arsenal and Sheffield United were fighting for the cup the stadium authorities and news reel companies were engaged in a bitter contest in 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 ’planes, one piloted by Captain Black, appeared 20 minutes before the match. The stadium authorities arranged for a battery ol 20 searchlights, in order to blind the cameras. Four autogiros and 12 aeroplanes flew over the match in relays, swooping down with telescopic cameras and jockeying for position 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 in the evening.