"...just as if they were real musical instruments..."

[JimN]

That well-known short clip of the former Burns (and pre-Baldwin) guitar factory at Buckhurst Hill was recently indicated to have come from a Pathé newsreel. I have to say that at the time, I thought that was odd, since the clip is in colour and Pathé rarely used colour. Additionally, the film was clearly a feature and not "news".

My belief had been that the film had to have been extracted from a Rank/Gaumont "Look At Life" short (always made in colour and always feature-based rather than news-based). This was shaken somewhat by the attribution to Pathé, but the Rank/Gaumont "Look At Life" origin is now proven in a current BBC4 TV series compiled from LAL films from 1959 and later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nz93z/Britain_on_Film_Getting_Down_to_Business/

See the section at 28:12 onwards.

JN

[Iain Purdon]

"...take another look at laife again, sooon"

Funny to see the ATV eye with a BBC caption below it

[JimN]

"...take another look at laife again, sooon"

Funny to see the ATV eye with a BBC caption below it

I noticed that - but then, the Beeb has shown ATV (and ITC) programmes in the brave new world.

Not that this was the ATV eye(s)... surely it's more the CBS eye?

JN

[chas]

Haven't seen that clip before - thanks Jim.
There's another clip at 11.30 showing guitar bodies being worked on - Burns factory as well?

Chas.

[JimN]

It's interesting to reflect on the actual guitars, too.

The technician is buffing a Burns GB65 (a model later to evolve into the Virginian) and hanging behind him on the rack are another GB65, a TR2 or Vibraslim, the bass version of that last guitar, a GB66 in blonde (this must be one of the very earliest examples), a cherry Nu-Sonic guitar, a white Marvin and a black Bison (the 1964 Marvin-type).

The guitars date the clip to mid-1965, a moment when the Baldwin tave-over was either imminent or had just taken place.

JN

[Iain Purdon]

[quote="JimN"Not that this was the ATV eye(s)... surely it's more the CBS eye?[/quote]

Yeah but the ATV eye was modelled on the CBS eye. Well, technically, the ABC eye was modelled on it and then had to change the letters to ATV because of the other ABC.

I thenk yaw.

[dusty fretz]

The 'Burns Bulletin' no.3, dated 1965, includes a feature, complete with photo, headed "Burns Gear Lucky For Unit Four!" The verbatim text reads as follows:

"The Burns factory has been seen on cinema screens throughout the world recently and as a result of visits from film technicians our own craftsmen are now accomplished actors! First team to arrive were the Pathe people and the head camera-man is seen taking a shot of the finishing bench. For the Pictorial Pathe took a complete sequence of all the factory operations and the closing shot showed a finished instrument being handed to David Meikle of the Unit Four plus Two group who were retained for the live sequences at a West End club. Dave liked the instrument . . . the other boys got interested and the group decided on a complete switch-over to Burns amps and guitars. Immediately afterwards they crashed into the charts and we like to feel that Burns gear was of some assistance in their success!

The Rank Organisation, too, decided to make a feature on British exports following the Frankfurt Fair and their camera team came down to the factory a few days after the Pathe boys."

[RayL]

That well-known short clip of the former Burns (and pre-Baldwin) guitar factory at Buckhurst Hill
JN

Hi Jim

The Buckhurst Hill 'factory' (where my Artist was made) was just a basement in a private house. It was vacated in favour of the Roding Valley building by 1962. The factory shown in the clip would have been the Romford premises, acquired to give more space in 1964.

Ray

[blackguitars.com]

Yes, ITN source now owns/manages the footage -
You can see the full 1:30 clip here, Burns Guitars section starts around 2:30

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist/ITVProgs/1965/01/01/CFD08130317/

Shame about the watermark etc... Anyone know anyone in TV who could get us a better copy of that clip, so i/we can ogle the backgrounds???

I suppose the BBC, or whichever production company made the Rank compilation shows now has the rights?