Elstree Calling

John Maxwell Building at Elstree Studios. Photo: © Paul Burton

As cinema-going habits altered in the Seventies, the studios came under threat. I reveal how it survived:

The resignation of Elstree's manging director Bryan Forbes in 1971 led to Ian Scott's appointment. But Scott would only stay for two years before going to work for Thames Television.

Taking his place would be the much-missed Andrew Mitchell, a man who would eventually be given a posthumous honour, that of having the studios adminstration, restaurant and bar building named after him.

But bad news for the studios came in an announcement by MGM that it would no-longer be able to pay its yearly sbsidy to the studios. MGM blamed changes in the cinema-going habits of the public for a downturn in its profits and unwillingness to invest. This came as a bitter blow to the studios.

In the wake of this, EMI realised it needed to encourage outside film and television production companies to use its facilities if it was to survive.

With the threat of closure a very real possibility, the studios made many staff redundant. But, as it had proved many times in history before and since, Elstree was not a studio willing to lay down and die.

It weathered the storm, despite many more redundancies among the permanent staff during the early part of 1975.

Like John Maxwell before him, Andrew Micthell was to join the ranks of the studios' saviours with his strong desire to ensure they survived.

The Seventies saw films as varied as the high-budget Murder on the Orient Express, the successful Confessions films, the start of the Star Wars blockbusters, The Greek Tycoon and The Shining all taking to the stages at Elstree.

Television productions continued as well.

While the income from the production of The Saint, starring Roger Moore in the Sixties, had helped keep the studios afloat, so too did Return of the Saint in the late Seventies, this time with Ian Ogilvy in the title role.

With the decade drawing to a close, Elstree wss still surviving, despite licking its wounds from a fire on Stage 3 during production of The Shining.

A name change was on the cards again, as Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI. The deal benefited the studios, which became known as Thorn-EMI Studios, as significany investment in the site followed.

But by 1985, Thorn put the studios up for sale, They were purchased by the Cannon Group, which saw the start of a rollercoaster period for the studios with two S.O.S. (Save Our Studios) campaigns run by Times' columnist Paul Welsh.

© Paul Burton 2008

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