J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank
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Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (December 22, 1888 – March 29, 1972) was a British industrialist and film producer, and founder of the Rank Organisation, now known as The Rank Group Plc.
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[edit] Family business
Joseph Arthur Rank was born on December 23, 1888 at Kingston upon Hull in England into a Victorian family environment, which was dominated by his father Joseph who had built a substantial flour milling business. He was educated at The Leys School in Cambridge. Joseph is reported to have told his son Arthur that he was "a dunce at school" and that the only way that he could succeed in life would be in his father's flour mill. J. Arthur ventured on his own with Peterkins Self-Raising Flour, but when that business failed he returned to work for his father. That was the business (Joseph Rank Limited) that he later inherited and which became known as Rank Hovis McDougall (now the quoted company RHM).
[edit] Religious challenge
J. Arthur Rank was a devout member of the Methodist Church and in his middle age he taught Sunday School to which he began to show religious films. This practice expanded to other churches and schools and it led to his formation of the Religious Film Society to which he then distributed films that he had also made. His first production was called Mastership.
When the Methodist Times newspaper began to complain about the negative influence that British and American films shown in Britain were having on family life, their editorial was answered by the London Evening News who suggested that instead of complaining, the Methodist Church should provide a solution. Rank took up the challenge and via an introduction by a young film producer named John Corefield, he discussed both the problem and a solution with Lady Annie Henrietta Yule of Bricket Wood. The net result of these meetings was the formation of the British National Films Company.
The first commercial production by this company was Turn of the Tide, a movie based upon a recently published 1932 novel by Leo Walmsley called Three Fevers. Having created their movie, British National then had to get it distributed and exhibited, but this proved to be more difficult than making the movie itself. Some commercial screens began showing Turn of the Tide as a second feature, but this was not enough exposure for the company to make a profit.
[edit] Pinewood Film Studios
Having first created a film production company and having made a movie at another studio, J. Arthur Rank, Lady Yule and John Corfield began talking to Charles Boot who had recently bought the estate of Heatherden Hall at Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, for the purpose of turning it into a movie studio that would rival those in Hollywood, California. In 1935 the trio became owner-operators of Pinewood Film Studios. Lady Yule later sold her shares to J. Arthur Rank and John Corfield resigned from its board of directors who were happy to see him go.
[edit] Commercial challenge
The problems encountered in the distribution of Turn of the Tide were addressed when J. Arthur Rank discovered that the people who controlled the British film industry had ties to the American movie industry and that for all practical purposes he was shut out of his own domestic market. American films occupied 80% of British screen time during the era before World War II.
In 1936 Rank arrived at a solution to his distribution problems. Because the middlemen controlled the distribution pipeline from production to exhibition, he decided to buy a large part of both the distribution and exhibition systems. He began by forming a partnership with film maker C.M. Woolf (father of Sir John Woolf), for the purpose of creating the General Cinema Finance Corporation (GCFC). They then used that company to buy out General Film Distributors who were the UK distributors for Universal Pictures).
[edit] Rank Organisation
In 1937 J. Arthur Rank began to consolidate his movie interests in both the Pinewood Film Studios and the Denham Film Studios and other interests within a new company called the Rank Organisation. In 1938 the Rank Organisation bought the ODEON cinema chain (named after its founder's own ambition: Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation). In 1938 the Rank Organisation bought Amalgamated Studios in Elstree and in 1941 it absorbed the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation who owned 251 cinemas and the Shepherd's Bush Studios (which the Rank Organisation later sold to BBC Television.) It also bought the Paramount cinema chain so that by 1942 the Rank Organisation owned 619 cinemas. He was succeeded as Chairman by Sir John Davis, upon his retirement. A more complete history is found under the Rank Organisation from 1937 to 1986 and The Rank Group Plc which absorbed the Rank Organisation in 1986.
[edit] Core interests
Although his critics claimed that many of the films that he had produced under the name of J. Arthur Rank were not exactly in keeping with his original intention of producing "family-friendly" movies to combat crass American commercial interests, he nevertheless kept to his core beliefs. To that end in 1953 he set up the J. Arthur Rank Group Charity to promote Christian belief. The charity later became known as The Rank Foundation. [1]
[edit] Baron Rank
In 1957 J. Arthur Rank was raised to the Peerage, being created Baron Rank, of Sutton Scotney in the County of Hampshire. (Sutton Scotney is a small village between Andover and Winchester in Hampshire.) [www.rankfoundation.com]
[edit] Cockney legacy
The name J. Arthur Rank became a common expression in Cockney rhyming slang meaning 'wank' (male masturbation). It is still used today, although because it is common practice when using rhyming slang to omit the actual rhyming word, it is typically referred to as simply a "J. Arthur".
Use of this can be observed during a scene in the movie Austin Powers in Goldmember in which Austin Powers and his father, Nigel Powers, speak in Cockney slang to confuse some Americans, Austin asks his father why he doesn't just have a "J. Arthur", with the subtitles translating this message as "Why not just rub one out?".
[edit] Popular Culture
Rank's infamous opening of his films, depicting a man in a toga hitting a gong, has been spoofed a few times over the years.
- A Muppet parody, J Arthur Link, showed Muppet pig Link Hogthrob in the toga. He swings at the gong, misses, spins around losing his balance, and hits the gong with his head.
- In the Gilligan's Island episode, "Castaway Pictures Presents", the opening of the film the castaways make to try to get rescued shows Gilligan in island garb hitting a gong that says "Castaway Pictures Presents", then while the gong noise goes off, He shakes and vibrates instead of the gong.
- In the Bonzo Dog Band recording of The Intro and the Outro, the band line up includes ‘J Arthur Rank on gong’.
- In the Red Hot Chili Peppers Song "Strip My Mind" the opening lyrics to the song say "Arthur J. did indicate, The boulevard would never be, So full of love and life again - yeah", a possible allusion to J Arthur.
- The live Smiths album's title, Rank, is, according to lead singer Morrissey, an allusion to the cockney slang.
- In the film Carry On Up the Khyber there is a scene where a servant sounds a gong. Kenneth Williams' character denounces this as "rank stupidity".
| Preceded by New Creation |
Baron Rank | Succeeded by Extinct |
