William George Barker (18 January 1868, in Cheshunt – 6 November 1951, in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

) was a British film producer, director, cinematographer, and entrepreneur who took film-making in Britain from a low budget form of novel entertainment to the heights of lavishly-produced epics that were matched only by Hollywood for quality and style .

Biography

Early career

His early career was that of a commercial traveller. He was evidently successful enough at this, that he was able to indulge his interest in photography. In 1901 he started a business at 50 Gray's Inn Road, Holborn for the purposes of making moving pictures on a hand cranked Lumiere camera, which had bought a few years before and then showing the resulting films to the public -for a fee. This was the Autoscope Company. Like the early Mitchell and Kenyon films, the genre was mainly 'topicals'; for they require the least amount of preparation and expense. On 1 January 1906 it merged with the Warwick Trading Company with Barker as the managing director. Having left Warwick he set up Barker Motion Photography Limited in December 1909 at Number 1 Soho Square, Westminster, London. Now he wanted to shoot film using set stages regardless of the weather. Having already purchased a house called "The Lodge", Ealing (now renamed the White Lodge, Ealing Studios) overlooking

Ealing Green Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histo ...

, he procured the adjacent property two years later in 1904. This second house was set back from Ealing Green behind a school on the west-side, and was therefore known as the West Lodge. Having of land there was plenty of room to build stages, which he did, three in number. Back then, early Edwardian Ealing had two striking similarities to modern day Ealing: it still looks majestic (hence its title 'Queen of the Suburbs') and in the words of one writer "it still ain't Hollywood". Therefore, the original stages were built with very tall glass walls and roofs to make the most of the available light whilst keeping out the British weather. By 1912 this had become the largest film studio in Britain and possibly Europe. Many productions were released under his trademark of Bulldog Films.

American market

At that time British cinema started facing two important problems. One was the restrictive practises of the new

Motion Picture Patents Company The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust), founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-bran ...

, which prevented English films from being shown to audiences in America. Hitherto, foreign films had prominence on American screens. This cartel effectively put a limit on the revenue that English film-makers could hope to receive for their investment. Secondly, film prints copies were purchased out right by the distributor. This meant a popular film would not earn the film maker any more than an unsuccessful one. However, it also meant that the audiences had no choice but to see ever degrading prints that had become evermore scratched through repeated use. As more and more frames were lost due to multiple re-splicing and general damage, so the action would unexpectedly jump forward whilst the film was being watched. The first problem he attempted to rectify by travelling to America to voice his support at the International Projecting and Producing Company (IPPC) meeting of February 1909. This organisation had been set up in the vain hope of challenging the cartel's dominance.

Advancing the British film industry

He then set about to improve the viewing experience of the public by popularising films which were released on a ''rental only'' basis. The very first of these ''for hire only'' films is now considered by film buffs to be the first important British film. This is despite no copies of this production surviving. Sixty Years a Queen 1913

This film was a lavish adaptation of ''Henry VIII''. Barker even used some of the original stage sets from Her Majesty's Theatre. He was reported to have paid Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (who was actor/manager of the before-said theatre), £1,000 for doing his interpretation of

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

for the film. After being shown to record audiences, the total film stock was ceremoniously burned before the press to promote hired films as a way of ensuring the public saw only good quality stock whilst at the same time maximise his own profits by maintaining control of the prints. Another entrepreneur and film distributor called

G.B. Samuelson George Berthold Samuelson (6 July 1889 – 17 April 1947) was a director and film producer. Born in Southport, Lancashire, Samuelson was the youngest son of Henschel and Bertha Samuelson, tobacconists originally from Prussia. By 1891, his mother ...

, persuaded Barker to make what became another very important British film: '' Sixty Years a Queen'' (1913) about the life of Victoria. Samuelson, also heavily financed the production of this film and so further increased his fortune through its success. After Barker made his last films in the 1920s, Samuelson went on in 1924 to found the Southall Film Studio, just west in a converted aircraft hangar which stood in Gladstone Road. Unfortunately both studios then suffered from the recession. He died on 6 November 1951 in Wimbledon, London. In 2001 and after many changes of ownership at Ealing Studios, Ealing Council approved planning permission to demolish the West Lodge as part of a major new studio development project; the original Lodge survives as studio offices.

List of films

Short Films: *'' The Child Stealers'' (1904) Topicals: *''

London Day by Day London Day by Day was the first newsreel produced by British filmmaker Will Barker in 1906. The newsreel was a short, Silent film documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document ...

'' (1906) Film Series: *''Cape to Cairo'' (1907). Feature films: * ''

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

'' (1911) screen composer: Edward German *''

East Lynne ''East Lynne'' is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have ...

'' ( 1913) *'' Sixty Years a Queen'' (1913) B&W : Eight reels / 7500 feet Format: standard 35 mm spherical 1.37:1 Director: Bert Haldane. Cast: Blanche Forsythe, Mrs. Lytton,

J. Hastings Batson Abraham John Hastings Batson (8 November 1841 – 18 April 1921), usually credited as J. Hastings Batson, was an English stage actor of the Victorian and Edwardian era who went on to become a character actor in silent movies. Biography Batso ...

, Jack Brunswick, Gilbert Esmond, Fred Paul, Roy Travers, E. Story Gofton, Rolf Leslie. Will Barker Film Company production. Produced by Will Barker, Jack Smith and Ernest Shirley in association with G.B. Samuelson. Scenario by

G. B. Samuelson George Berthold Samuelson (6 July 1889 – 17 April 1947) was a director and film producer. Born in Southport, Lancashire, Samuelson was the youngest son of Henschel and Bertha Samuelson, tobacconists originally from Prussia. By 1891, his mother ...

, Arthur Shirley and Harry Engholm, from a book by

Sir Herbert Maxwell Sir Herbert Eustace Maxwell, 7th Baronet, (8 January 1845 – 30 October 1937) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, artist, antiquarian, horticulturalist, prominent salmon angler and author of books on angling and Conservative politician who ...

. * ''She'' '' Jane Shore'' (1915) Director: F. Martin Thornton.

References

* Barker, Will
Film & TV Database
Accessed 2008-05-11. * Screen Online
Barker, Will (1867–1951)
Accessed 2008-05-11. * McFarlane, Brian (2006) Barker, William George (1868–1951), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. * The Macmillan International Film Encyclopaedia. Fourth Ed. Barker, Will. *'Ealing and Brentford: Economic history', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 131–144. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22579 Date accessed: 21 January 2011

External links

* *The National Library of Wales
leaflet advertising the film Sixty Years a Queen
Accessed 2008-05-12 * The London Project: The birth of the film business in London

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Will 1867 births 1951 deaths English film directors English film producers British film production company founders People from Warwick