PaPAS Members
John V. Watson
Remove the nospam. from the email address
John V. Watson
Honorary Research Fellow - Film Studies
University of Kent
Canterbury, England, UK
Some twenty-years' experience in the British film industry; including almost five years as Film Booking Executive for a very large national circuit of cinemas (which no longer exists), and as a Cinema Circuit Controller for a large circuit (again which no longer exists). I also spent some time in "Hollywood" in 1977 as a film promoter, during which time I had the great "fortune" to meet Kirk Douglas, William Castle, George Cukor, all amongst the many several personalities of not only that time (the late-70s) but equally from the "Golden Age of Hollywood".
Meeting Michael Powell
I had the privilege of meeting Michael Powell in the autumn of 1980. I was then working for a company called Poseidon Films in film sales, and Michael was involved with the Western version of the Russian film, Pavlova - A Woman for All Time, which was co-produced by Poseidon with Mosfilm.
Over the next few months, I had several opportunities to talk with Michael (when time permitted, as I had my own job to do for Poseidon, and Michael had his own production supervision responsibilities). On one occasion, we spoke at length about Peeping Tom, during which Michael expressed his surprise when I could recall the name of his production company for that film: Michael Powell (Theatre) Ltd.
Most fortunately, we had other conversations .. in particular, about his early career in .Quota Quickie. production in the 1930s. Michael was most gracious regarding my knowledge about many of these pictures, and he exclaimed how most were either so-long forgotten or even many lost (more titles then 30 years ago than now with some titles since found). He also said that it was better that some of these were forgotten!
I could have spent days talking to him about his career, his films and his views about film-making, but, alas, time did not permit this . but, I can say most certainly, a few hours of conversation with Michael Powell was better than none at all!
Regards, John
Other PaPAS members
