Terry Cotter

Terry Cotter was Jack Cotter’s [qv] nephew, who worked as a sound engineer for Movietone. Cotter worked on many assignments with the cameraman Leslie Murray [qv], and together they became famous for pirating stories. In April 1931 Cotter helped to pirate the Cup Final from Pathe, who held the rights, and also managed to get five cans of the Pathe film from the boy assigned to deliver it. Ken Gordon [qv] of Pathe lost his temper and had Cotter arrested, but the charges were dropped at the magistrate’s court next day. The Movietone film was released as ‘THE CUP FINAL 1931’ in British Movietone News No.99. In August 1934 Cotter was involved in the newsreel battle to film the Fifth Test, to which Movietone and Gaumont British owned joint rights, this time managing to trick one of the Gaumont British cameramen into giving him his film. Cotter left Movietone in 1936, and after the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Royal Navy, where he served as an Asdic officer and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1945 Cotter returned to Movietone, and in March 1946 he worked with Paul Wyand [qv] on various gag shots for ‘RAILWAYS GET STEAM UP’ in British Movietone News No.874A. Wyand remembered Terry Cotter as a childish practical joker, but ‘one of the most popular, and one of the most brilliant, sound men in the business.' In August 1946 Cotter appeared on camera conducting an interview for ‘STORY OF ‘PRIZE’ FOOD SHIP’ in British Movietone News No.897. He did further filmed interviews for ‘KENSINGTON SQUATTERS’ in No.901A of September 1946, ‘POOLS - FORTUNES IN SOCCER,' ‘TRANSPORT STRIKE SETTLED,' and ‘ONE-MAN COAL MINE’ in Nos.919, 920, and 920A of January 1947, and ‘COAL HOLDS UP MOTOR WORKS’ in No.923 of February 1947.

Sources

R. Noble ‘Shoot First!: Assignments of a newsreel cameraman’ (London, 1955), pp.114, 116-8: P. Wyand ‘Useless if Delayed’ (London, 1959), pp.43, 65-6, 180: P. Norman ‘The Newsreel Boys,' Sunday Times Magazine, 10/1/1971, pp.14-15: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels: Vol.II’ (1988), p.35.