Sir Ernest Gordon Craig ("Gordon")

Gordon Craig served as a Captain in the army during the First World War, apparently in the same unit where Robert Gibbon [qv] was a Major. Craig was knighted in 1929, and in the same year became general manager of the new sound newsreel, British Movietone News. Craig was the nominee of Fox, which had a 51% shareholding in the new company, whilst Associated Newspapers, which owned a 49% stake, nominated Gerald Sanger [qv] as editor. In May 1937 Craig was credited in British Movietone News No.415 for ‘CORONATION: Commentary delivery by Leslie Mitchell - Supervised by Sir Gordon Craig.' In September 1937 he was shown with Gerald Sanger [qv], editor of British Movietone News, in issue No.433A, at a banquet for Sir Malcolm Campbell. In October 1937 Craig was one of the founders of the Newsreel Association, which was designed to arbitrate and negotiate for the whole industry, and according to Sanger he ‘nursed the Newsreel Association along the way it should go.' Early in 1939, when war seemed imminent, Craig worked with Tommy Scales [qv] and Pat Sunderland [qv] to plan the evacuation of Movietone from Soho to its laboratories at Denham. When war was declared in September 1939 the plan was put into operation, although after eight weeks the editorial staff felt safe enough to move back into London.

During the war Craig was both managing director of Movietone and chairman of the Newsreel Association, playing a prominent part in negotiations with the government over censorship, access, and filmstock. According to Sanger, ‘the prestige of newsreels as a whole rose during the war to an unprecedented level, very largely thanks to the wise and forceful handling of our public relations by Sir Gordon Craig.' Like Sir Malcolm Campbell [qv], Craig was a useful figurehead for the company, and Terry Gallacher [qv], who joined Movietone in 1945, noted the general belief ‘that British Movietonews Ltd thought that it was important that their figurehead should be, at least, a knight of the realm.' In 1949 Craig defended the newsreels against charges of right-wing bias, claiming that ‘British newsreels are edited entirely without any regard for party policy’: ‘The newsreels have no "plans" for the forthcoming General Election and, the very fact that the Labour Party is in power has meant that in the news of the past few years they have received the major share of the footage.' Craig remained as managing director of Movietone until the late 1950s. Craig was president of the founding branch of the Old Contemptibles Association, a British organisation of ex-servicemen, and later Vice-President of the national body. Craig was a Freeman of the City of London, and a Liveryman of the Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers’ Company.

Sources

G. Sanger ‘The Story of British Movietone News in the War Years,' c.1946, copy in BUFVC: Cinema, 10/8/1949, pp.3, 10, ‘Craig Replies to Newsreel ‘Bias’ Charge’: BUFVC, T. M. Gallacher, ‘Additional Notes,' October 1998.