Terence Michael Gallacher ("Terry")

Terry Gallacher joined Movietone’s general office from school in October 1945, recalling that ‘one of my first jobs was to type the tentative make-up, all the commentaries, the final make-up and later the comparative statement.' Gallacher left Movietone for military service in November 1946, but returned in October 1948 to work one month’s work-familiarisation prior to release, in place of the Movietone cutter Alan Haythorne [qv]. In April 1949 Gallacher returned to Movietone full time as general office manager. When Greville Kent [qv] left Movietone in 1955, Gallacher succeeded him as foreign editor ‘and worked as liaison between Movietonews and United Press.' In May 1956 Gallacher left Movietone to work for the General Television Corporation in Australia as senior film editor, and in 1958 he became supervising film editor with the Australian Broadcasting Commission. He also directed films whilst in Australia.

In March 1961 Gallacher returned to Movietone in London as assignments manager for British Movietone News, working under the production manager Paul Wyand [qv]. Gallacher later noted that he used his experience as a film director ‘to give more specific instruction to crews and to develop improved methods for shooting traditional events,' and that in particular he ‘introduced new techniques for filming football matches which broke away from the hit and miss (mostly miss) methods that went before.' In October 1964 Gallacher became head of production for UPIN [United Press International Newsfilm], but he remained with Movietone, which had strong links with the company. In June 1967, when UPIN split with Movietone to join ITN, Gallacher left to become head of commercial production with the UPITN Corporation [later WTN], where he remained for more than twenty years.

Sources

Information from Terry Gallacher, October 1998.