Paul Robello

In 1896 the Aberdeen bookseller and stationer William Walker began giving film shows, and soon afterwards began to produce his own films, taken for him by his ‘technical associate’ Paul Robello. In 1897 Robello may have been responsible for Walker’s film of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee procession, which he later showed to the Queen at Balmoral. Walker and Robello made advertising films for local shops, and ‘toured widely with shows that combined film, slides and music on such themes as Charles Dickens and Robert Burns.' Walker abandoned touring exhibition in 1910, and Robello began working at a cinema in Aberdeen and producing topical films. In July 1918 he had moved back to Glasgow, where he was employed by Green’s Film Service to run the production department for their Scottish Moving Picture News.

In 1922 Robello teamed up with fellow cameraman Bobbie Mann [qv] to form Topical Productions (often credited as Robello and Mann). This company supplied Scottish film to the newsreels, the first surviving credit being for ‘SCOTTISH WAR MEMORIAL’ in the Daily Sketch Topical Budget No.600-2 of February 1923. The company may indeed have had a contract with the Topical Film Company, for it supplied a series of other items that year, and when the Topical Budget launched a Glasgow edition it provided substitute stories. The last Topical Budget credit is for ‘DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK IN GLASGOW,' which Robello and Mann supplied for the Glasgow edition of No.839-1 in September 1927.

Robello may then have signed a contract with Pathe, for he is credited as cameraman for ‘THE ‘BLUEBIRD’,' an item from Dumfries which appeared in Pathe Gazette No.1573 of January 1929. This was the first of numerous Scottish items which Robello provided for Pathe from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, St. Andrews, and other cities. In March 1930 Robello was also credited in the camera team that filmed ‘THE GRAND NATIONAL, 1930’ for Pathe Super Gazette No.1698, and in June 1931 he went to Newcastle to film ‘THE PITMEN’S DERBY.' Robello also filmed ‘THE GRAND NATIONAL, 1933’ for Pathe Super Sound Gazette No.33/25 of March 1933, among the wide range of Scottish stories, and he returned to Aintree in most years to film this event. In May 1938 Robello was in the camera team that filmed the ‘EMPIRE EXHIBITION’ for Pathe Super Sound Gazette No.38/36, which is the first of a series of stories on which he seems to have worked with Nicholson [qv]. Robello’s last surviving credit is for ‘GENERAL CHURCH ASSEMBLY IN EDINBURGH’ in Pathe Super Sound Gazette No.38/42 of May 1938. However, in January 1941 the Paramount cameraman Ronald Jay [qv] noted that when he filmed Churchill’s visit to Glasgow, he noted several Pathe cameramen ‘besides Mr. Robello their Scottish representative.' Pathe’s coverage appeared as ‘MR CHURCHILL IN GLASGOW’ in Pathe Gazette No.41/7 of January 1941, and Robello again collaborated with Jay to film what became ‘THEIR MAJESTIES IN SCOTLAND’ in Pathe Gazette No.41/22 of March 1941. Topical Productions continued until 1944 when Robello retired. He died in Govan in 1961, aged 93.

Sources

BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issues Number 1033, Number 1048: L. McKernan ‘William Walker’ in S. Herbert and L. McKernan (eds) ‘Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema: A Worldwide Survey’ (London, 1996), pp.147-8; additional information from Eamonn Butler, student placement, Scottish Screen Archive (March 2002): E-Mail from Janet McBain 27/11/2003.