Ivan Scott

Ivan Scott was a ‘former musical-comedy juvenile lead’ who started in newsreels as an occasional commentator and interviewer for British Movietone News. His first surviving credit is for ‘SPOTTING THE CARS IS LATEST EPIDEMIC’ in No.115 from August 1931. When the British Movietone News was redesigned in April 1935, Scott was one of the commentators brought in to give the reel what its producer, Gerald Sanger [qv], called ‘star value’ - his regular employment beginning with ‘U.S. AUTOGIRO - Observations by Ivan Scott’ in No.307A from April 1935. However, by September 1937 Scott had gained other responsibilities at Movietone, for he had become news editor of British Movietone News, assisting Gerald Sanger [qv] in editing the reel as well as commentating. As a commentator Scott covered general subjects but he specialised in aviation and technology, and in May 1938 was credited in No.468 as ‘Leslie Mitchell Reviews The News Pageant of Movietone With Contributions by Alan Howland (on Sport) & Ivan Scott (on Aviation).' Scott may eventually have moved to full-time editing, for his final credit as a Movietone commentator is for No.479 in August 1938.

Sources

World Film News, September 1937, Glen Norris ‘Newsreel Rushes: A Wide-Open Letter to Mr Gerald Sanger,' p.33; December 1937, ‘Newsreel rushes: newsreel notes by The Commentator,' p.39: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels’ (BUFVC, 1983), p.86.