Peter Yorke - William Haggar: Fairground Film Maker

In loving memory of my Granny, Violet Haggar Yorke, And to my beloved wife, Betsy

Published by Accent Press 2011

Copyright 2007 Peter Yorke

ISBN 9781908262646

The right of Peter Yorke to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher: Accent Press, The Old School, Upper High Street, Bedlinog, Mid Glamorgan, CF46 6SA

Printed and bound in the UK

Cover design by Red Dot Designs

The publisher acknowledges the financial Support of the Welsh Books Council

Stop Press

Since my book was published, I have made three significant discoveries:

The Sign of the Cross (p. 80)
The Gaumont Sales catalogue had been preserved at the Cinmatheque Franaise. A 16-page Special Supplement (the front is shown overleaf) describes the film in great detail. Of the films seven scenes, four were illustrated, and Gaumont comment, The Sign of the Cross is a film the beauty of which has never been surpassed.

The Copyright Photographs (pp. 72fff)
In the 1900s the position of copyright of film was not clear, and for some years film sellers sent images of films to the Stationers Hall to copyright them. These were rediscovered in the National Archives in Kew in the 1990s. Among them are 13 images of Haggar films sent in by Gaumont during 1904/5. Oddly, Gaumont did not name the films, but using surviving catalogues, I have identified the films as follows:
Already known films:
A Message from the Sea (raft scene), Mirthful Mary in the Dock, The Sign of the Cross (two scenes, additional to those in the catalogue), Snowballing, Spaghetti Eating, and possibly a (fake) newsreel of the Russo-Japanese War.
Films not previously known to be by William Haggar:
Four short comedies: Aunties Cycling Leson, Cooks Lovers, Jacks Rival, and Married Bliss; and the chase-thriller Revenge! (two scenes).

Revenge! (p. xii)
Revenge! was imported into the USA by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., which sent a paper print of the film, to copyright it, to the US Library of Congress, where it has been preserved. I have a copy on DVD. The film lasts seven minutes. In it, the hero (Will Haggar Junior) ends the film by strangling the villain with his bare hands!

Peter Yorke, October 2010

Overleaf
The front of the catalogue for The Sign of the Cross: Marcus (Will Haggar Junior) kneels before Mercia (Jenny Lindon) in the tableau at the end of scene 4.

"WHEREVER POSSIBLE.....I haveused the protagonists own words, or those of others closely associated with them. This to my mind gives the authentic atmosphere and feeling of the period.....in a way no modern re-rendering can do."

I am indebted for this maxim to the late Professor Roger Manvell, who stated it in his own acknowledgements prefacing his book, "The Trial of Annie Besant". I had instinctively adopted this approach for its vividness, and was delighted, therefore, to find it thus commended by so eminent a predecessor.

Thus my greatest indebtedness is to those who first brought to my notice the memoirs compiled by the Haggar children of my grandmother's generation: to David Berry, film critic and chronicler of the film in Wales, who sent me a copy of my great-aunt Lily's biography of her father; to my cousin Caroline Hill for giving me a report of great-uncle Henry's speech; and especially to my cousin Roy Haggar, for giving me copies of great-uncle Walter's two reminiscences, of the Haggars' theatre and bioscope days. Roy has given me so much more, including videos of the surviving films, photographs, and memories passed on from his grandma, that without his kindness and his and Maggie's hospitality, this book could not have been written.

David Berry also gave me copies of Geoffrey Hill's article on William Haggar for the Cynon Valley History Society, and of chapter three of his book, "Wales and the Cinema the first hundred years", and was the first to fire me by his own enthusiasm. It was David Cleveland, of the East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia, Norwich (UEA), who alerted me to the existence of the Welsh Film Archive (where I contacted David Berry), and for that I am very grateful.

During my subsequent researches, I have been delighted to meet many relatives of whose existence I was previously unaware, including Moya England, Gloria Haddock, Dai Thomas, and Barbara and Frank Perkins in Australia, Siddie and Doreen Roberts in Norfolk, and Tom and May Booth in the Isle of Wight: all have given me kindness, hospitality and reminiscences. I have also spoken on the telephone with, but have not met Grace Greenland, Roy Haggar Senior, (sadly both died before my researches were complete), and Edward Roberts. I have met Guy Rastall at Roy's home in Tenby, and corresponded with David Greenland in North Carolina, and with other members of the Perkins family in Queensland. June Bilous and her late husband Rudy, it was a particular joy to meet, as June, aged 10, had been a bridesmaid at my parents' wedding in 1937. June provided me with memories of my grandmother and my father, and introduced me to her niece Caroline Hill, who gave me, as well as the report of Henry Haggar's speech, wonderful hundred-year-old photographs of my grandmother and her brothers and sisters.

I have also received great help from Margaret Wilby, Maggie Shufflebottom's daughter; from Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive; from the late Paul Lawrence Newman, the great-grandson of Tom Lawrence, and, like me, researching his great-grandfather's travelling theatre days; and from Michael Sanderson at UEA on possible sources of information about the Victorian theatre in the Provinces.

Staff at the Aberdare, Dorchester, Neath and Norwich Public Libraries have pointed me in the right direction from time to time; as have those of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex County Record Offices, the Westminster Reference Library, the Family Records Centre in Islington, the British Library at Colindale, the British Film Institute and the Cinema Museum in Kennington. To all of them, and to Stephen Herbert at Projection Box, to Jessica Gardner and Michelle Allen at the Bill Douglas Centre, University of Exeter, and to Gwenno Ffrancon at the University of Wales, Bangor, my thanks are due. Appendix 8 contains a list of all of the sources for this book, published or unpublished, which I must acknowledge.

Then of course I owe many thanks to Hazel and Bob Cushion of Accent Press for believing in my manuscript sufficiently to take the risk of publishing a not obviously commercial prospect, and for guiding me gently through the, to me, unfamiliar process of getting it into print; and to Karen Smart for making many last-minute corrections. I am glad to record my gratitude, too, to Undeg Griffiths, Catrin Jenkins and John Reed of The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales for their encouragement and help with the stills, to Stephen Smith and Neil Watson for allowing me to use other photographs, and to my son-in-law Alex Everard for devising the website.

Last but not least, my wife, Betsy has cheered me on with advice from her own writing experiences, has read my drafts and corrected my frequent mistakes, and has encouraged me whenever I have felt like flagging. She has my enormous gratitude and love.