MANCUNIAN FILMS | | DEDICATED | John Blakeley invested in studio equipment |
Mancunian Film Studios, based in Rusholme, was
known as Manchester鈥檚 piece of Hollywood. A new project is aiming to bring those films
back to the North West. The Mancunian Film Studio was created by John E. Blakeley
in 1947. He was a director and film distributor who wanted to bring films
to the North West and capture the popular music hall performers from the
region on celluloid. John invested around 拢70,000 into creating the best state
of the art film studio outside of London. It really
put Manchester on the movie map. From 1948 to 1953 John created some of the best Lancashire
comedy films on record. Unfortunately, the studio鈥檚 entire archive was lost when
a fire swept through Kay Laboratories in 1980. RestorationJohn鈥檚 grandson, Mike Blakeley, is now working on a valuable
project in his grandfather鈥檚 memory. As an award winning cameraman himself, Mike has plenty
of experience in film making. Mike is working to gather together all the old films
created by the Mancunian Film Studios, and those by his grandfather before
he set up the studios. Mike hopes to repatriate them back to the North West
with the help of the Northwest Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan
University. So far, Mike has retrieved films from such varied sources
as private collectors, the British Film Institute, and even Paramount
Studios in the USA. The collection is not yet complete but Mike is hoping
it will grow over time. To find out more about Mancunian studios, see
the weblinks below. If you have information on any of the films, click
here to contact the project. | 
听听Inside Out - North West: Monday 17th February 2003