A reel life tale

TO the world at large he was J. Arthur Rank, millionaire miller and movie mogul - the man behind the gong that heralded the golden age of British cinema.

But to the residents of one Hampshire village he will always be remembered as a typical country squire.

While the film industry giant may have rubbed shoulders with the likes of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, he chose to make his home in the sleepy village of Sutton Scotney, near Winchester.

Despite his glitzy career, Rank kept his feet on the ground and his hands in the soil running his 1,400-acre farm at Sutton Manor.

There - a world away from the post-war glamour of Britain's booming movie industry - he made his name as a true gentleman.

Born in Hull in 1888, Joseph Arthur Rank came with his wife, Laura, to Sutton Manor in 1952.

The philanthropic couple took immediately to the country way of life and became deeply involved with the local community.

They provided their workers with high quality housing and locals with amenities such as a sports pavilion.

Rank - whose good deeds saw him awarded with a barony for public services in 1957 - preached regularly at the small chapel on their estate and once a month held services in the village hall.

One of the couple's most memorable contributions to community spirit was the week of celebrations they threw to mark their golden wedding anniversary in October 1967.

A number of parties and receptions were held at their estate, to which employees, pensioners, tenant farmers and local dignitaries, such as doctors and clergy, were invited.

The festivities culminated in a breath-taking firework display put on for the entire village.

Such spectacle had by then become Rank's stock-in-trade.

Despite coming from a milling family, whose business - Rank Hovis McDougall Ltd - he ran as chairman after the death of his brother, Rank will always be remembered for the mark he left on the cinema industry.

A devout Methodist, he became interested in cinema in the 1930s as a way of spreading religious messages.

He gave financial backing to the Religious Film Society and in 1935 made his first feature film, a story about a Yorkshire fishing village entitled Turn of the Tide.

Although the film received a Venice Festival award, it was given the cold shoulder by British film distributors.

But Rank was never one to let such difficulties get in his way.

He responded by buying a London cinema of his own to show the film - the first of some 600 he was to acquire throughout the country.

He later went on to join the board of one of Britain's most profitable chains of cinemas - ODEON - and become one of the most powerful people in the country's film industry.

A firm believer in the instructional value of cinema, Rank used his position to pioneer children's film matinees, turning the Children's Cinema Club into a national institution.

Over 150 cinemas across the country, holding more than 150,000 children, took part in the opening ceremony of Rank's Odeon Children's Cinema Clubs in April 1943.

Children attending the clubs not only watched films, but also sang and took lessons in subjects as diverse as model-making, first aid and road safety.

They also took an oath every week, with hundreds of small voices chiming in unison: "I promise to tell the truth, to help others and to obey my parents."

Although children were charged a small admission price, club membership was free and Rank deliberately budgeted the clubs at a loss to keep prices down and encourage more children to take part.

At first, films were imported from America to be shown at the clubs but Rank was worried about their content and decided to produce his own children's films.

His first, Tom's Ride, made in 1944, was a huge success and gave him the confidence to set up a unique division of his company which made films specifically for children.

But, of course, Rank did not limit his interest in the silver screen to children's films.

His company acquired Denham Studios and the famous Pinewood Studios and was responsible for making the renowned screen versions of Shakespeare's plays starring Laurence Olivier.

Rank produced a number of films himself, including London Belongs to Me, starring Richard Attenborough, and Caesar and Cleopatra starring Vivien Leigh.

It was Rank's intention to revolutionise the British movie industry and turn it into an effective modern business.

Although many of his innovations have since fallen by the wayside, the Rank name is still well known internationally for the Rank Cintel, a device which is used to transfer film images to videotape.

Thus, Rank had succeeded in the aim he had when running the Children's Cinema Clubs - to make films cheap and accessible to watch, although whether he would approve of many of the films being shown on video today thanks to his method is another question!

As well as the movie industry, Rank branched out into other areas of the entertainment industry, including bingo, dance halls and ten-pin bowling.

But despite his success in the world of entertainment, he was always proud to be a Hampshire farmer, saying of his profession: "Agriculture is the greatest industry of this country."

As with all things he did, Rank's farming methods were a cut above the average - so much so that hundreds of farmers visited Sutton Manor to get tips on how to best manage their own land.

While Rank produced both crops and animals for slaughter on his farm, he also nurtured a passion for dog trials and breeding retrievers.

Numerous trials were held at his estate and he established one of the best-known shoots in the country at his manor.

With such an all-encompassing love of Hampshire life, it was perhaps fitting that the Yorkshireman died here.

Lord Rank passed away on March 29, 1972, aged 83, in Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

However, he made sure that although he was gone, he was not forgotten.

Not only has he left the legacy of his work within the movie industry but also he left £1m for scientific research, to be awarded along the lines of Nobel prizes.

The Rank Prizes for nutrition and optoelectronics are considered the most prestigious in their fields and continue Rank's philanthropic work, being awarded for achievements which are of "significant benefit to humankind".

J. Arthur Rank will be remembered both here in Hampshire and across the world as a man of many trades - and master of all.