Issue 3: December 1954 |
I caught up with “Films and Filming” (after growing out of
“Picture Show”, “Fans Star Library” and “Photoplay” and Hollywood magazines
like “Screen Album” or “Movieland and TV Time”) about 1962, when I was 16
and eagerly devoured each issue - it was a new way of looking at movies and their makers and that expanding European cinema. The look of the magazine had a makeover then –
for the new happening decade. It also had a lot of contact advertisements and a
certain gay vibe, as per those ads for Vince’s Man Shop (see Fashon label). I put an ad in myself when I was 17 ("Boy 17 seeks penfriends,
male/female, under 21" – what is amusing now is that a 17 year old would find
over 21’s too old …) and got replies from all over the world: England, Malta,
USA and Australia, and am still in touch with one of them, Mike now in San
Francisco, a Worthing boy, who became a good friend. I moved to London
in 1964 when 18 so "F&F" became my monthly bible for movies. (Penfriends - writing each other letters - was what people did then, before Facebook, cellphones and the internet).
200th issue, May 1971 |
100th issue, Jan 1963 |
The magazines were published on a shoe-string, from a basement flat in Artillery Mansions in
The subscriptions were all done by hand, in that
pre-computer era, written on cards, and subscriber’ names and addresses were
stamped on tin plates for the machine to print them out on envelopes. Of course
it would all be computerised now.
Instead of being out on theLondon
arts scene as a major arts magazines publisher, Dosse - a genuine eccentric - would sit and stuff magazines
into envelopes and answer the switchboard, we had several interesting conversations about the history
of the magazine. Unfortunately it did not pay very well, so after a year I left
for “pastures new”. There were some binders and back issues available too.
Instead of being out on the
I later got to know the F&F editor Robin Bean when the magazine was in decline by the late Seventies – but it had a good run
since 1954, for a private publisher. “Sight and Sound” by contrast was funded
by the BFI, practically their house magazine. “Films and Filming” was the only
quality British film monthly then, as “S & S" was a quarterly, published
four times a year, until it went monthly in the '90s. (I liked the ‘60s and ‘70s
“Sight and Sound” – it had a nice style and was a contrast to “F&F”, but I
did not care for its monthly rebirth). “Films and Filming” by then had departed
the scene. Philip Dosse could not keep it going and in 1980 the magazine folded
after his suicide.
I exchanged lots of ideas with Robin Bean, its editor, and
still have his letters. He was very bitter about the way the magazine folded
leaving them all unpaid. I did some reviews for him, and started a video column
for that new sensation: the emergence of VHS and how it revolutionised our film-viewing.
Now one could own and collect films, as we spent the ‘80s scouring “Radio
Times” for movies to record, as one’s collection of video-cassettes grew, and
then pre-recorded movies to buy!
1965 pop movies issue |
Nice to see the old “Films & Filming” issues command a
market on eBay, where I have now purchased all those 1950s issues from before
my time, so I have the complete run from Oct 54 to Dec 1959 and into the '60s and '70s.
All magazines have their great era and "F&F" was great in the '50s and '60s, and up to about the mid-'70s (1974 being particularly good). But looking at a 1960 issue and a 1980 one the decline is sadly evident. It was certainly an achievement to have kept the magazine going during those great decades for movies charting the changing movie scene. They are still very readable and collectable. I trust my posts on it help keep the memory of the magazine alive.
As I said here back in 2010: it introduced so many of us to the potential of cinema as just more than mere entertainment - it covered the best of world cinema with interviews and features on and by all the leading players and directors. That 1961 Italian cinema issue is priceless now with its features by Antonioni, Visconti, Fellini, Pasolini etc. Interesting too seeing how the magazine changed from the staid '50s through the liberated '60s (when being the zeitgeist that it was, it became THE magazine for gay cineastes) to the mature '70s. I could spend hours going through those bound copies...
There are several histories of "Films and Filming" including at this link:
All magazines have their great era and "F&F" was great in the '50s and '60s, and up to about the mid-'70s (1974 being particularly good). But looking at a 1960 issue and a 1980 one the decline is sadly evident. It was certainly an achievement to have kept the magazine going during those great decades for movies charting the changing movie scene. They are still very readable and collectable. I trust my posts on it help keep the memory of the magazine alive.
As I said here back in 2010: it introduced so many of us to the potential of cinema as just more than mere entertainment - it covered the best of world cinema with interviews and features on and by all the leading players and directors. That 1961 Italian cinema issue is priceless now with its features by Antonioni, Visconti, Fellini, Pasolini etc. Interesting too seeing how the magazine changed from the staid '50s through the liberated '60s (when being the zeitgeist that it was, it became THE magazine for gay cineastes) to the mature '70s. I could spend hours going through those bound copies...
There are several histories of "Films and Filming" including at this link:
www.academia.edu/2023952/_A_sensible_magazine_for_intelligent_film-goers._Notes_for_a_History_of_Films_and_Filming_1954-1990
and a shorter,witty feature in Number Two of the gay (or queer as they call it) magazine LITTLE JOE in 2011 by Justin Bengry, whom I corresponded with about the magazine and my memories of it, which he incorporated in his feature.
Below: the magazine's 30th anniversary tribute, an issue from each year from October 1954 to October 1984. (click images to enlarge...)
Below: the magazine's 30th anniversary tribute, an issue from each year from October 1954 to October 1984. (click images to enlarge...)
I also worked in the subscriptions dept at Artillery Mansions on two or three occasions in the mid-70s, during drama school holidays. My friend Edna was editing Records & Recording. I remember Brian (the same one ?) and well recall Philip Dosse stuffing envelopes ! A great shame those magazines closed.
ReplyDeleteI was working at Columbia and later Miracle in the 60's and Robin Bean often came into the publicity office there. Interesting that you should mention the "sexually explicit" photos as one of the press officers would always refer to F&F as Fellas in Frocks! For myself I loved the magazine and wish I had been wise enough and had the foresight to keep all my copies. I miss it.
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