Albert Hopkins

(1905-1981)

The son of a solicitor's clerk, Albert Ernest Collingwood Hopkins was born in Camberwell, London, in December 1905, and leaving school at 14 he started work in the photographic department of the Daily Express. In 1922 he joined the Topical Budget newsreel company, where I presume he was teamed up with cameraman Reginald Wyer.

The newsreel business was an agressively competitive one in the 1920s, and Hopkins and Wyer both wanted to pursue more creative film making. In 1926 they formed their own company, Publicity Pictures, to service the growing market for advertising films. The slide-maker Henry Luscombe Toms, who had expanded into advertising film production four years earlier but was now looking to size down, suggested they should employ his animator, Laurie Price, on the understanding that H Luscombe Toms Ltd would then subcontract their animation work to Publicity Pictures.

Although he was at pains to stress that he and Wyer were Joint Managing Directors, it is clear that it was Albert (A. E. C. Hopkins in print, "Hoppy" to his friends) who was the entrepreneur.

In 1928 he married Marjorie Cooper. The electoral rolls show they started out their married life living with his parents in the family home in Streatham, London SW2, but by 1931 they were renting their own flat on the newly-opened Larkhall Estate, Clapham, SW8.

The 1927 Cinematograph Films Act enabled British studios to raise the capital to finance the introduction of sound, and the early 1930s saw the promotors of colour processes hoping to cash in on a similar bonanza. Publicity Pictures adopted Spectracolor, an economical 2-colour process based on the German Ufacolor system. It is unclear whether this was by arrangement with UFA or just a version of the process brought over from Germany by emigrés fleeing the Nazis. Either way this required a big investment. In 1933 Publicity Pictures Ltd was relaunched as Publicity Picture Productions Ltd, with more capital and a production office in Wardour Street. They acquired an old silent film studio at Bushey and equiped it for sound and colour.

To promote Spectracolor Hopkins directed a 43 minute version of the Gounod opera Faust, featuring soprano Ann Ziegler and tenor Webster Booth as Marguerite and Faust, with the actor Dennis Hoey (who would later move to Hollywood and play Inspector Lestrade in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films) as Mephistopheles. Musical direction was by Leo T Croke, a composer and arranger who had started in the Edwardian music halls. Shooting began in December 1934. Hoey and Croke (under his alias, Lionel Claff) had just completed working on Tod Slaughter's melodrama Murder in the Red Barn. Faust was the first time that Ziegler and Booth worked together: they later married and gained popularity as a classical singing duo. A subsidiary production company, National Interest Pictures, was set up to co-produce the feature, presumably to spread the risk.

Faust was shown at the Curzon cinema, Mayfair, alomg with the first of the Cheery Chune advertising cartoons, Morris May Day, in April 1935 to introduce and promote the Spectracolor process. The first issue of The Cine-Technician (the magazine produced by the newly-formed ACT union) in May included an item on Spectracolor which, judging by the positive tone and promotion of Publicity Pictures, seems to have originated from Hopkins himself in which Faust is described as having been "very well received". (Along with the following three issues, August, November 1935 and February 1936, the magazine also carried a full-page advertisement commending Spectracolor to producers.) However, in his book Opera on Film (2000) Richard Fawkes wrote that its distinction of being one of the earliest British colour features could not save it "from being dire. Faust has gone down as being the worst operatic film ever made."

Publicity Picture Productions made several more Spectracolor films during 1935-6, but the process was not widely adopted. The three-colour systems such as Gasparcolor and Dufaycolor were more successful, but when Technicolor opened a laboratory in the UK, in January 1937, it became clear that its superior quality would eventually win out. Publicity Pictures stopped promoting Spectracolor, and sold the Bushey studio in late 1936.

In the December 1936 issue of The Cine-Technician Hopkins contributed an article on "Cartoon Technique", underlining the company's experience in this field. Although primarily concerned with directing live-action advertising films, he seems to have taken a particular interest in the animation side. Laurie Price, the lead animator, was 'loaned out' to other companies several times: was this an economy measure, to save on wages when work was short, or was it an opportunity for Price to increase his expertise by working with other experienced animators?

Reg Wyer resigned his directorship to concentrate on a career as a freelance cinematographer, but continued to work for Publicity Pictures when needed.

During the Second World War Publicity Pictures produced many training films for the Armed Forces. These were primarily live-action, directed by Hopkins, but technical details could be clearly demonstrated with diagrams created by the animation department. Drawing on their experience in advertising films Hopkins and his scriptwriter Chris Millett were keen to use humour to draw in their audience, but the animation was usually reserved for serious exposition.

the Animation historian Ken Clark relates the story, presumably told to him by Laurie Price, of how during the Blitz Albert and Marjorie would sit up nights painting cels, often with the help of their good friend Police Superintendent Moore. When Moore's son left school Hopkins took him on as an animation trainee, but later sacked him for forgetting to deliver the day's ‘rushes’ to the processing laboratories. Clark concludes: "It is interesting to speculate whether or not the sacking was an act of fate, for Superintendent Moore’s little boy ROGER went on to achieve fame on television as the Saint, and on the cinema screen as 007."

Some of the details in this reminiscence have got blurred by the passage of time: from Roger Moore's own autobiography My Word is my Bond we learn that although a policeman, his father was a Plan Drawer (a draughtsman who sketches plans and details of crime or accident scenes) and not a Superintendent, and it was not he but George Church, his colleague in the Plan Drawing Office at Bow Street, who was the close friend of Albert Hopkins. (It is quite possible, of course, that PC Moore, at a loose end with his wife and son safely billeted outside London, had accompanied George on some of these evening cel-painting sessions - an extra pair of hand would probably have been welcome.)

Also, to be pedantic, it was actually the early morning collection of the rushes from the laboratories, rather than the evening delivery of exposed stock, that Roger so blissfully forgot. But it is a good story, and paints a picture of the Hopkins' hands-on involvement with the animation department. It was not uncommon in cel animation for there to be a backlog of cels for painting the day before the sequence was due to go to camera, and often people were expected to pitch in and help. Albert and Marjorie were living at that time in a mansion flat in Charing Cross Road, a fifteen-minute walk from the studio.

After the war ended Hopkins continued to make training and information films, switching the business from Publicity Pictures to the subsidiary company National Interest Pictures - now renamed National Interest Picture Productions. There was probably an accounting advantage in the move, but it also reflects the change in focus away from advertising films.

Albert's marriage to Marjorie did not last, and they divorced. He had formed a relationship with a widow, Lydia Bramwell, and in late 1955 they moved into 'Little Trees', a house in the Surrey village of Capel, close to the home of his employee and friend scriptwriter Chris Millett. For the sake of propriety Lydia changed her name to Hopkins by Deed Poll. With the divorce finalised, Albert and Lydia married in July 1956.

In 1962 Hopkins was approached by Roberta Leigh and former Publicity Pictures employee Arthur Provis for help in producing their latest TV puppet series, Space Patrol. Leigh bought shares in National Interest Picture Productions, which leased a disused church in Harlesden as a studio for the production. Hopkins and his team continued making training films, but in 1964 Hopkins resigned from National Interest Picture Productions, leaving Leigh and Provis in charge. Hopkins and his team carried on making the 'instrucionals' on a freelance basis for Helen Wiggins Films Ltd, the company owned by Chris Millet's wife.

At the end of 1972 Chris and Ellen retired, and Helen Wiggins Films ceased trading. Hopkins made himself a limited company, A E C Hopkins Direction Ltd, and continued directing 'Instructionals' for Anthony Barrier Productions until 1979.

Albert Hopkins died in Capel on 19 May 1981, aged 75. Lydia died 12 Jan 1990.


Filmography (Animation or animated inserts)

The Language of Cricket(Publicity Pictures for H Luscombe Toms & Co, 1926) Producer
Community Song series(Publicity Pictures for H Luscombe Toms & Co, 1927) Producer
Morris May Day(Publicity Picture Productions, 1935) Producer
The Midshipman(Publicity Picture Productions, 1935) Producer
The Baronial Beanfeast(Publicity Picture Productions, 1935) Producer
Carnival Capers(Publicity Picture Productions, 1935) Producer
The Gay Cavalier(Publicity Picture Productions, 1935) Producer
Getting into Hot Water
(animated sequences)
(Publicity Picture Prods for Publicity Films, 1936) Producer
Observation and Reporting(Publicity Picture Productions, 1941) Producer, Director
The Private Life of a Fuze(Publicity Picture Productions, 1941) Producer, Director
Post Early(Publicity Picture Productions, 1941) Producer, Director
6-Pounder Twin Gun(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
Range Finding: Barr and Stroud(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
6 Inch CP II: Preparation for Action(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
'X' Marks the Spot: Map Symbols Explained(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
Fire Direction - Close Defence(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
6 Inch CP II Gun: Laying(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
River Crossing(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
River Crossing(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
Handling & Laying British Anti-tank Mines(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
Infantry Role in Clearing Minefields by Hand(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
U-Boat Attacks on Convoys No. 1(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
U-Boat Attacks on Convoys No. 2(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
U-Boat Attacks on Convoys No. 3(Publicity Picture Productions, 1942) Producer, Director
Where's That Milk?(Publicity Picture Productions, 1943) Producer, Director
Attack on U-Boat No. 1(Publicity Picture Productions, 1943) Producer, Director
17 PDR Anti-tank Gun:
Sights, Sight Testing and Zeroing
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1943) Producer, Director
Handling & Maintenance of the LL Cable(Publicity Picture Productions, 1943) Producer, Director
Radio Location Part VIII(Publicity Picture Productions, 1944) Producer, Director
Mechanics of Recovery(Publicity Picture Productions, 1944) Producer, Director
Air Photo Reading in the Field III:
How to Use Air Photographs
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1944) Producer, Director
Bren 303 LMG Mechanism(Publicity Picture Productions, 1945) Producer, Director
Pistol Revolver No. 2 Mechanism(Publicity Picture Productions, 1945) Producer, Director
The Military Map and Conventional Signs
(Map Reading I)
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1945) Producer, Director
Contours, Hills and Slopes (Map Reading II)(Publicity Picture Productions, 1945) Producer, Director
Contours, Spurs, Re-entrants and Valleys
(Map Reading III)
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1945) Producer, Director
Visibility (Map Reading IV)(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Map Setting and Position Finding
(Map Reading V)
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Comparison of Map and Ground
(Map Reading VI)
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1945) Producer, Director
Aids to Direction (Map Reading VII)(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Measurement of Distance and Choosin Route
(Map Reading VIII)
(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Direction on the Map (Map Reading IX)(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Direction on the Ground (Map Reading X)(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Use of Prismatic Compass (Map Reading XI)(Publicity Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Town and Country Planning (No. 5)(National Interest Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
The BESA MG 7.92mm Mechanism(National Interest Picture Productions, 1946) Producer, Director
Medical Application of Sulphonamides(National Interest Picture Productions, 1948) Producer, Director
Shadow on Happiness(National Interest Picture Productions, 1949) Producer, Director
Cross-country and Obstacle Driving(National Interest Picture Productions, 1949) Producer, Director
Introduction to AA(National Interest Picture Productions, 1950) Producer, Director
Troop Tactics Part 2:
Tank and Infantry Co-operation
(National Interest Picture Productions, 1951) Producer, Director
Troop Tactics Part 3:
Contact with the Enemy
(National Interest Picture Productions, 1951) Producer, Director
The Effects of Atomic Weapons on Troops in the Field(National Interest Picture Productions, 1954) Producer, Director
March Discipline(National Interest Picture Productions, 1955) Producer, Director
Field Cable Laying(National Interest Picture Productions, 1957) Producer, Director
Principles of Supersonic Missile Flight(National Interest Picture Productions, 1958) Producer, Director
Air Photos in War(National Interest Picture Productions, 1958) Producer, Director
Doppler Principle in Airborne Navigation Aids(National Interest Picture Productions, 1958) Producer, Director
Doppler Navigation Aids - Green Satin/GPI Mk 4 and Blue Silk/GPI Mk 4a(National Interest Picture Productions, 1958) Producer, Director
Charicteristics and Effects of Nuclear Weapons(National Interest Picture Productions, 1959) Producer, Director
Radiological Defence Protection
Residual Effects
(National Interest Picture Productions, 1960) Producer, Director
Radiological Defence - Decontamination Part 1 - Personal Cleansing(National Interest Picture Productions, 1961) Producer, Director
Sea Slug(National Interest Picture Productions, 1961) Producer, Director
AFV HE Shooting(National Interest Picture Productions, 1961) Producer, Director
Aerials Part 1(National Interest Picture Productions, 1963) Producer, Director
Aerials Part 2(National Interest Picture Productions, 1964) Producer, Director
This Farming Business(National Interest Picture Productions, 1964) Producer, Director
Controlled Environment in Poultry Houses(National Interest Picture Productions, 1964) Producer, Director
Mooring Work Part 1:
Laying an Admiralty Standard Mooring
(Helen Wiggins Films, 1965) Director
Mooring Work Part 2:
Maintenance of Admiralty Standard Moorings
(Helen Wiggins Films, 1965) Director
Boom Defence Part 1:
The AST Defence
(Helen Wiggins Films, 1966) Director
Uses of Blood(Helen Wiggins Films, 1967) Director
Modulation(Helen Wiggins Films, 1967) Director
The Muck Problem(Helen Wiggins Films, 1967) Director
Helicopters - Theory of Flight(Helen Wiggins Films, 1968) Director
This Growing Business(Helen Wiggins Films, 1968) Director
Egg Quality Control on the Farm(Helen Wiggins Films, 1969) Director
Fire chemistry: What is a Fire?(Helen Wiggins Films, date unknown [1965-70]) Director
Hydraulics(Helen Wiggins Films, 1970) Director
Dental First Aid Part 1:
Palliative Treatment
(Helen Wiggins Films, 1970) Director
Dental First Aid Part 2:
Surgical Procedures
(Helen Wiggins Films, 1970) Director
Here's Ernie(Helen Wiggins Films, 1971) Director
Keys to Metrication:
Dimensional Co-ordination
(Helen Wiggins Films, 1971) Director
Organising(Helen Wiggins Films, 1972) Director
Preventive Dentistry Part 1: Who Needs a Dentist?(Anthony Barrier Productions, 1975) Director
Salvage - The Reward(Anthony Barrier Productions, 1977) Director
You Have Gingivitis(Anthony Barrier Productions, 1979) Director
Plaque Control - Flossing(Anthony Barrier Productions, 1979) Director
Plaque Control - Toothbrushing(Anthony Barrier Productions, 1979) Director
Plaque - The Facts(Anthony Barrier Productions, 1979) Director

Links to Other Sites

Secrets of Cartoon Technique - A E C Hopkins: article in The Cine-Technician December 1936.


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Peter Hale
Last updated 2017