Maytime in Mayfair

Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer and director. Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton. During the First World War, he served in the Royal Flying Corps. He joined the film business in 1919 forming with his war... gratuity his own company Astra Films producing and directing his first film, The Wonderful Story in a makeshift studio in Kew. He formed a company, Graham Wilcox Productions, with Jack Graham Cutts in 1920. He set up the British National Company, which was later absorbed into British International Pictures. He also set up a "British Hollywood" at Elstree Studios. Although Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail is generally regarded as the first film with sound, Wilcox's Black Waters was trade-shown several weeks earlier. He produced more than a hundred films, of which he directed half. In the 1950s he planned to make a biopic about Van Gogh starring Trevor Howard, but it was never made. "His film production team were never laid off, even during the worst depressions of the British film industry. They were on full salary 52 weeks of the year.
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