| The Rank Organisation | |
| Type: | Public |
| Successor: | Company: Rank Group Library: ITV Studios |
| Foundation: | as J. Arthur Rank |
| Location: | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Industry: | Film and media industry |
| Key People: | J. Arthur Rank (chairman) |
| Founder: | J. Arthur Rank |
| Products: | Film production, distribution and exhibition (diversified: radio, television and photocopying manufacturing, record label) |
The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937, Rank also served as the company chairman. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution, and exhibition facilities as well as manufacturing projection equipment and chairs.[1] It also diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997.[2]
The company logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film Distributors[3] and seen in the opening titles of the films, became a celebrated and enduring film emblem.[4]
The company founder J. Arthur Rank, born in Kingston upon Hull, UK, was already a wealthy industrialist through his father's flour milling business, Joseph Rank Ltd, before making his start in filmmaking by financing short religious subjects in line with his Methodist beliefs. As Rank was a Methodist Sunday School Teacher, he wished to introduce these beliefs to a wider audience.
The Rank Organisation was established, as a means for Rank to consolidate his filmmaking interests, in 1937.[5]
A loose collective of filmmakers was established by Rank under the banner of Independent Producers Ltd. including The Archers, consisting of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Cineguild Productions, consisting of David Lean, Ronald Neame, John Bryan, and Anthony Havelock-Allan, the filmmaking duo of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and the directors Ken Annakin and Muriel Box.[6]
The Company of Youth, the Rank Organisation's associated acting school often referred to as "The Charm School", was founded in 1945. It launched several careers including those of Donald Sinden, Dirk Bogarde, Diana Dors and Christopher Lee.
Although she was not a member of the school, Petula Clark was under contract to Rank for a period of time and starred in a number of films released by the studio, including London Town (1946), one of the costliest flops in British film history. Also under contract to Rank was the Canadian actor Philip Gilbert.
The company grew quickly, largely through acquisition. Significant developments included:
By the late 1940s J. Arthur Rank (or the Rank Organisation as it was now called), owned:
Despite funding films which were both popular and critically acclaimed, Rank was in crisis by 1949, having built up a debt of £16 million,[7] and reported an annual loss of £3.5 million.[8] Managing Director John Davis cut staff, reduced budgets and concentrated film production at Pinewood. Other studio facilities (in Islington) were closed, sold (Lime Grove Studios) or leased (Denham).[7] The Rank Organisation closed Independent Producers Ltd. The policies of Davis alienated many in the industry; in particular they led film director David Lean, responsible for some of Rank's most critically and financially successful films, to look elsewhere for backing.[9] J. Arthur Rank stepped down as managing director of the Rank Organisation in 1952, but remained as chairman until 1962.
In October 1955 the company reported its film production was "satisfactory".[10]
In 1945, the company bought the Bush Radio manufacturing facility and began to diversify its interests. In the early 1960s Rank took over Murphy Radio to form the Rank Bush Murphy Group (which was eventually sold to Great Universal Stores in 1978). In 1956 Rank began a partnership with the Haloid Corporation to form Rank Xerox, to manufacture and promote its range of plain paper photocopying equipment. In later years, the waning film company assets were hastily converted and pressed into 'Rank Xerox' service. This venture was a huge gamble but ultimately the company's saving grace, until, once more in financial difficulties, it signed off increasing percentages of its holdings, to the parent company, finally becoming fully integrated into Xerox in the late 1990s.[11] Rank was also a significant shareholder in the consortium which became Southern Television, the first ITV television contract holder for the south of England.
In the late 1950s, The Rank Organization set up Rank Records Ltd., the record label division was named Top Rank Records and Jaro Records (a US subsidiary).
In 1960, Top Rank Records was taken over by EMI, and in 1962 they replaced it with Stateside Records. Top Rank Records artists included Gary U.S. Bonds, the Shirelles, B. Bumble and the Stingers, Wilbert Harrison, Skip & Flip, Andy Stewart, Craig Douglas and John Leyton. A US branch operated from 1959 to 1961; its artists included Jack Scott, Dorothy Collins, and The Fireballs.
Rank Audio Visual was created in 1960, bringing together Rank's acquisitions in multimedia, including Bell & Howell (acquired with Gaumont British in 1941), Andrew Smith Harkness Ltd (1952) and Wharfedale Ltd (1958). Subsequent acquisitions included Strand Electric Holdings (1968) and H.J. Leak & Co. (1969). In the mid and late 1970s, Rank Audio Visual made a 3-in-1 stereo music centre, as well as TV sets in conjunction with NEC of Japan. The production of the "classic" Rank TV ran in the mid to late 70s, some interim models appeared and the "modern" Rank TV appeared in the early 1980s. The NEC badge did not appear in the PAL/220/240 volt countries until the mid-1980s.
Top Rank was one of the early operators of motorway service areas in the UK, opening its first services at Farthing Corner on the M2 in Kent in 1963. Top Rank operated a portfolio of 10 service areas until the takeover of Mecca Leisure Group by the Rank Group in 1991, when they were spun off to ex-Mecca CEO Michael Guthrie under the name Pavilion (later acquired by Granada and now forming part of Moto Hospitality). There were other small specialised groups, including Rank Taylor Hobson who made inspection equipment, Rank Cintel who made telecine (television film scanners) machines, and Gaumont Kalee who made audio analysis equipment.
During this period, Rank started focussing on primarily solidly commercial ventures, largely aimed at the family market. These include the popular Norman Wisdom comedies, the Doctor films series and, later, Rank took on the Carry On film series from Anglo-Amalgamated. Films of note were produced during this era including Carve Her Name with Pride, Sapphire, A Night to Remember and Victim, as well as a clutch of prestige topics such as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and filmed performances by the Royal Ballet.
In February 1956 Davis announced Rank would make 20 films at over £3 million. He said "great care will be taken to ensure that, while retaining essentially British characteristics the films will have the widest international appeal. This is part of an intensified drive to secure ever widening showing in overseas markets which already return more than half the revenue earned by Pinewood films."[12] That year, Rank announced it would set up distribution in the US. In October Davis listed the Rank actors he thought could become international stars: Dirk Bogarde, Peter Finch, Kay Kendall, Jeannie Carson, Virginia McKenna, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Tony Wright, Maureen Swanson and Kenneth More.[13]
In October 1957, at the 21st birthday for Pinewood Studios, Davis said Rank would make 18 films this year and 20 the next, with the latter costing £5 million.[14]
However cinema attendances fell. In September 1958 the company had lost £1,264,000 on films causing the group's profit to drop from £5 million to £1.8 million. John Davis wound up several long term contracts Rank had with talent. "The trouble with some of them is they won't work," he said. "They lose their sense of proportion."[15] To recoup some of their losses, Rank sold Ealing Studios and its library to Associated British Picture Corporation.
In the late 1950s Sydney Box became head of production although he retired from the industry in 1959.
In January 1960, John Davis announced that Rank would concentrate on bigger budgeted, internationally focused productions.[16]
In 1961 they announced a production slate of a dozen films worth £7 million.[17]
In October 1962 Lord Rank resigned as chairman of the company and was replaced by managing director Davis. That year to company made a group profit of over £6 million and stated 41% of its film production income came from overseas.[18]
In October 1964 Davis reported profits of £4.6 million.[19]
From 1959 to 1969, the company made over 500 weekly short cinema films in a series entitled Look At Life, each film depicting an area of British life. From 1971 to 1976, Rank only invested around £1.5 million a year in film production. According to executive Tony Williams "the two main streams that they were down to was Carry On pictures and horror films made by Kevin Francis".[20] However, in 1976, Rank enjoyed much success with Bugsy Malone (which they co-produced with Paramount Pictures, who held its American rights). This encouraged them to re-enter film production.
In 1977, Rank appointed Tony Williams head of production[21] and over two years Rank made eight films worth £10 million, including Eagle's Wing, The Shout, The Thirty Nine Steps, Riddle of the Sands and Silver Dream Racer.[22] Many of these stories were set in the past. "You have to go back in time to tell a story that doesn't have to face seventies problems", said Williams in 1978. "What people are nostalgic for isn't necessarily any particular period, but the happier values that are missing today."[23] Few of these new Rank films performed well at the box office, losing £1.6 million overall.
At the Cannes Film Festival in 1980, Ed Chilton of Rank announced a £12 million slate of projects. However, by June, they withdrew from production once again.[24] [25] [26] "The decision was made to plunge on in and then it was pulled back", said Williams.[20] The Rank films that had been announced for production – including an adaptation of HMS Ulysses, The Rocking Horse Winner and a film version of To the Manor Born – were cancelled.[25] [27] "It now takes too long to recoup money on films," said a spokesman for Rank.[28]
The following year, Rank reported a record pre-tax profit of £102 million.[29] According to Tony Williams:
After a time Rank Film Distributors was in trouble because they hadn't got any new product. So Rank Film Distributors was then given chunks of money to go and buy into pictures because they made a blunder. And they carried on, on that basis, not directly making them and they had no direct control over what they made at all, no influence. They just bought into pictures. They did an output deal with Orion and that carried on until they sold the shooting match. Then the decision was made to get out of (the) film (industry), so RFD was closed down, Rank Film Advertising was sold off, eventually, the laboratories went. Cinemas was the last one to go.[20]
In 1982, the company partnered with Andre Blay Corporation to license its British title library to home video.[30] In 1986, Rank Film Distributors, and archrival Cannon Screen Entertainment had signed a deal with the BBC to gain access to Rank's nineteen feature offerings.[31] In 1987, the Rank Film Distributors group received a $100 million fund for film financing, and the Rank Film and Television division had invested in $32 million that they would take the budget against non-U.S. rights.[32] In 1995, the Rank Group acquired all the outstanding shares of the Rank Organisation. In spring 1997, the Rank Group sold Rank Film Distributors, including its library of 749 films, to Carlton Communications for £65 million and immediately became known as Carlton/RFD Ltd.[33] Pinewood Studios and Odeon Cinemas were both sold off in February 2000 for £62 million and £280 million respectively.[34] The company finally severed its remaining connections with the film industry in 2005 when it sold its DVD distribution business and Deluxe technical support unit.[35]