Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 164,954 pages of information and 246,436 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

J. Arthur Rank

From Graces Guide
Revision as of 09:46, 15 November 2020 by PaulF (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (December 22, 1888 – March 29, 1972) was a British industrialist and film producer, and founder of the Rank Organisation, now known as the Rank Group.

J. Arthur Rank was born in Kingston upon Hull, into a family environment which was dominated by his father Joseph Rank (1854-1943) who had built a substantial flour milling business.

Arthur was educated at The Leys School in Cambridge. Joseph is reported to have told his son Arthur that he was "a dunce at school" and that the only way that he could succeed in life would be in his father's flour mill. After school he had an apprenticeship in his father's milling business and was then moved to London.

1917 Married Ellen Marshall

After WW1: Arthur's father bought him a business called Peterkins Self-Raising Flour but when that failed he returned to work for his father where he took charge of the diversification into branded animal feeds. He remained a miller throughout his life.

1933 Founded the Religious Films Society to improve the quality of religious films. Became joint managing director of Joseph Rank Ltd on its flotation.

1934 Founded British National Films but founded he also needed to have control over distribution, especially to break the grip of the US (Hollywood) on cinema.

1935 Formed the General Cinema Finance Corporation, holding a 25% stake in Universal Pictures, an American production company, and a controlling interest in General Film Distributors (GFD) headed by Charles Woolf. Rank was chairman of GFD from 1937 and of General Cinema Finance from 1938. He also bought the Leicester Square Theatre cinema in central London.

1939 Joined the board of Odeon Theatres Ltd[1]

1941 J. Arthur Rank became chairman of Gaumont-British Picture Corporation[2] on acquisition by General Film Distributors of control of the company

1942 Acquired control of Odeon cinemas; also acquired Denham Studios, Pinewood Studios, Gainsborough Studios and Gaumont British studious.

1952 Became chairman of (Ranks Limited) on the death of his brother; this company eventually became Ranks Hovis McDougall. Settled a controlling interest in the film companies in the Rank Foundation, a charity.

1962 Retired as chairman of the Rank Organisation.

1969 Retired as chairman of (Ranks Limited).

See Also

Loading...

Sources of Information

  1. The Times 7 January 1939
  2. The Times 31 October 1941
  • Obituary: The Times, 30 March 1972.
  • Biography of J. Arthur Rank, by Richard Davenport-Hines; ODNB.
  • [1] Wikipedia