by
Tom Harvey-May
I noticed your page about the above, you might be interested in hearing that I worked as a mobile projectionist for British Films Ltd, I started in about 1957, we had a depot in an old tram depot in Balham high street london SW12, I operated 8mm, 16mm and 35mm projectors under many different conditions, we had Thornycroft trucks that had a hood mounted on the back and we showed films by means of rear projection on to a screen inside the rear of the truck, Diana Dors was an extra at this time and she worked on one of the trucks as a hostess and researcher for the National Savings Campaign. we also travelled to various towns throughout the country showing travel films for Thomas Cooks the Travel Agents, I was employed quite a lot by cutomers who wanted mobile advertising at many national exhibitions, such as the Ideal home, the Boys and Girls exhibition, The Motor show and many many others we designed a rear projection cabinet that resembled a large TV and showed advertising films, we deliberately gave the impression that this was a ‘Colour TV’ which was only a dream at the time, the public believed us and we were very popular with the advertisers.