William George Barker (18 January 1868- 6 November 1951, in Wimbledon) was a British film producer, director, cinematographer, and entrepreneur who took film-making in Britain from a low-budget form of novel entertainment to the heights of lavishly produced epics that were matched only by Hollywood for quality and style. He was immensely respected for his dedication and hard work. His work has been exemplary, and new generations aspire to be like him.

Early career

His early career was that of a commercial traveler. He was successful enough at that that he was able to indulge an interest in photography. In 1901 he started a business at 50 Gray’s Inn Road, Holborn, to make moving pictures on a hand-cranked Lumiere camera, which he had bought a few years before, and then show the resulting films to the public—for a fee. This was the Autoscope Company. Like the early Mitchell and Kenyon films, the genre was mainly ‘topical,’ for they require the least amount of preparation and expense. On 1 January 1906, it merged with the Warwick Trading Company with Barker as the managing director.

Birth of Ealing Studios

Having left Warwick, he set up Barker Motion Photography Limited in December 1909 at Number 1 Soho Square, Westminster, London. Now he wanted to shoot the film using set stages regardless of the weather. Having already purchased a house called “The Lodge,” Ealing (now renamed the White Lodge, Ealing Studios) overlooking Ealing Green, he procured the adjacent property two years later in 1904. This second house was set back from Ealing Green behind a school on the west side and was therefore known as the West Lodge. He had 3.8 acres (1.5 ha) of land, so plenty of room to put in stages. He did build three.

There are two remarkable ways in which early Edwardian Ealing reminds one of Ealing today. It still looks magnificent—’Queen’of the Suburbs’ is an appropriate title for it – and in the words of one writer, “it still isn’t Hollywood.” Hence, the initial stages were constructed with very high glass walls and roofs to take maximum advantage of the light available while keeping out the British weather. By 1912 this had become the largest film studio in Britain and possibly Europe. Many productions were released under his trademark of Bulldog Films.

Breaking Boundaries: Challenges in the American Market

At that time British cinema started facing two important problems. One was the restrictive practices of the new Motion Picture Patents Company that prevented English films from reaching audiences in America. International films have been dominating the screens in America so far. This cartel effectively capped a ceiling on the receipts that English filmmakers could aspire to derive for their investment. Secondly, film print copies were purchased outright by the distributor. This meant that a popular film would not earn the filmmaker any more than an unsuccessful one.

However, it also meant that the audiences had no choice but to see ever-degrading prints that had become ever more scratched through repeated use. As more and more frames were lost due to multiple re-splicing and general damage, the action would unexpectedly jump forward whilst the film was being watched. The first matter he tried to address was by coming to America to attend the International Projecting and Producing Company meeting of February 1909, held to voice support. This institution had been instituted in a foolish attempt to usurp the leadership of the cartel.

Revolutionizing Film Distribution

He then embarked on making the movie-going experience for the masses much better by promoting films that came out on a hire-only basis. The first film for hire has only today been deemed to be the first significant British film. It is so, despite no prints of this film existing.

Cinematic Milestones: Henry VIII and Sixty Years a Queen

The film was an opulent adaptation of Henry VIII. Barker even used some of the original stage sets from Her Majesty’s Theatre. He was reported to have paid Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (who was the actor/manager of the before-said theatre) £1,000 for doing his interpretation of Cardinal Wolsey for the film. After being shown to record audiences, the total film stock was ceremoniously burnt before the press to promote hired films as a way of ensuring the public saw only good quality stock whilst at the same time maximizing his profits by maintaining control of the prints.

Partnerships That Shaped Cinema

Another entrepreneur and film distributor called G.B. Samuelson convinced Barker to make what would be another very important British film: Sixty Years a Queen (1913), about the life of Victoria. Samuelson also heavily financed the production of this film and so further increased his fortune through its success. After Barker made his last films in the 1920s, Samuelson went on in 1924 to found the SouthHall Film Studio, just 4 miles (6.4 km) west in a converted aircraft hangar that stood on Gladstone Road.

Unfortunately, both studios then suffered from the recession. He died on 6 November 1951 in Wimbledon, London. In 2001 after many changes of ownership at Ealing Studios, Ealing Council approved planning permission to demolish the West Lodge as part of a major new studio development project; the original Lodge survives as studio offices.

List of films

• • Beerbohm Tree as Cardinal Wolsey

• • Short Films:

• • The Child Stealers (1904)

• • Topicals:

• • London Day by Day (1906)

• • Film Series:

• • Cape to Cairo (1907).

• • Feature films:

• • Henry VIII (1911)

• • screen composer: Edward German

• •  East Lynne (1913)

• • Sixty Years a Queen (1913)

• • B&W: Eight reels / 7500 feet

• • Format: standard 35 mm spherical 1.37:1

• • Director: Bert Haldane.

Cast:

Blanche Forsythe, Mrs. Lytton, J. Hastings Batson, Jack Brunswick, Gilbert Esmond, Fred Paul, Roy Travers, E. Story Gofton, Rolf Leslie. Will Barker Film Company production. Produced by Will Barker, Jack Smith, and Ernest Shirley in association with G.B. Samuelson. Scenario by G. B. Samuelson, Arthur Shirley, and Harry Engholm, from a book by Sir Herbert Maxwell. Jane Shore (1915) Director: F. Martin Thorn