Videoage International January 2019

24 January 2019 V I D E O A G E ning London’s Television International Enterpri- ses (TIE), where he reported directly to Colonel David Stirling (1915-1990). In 1941, Stirling (later known as Sir David), a rich Scottish kid who had been thrown out of Cambridge for gambling and drinking, founded the Special Air Service (SAS) force as he served with the Commandos in World War II. Before being captured by the Italians in North Africa, German Field Marshall Rommel dubbed him the “PhantomMajor,” and Britain’s Commander Field Marshall Montgomery described him as “mad, quite mad.” He was rumored to have personally strangled 41 men. In the 1970s Stirling was associated with covert military action in the Middle East, while running TIE out of the same offices as Watchguard International, Ltd., a covert firm through which he trained security units for service in Arab and African countries. Of his years with TIE, Milnes remembers that during trips to the Middle East Stirling often asked him to “deliver brown envelopes.” Milnes had no clue what was in them, he explained. “But they were very interesting deliveries.” Stirling reentered theU.K.’s public consciousness in the aftermath of the 1974 miners’ strike, when he set up another shadowy organization called GB-75, which offered to recruit civilians to counter left-wing anarchist groups and an imminent mass strike. But Milnes did not stay with TIE long enough to witness much covert action. In 1972, he left the group to join Anglo-EMI Film Distributors as a European sales executive, where he covered both theatrical and television sales throughout Europe, Israel, and Cuba. Milnes served two tours of duty with EMI: 1972-1978 and 1980-1985. Throughout his active 42-year TV career, he also worked for Granada Theatres, United Artists Television, Alliance International Film Distributors, ITC, J&M Films, Weintraub Entertainment, Warner Bros., and Channel 5 International, before “trying to retire” in 2003 at age 60. He now lives north of London, in Felden, and works as a TV consultant. The list of his former bosses reads like a who’s who of television luminaries: Marvin Goodman (UA), Mike Dann (CTW), Lord Bernard Delfont (EMI), Roger Gimbel (EMI), Lord Lew Grade (ITC), Gary Dartnall (EMI), Jerry Weintraub (WEG), Michael J. Solomon (WB), and David Elstein (Channel 5). When he started out in the entertainment business in 1961 at the tender age of 18, Milnes served as an office boy at Century Theatre, one of Granada’s 34 theaters in London (out of 64 nationwide). That theater was razed to the ground in 1965 to extend what was then known as St Pancras Town Hall in North London (and is now called Camden Town Hall). Granada, founded in Dover in 1930, was awarded a TV franchise in 1954 for North West England. The company merged with Carlton Communications in 2004 to become ITV. Milnes was a product of what was then called a public school in his native North London. But, he explained, “Mill Hill School was a private fee- paying school where I boarded for nine months of each year, and was not allowed out.” While that sort of draconian setting might have hindered some, it was great for Milnes, who treasured his time on campus and became president of the school’s film society, which looked good on his resume when he applied for the job at the Century Theatre. Milnes gradually inched his way up on the responsibility ladder until he came to control the group’s entire London weekday booking. This lasted until 1966, when he joined Alliance International FilmDistributors, an entertainment company founded a year earlier by British film producers Sidney Box (1907-1983), Michael Bromhead (1924-), and William J. Gell (1920- 2006), with financial contributions from Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos. Three years later, Milnes went to work for United Artists Television (UATV) as its European sales manager, reporting to Marvin Goodman in New York. Very little information can be found about the UATV of that period. Recalled Elie Wahba, who knew Goodman, and who recently retired after 50 years with 20th Century Fox TV Distribution, LATAM: “Marvin was VP of International Distribution, reporting to Herb Banker. He had been my boss for a couple of years and he was a good professional. Unfortunately, he passed away at the young age of 47.” The UATV job lasted until 1971, when Milnes joined TIE, the entertainment group founded 12 years earlier by the mysterious Colonel Stirling. TIE, which is no longer operational, is not to be confused with the current Wigan, Lancashire- based Television International Enterprises and Archives (TIEA), which, according to its current chairman Phil Morris, is an offshoot of TIE, but was created in 2006 — well after TIE ceased operations in 1980. The original TIE was born in 1959 and was a key player in the television industry in the early 1970s. The company was created by Stirling to help third- world countries establish TV and radio stations in Africa, the Middle East, and Commonwealth countries, including the Caribbean. These were meant to mainly be for educational purposes. TIE, however, was also a program distributor. Because of this educational element, TIE distri- buted series from the New York-based Children’s Television Workshop (abbreviated as CTW and now as SW for Sesame Workshop), including Se- same Street and The Electric Company , in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. Of tho- se years, Milnes remembers when he took CTW vice president Michael H. Dann to his first visit behind the “Iron Curtain” to attend the 1971 Brno Film Forum in Czechoslovakia. Dann (1921-2016) was a TV legend, having served as CBS’s vice pre- sident of programming from 1963 to 1970. At TIE, Milnes also distributed U.S. TV network series such as The Lucy Show (on CBS from 1962 to 1968) and The Doris Day Show (on CBS from 1968 to 1973) in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. Milnes explainedhowTIEendedupdistributing those two prized TV series: “John Pearson, who used to head up International Sales at Desilu Studios in Hollywood, departed Desilu two years after Paramount took over, and in 1969 he set up his own television distribution company, John Pearson International (JPI). He was so well liked by [Desilu founders] Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz that they gave him the international sales (outside the U.S.) of The Lucy Show [Ball’s follow-up to I Love Lucy , which was distributed by Paramount]. In turn, John negotiated a deal with TIE for us to handle the sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.” Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame At the TESE launch party at “La Oasis” in Cannes, shaking hands with Lucie Arnaz (daugther of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz), one of the stars of TESE’s remake of The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond. With David Begelman (center) when TESE announced its production arrangement with Gladden Entertainment for its first film to be Mario Puzo’s The Sicilian . At the stand of USSR-based Sovexport Filmat theNovember 1967 Brno FilmForum in then-Czechoslovakia. L. to r.: Sidney Safir of British Lion Films, John Stanley, fromwhomMilnes took over at Alliance International FilmDistributors, RichardMilnes (Continued from Cover) (Continued on Page 26)