The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) was a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. 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. It 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. The company's logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company, General Film Distributors and seen in the opening titles of the films, became a celebrated and enduring film emblem.
Origin 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. Rank was a Methodist Sunday school teacher and 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.
Filmmaking in the 1940s A loose collective of filmmakers was established by Rank under the banner of Independent Producers 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. 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.
Growth The company grew quickly, largely through acquisition. Significant developments included:
1938 – Odeon Cinemas was purchased. 1939 – Denham Film Studios were merged with the facilities at Pinewood, and the Amalgamated Studios in Borehamwood were acquired, but not used for making films. 1939 – UK sites of Paramount Cinemas purchased. 1941 – Purchase of the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, which also owned Gainsborough Pictures, 251 cinemas and the Lime Grove Studios. 1943 – Acquires Cinema Ground Rents and Properties (later Odeon Associated Theatres). In the mid-1940s, Two Cities Films became part of the Rank Organisation producing key films such as Odd Man Out (1947), Hamlet (1948), Vice Versa (1948) and The Rocking Horse Winner (1949). 1946 – Bought for £1 million+ a 50 per cent share in a chain of 133 cinemas from New Zealander Robert James Kerridge, the biggest exhibition chain in Australasia; it was renamed Kerridge Odeon. 1947 – Acquires General Cinema Finance Corporation, including General Film Distributors (later Rank Film Distributors), including the UK distribution rights to Universal Pictures. Late 1940s – A majority shareholding in Allied Cinemas and Irish Cinemas Ltd was gained, becoming the largest exhibition circuit in Ireland (a position maintained until the early 1980s). By the late 1940s, J. Arthur Rank (or the Rank Organisation as it was now called), owned:
Five major film studio complexes, Pinewood Film Studios, Denham Film Studios, Ealing Studios, Lime Grove Studios and Islington Studios (the studios at Lime Grove were sold to the BBC in 1949, as were Ealing Studios in 1955). 650 UK cinemas (the Gaumont, Odeon and Paramount chains) plus various international holdings, including subsidiaries in Canada and the Netherlands, as well as interests in the Kerridge New Zealand chain and Greater Union Theatres in Australia. Eagle-Lion Films. Rank Screen Advertising. Rank Film Laboratories, Denham (later rebranded DeLuxe London after Rank's acquisition of DeLuxe Laboratories from 20th Century Fox in 1990). Manufacturing companies G.B.-Kalee, Taylor Hobson, and Bush Radio. Winter Garden Theatre, London.
Crisis and diversification Despite funding films which were both popular and critically acclaimed, Rank was in crisis by 1949, having built up a debt of £16 million, and reported an annual loss of £3.5 million. 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). The Rank Organisation closed Independent Producers. 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. J. Arthur Rank stepped down as managing director of the Rank Organisation in 1952, but remained as chairman until 1962. In February 1952, Earl St John of Rank announced the company (in conjunction with the National Film Finance Corporation) would make a slate of 12 movies at a cost of £1,500,000. In August 1952, St John declared Rank would make more films abroad. In January 1955, Rank announced it would make 12 films at a cost of £1,750,000, with new stars including Peter Finch, Jean Carson, and Diane Cilento. In October 1955 the company reported its film production was "satisfactory".
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