BY DAVE WORRALL
Peter S. Haigh, who was a continuous supporter
(and occasional contributor) of Cinema Retro magazine since its inception in
2004, passed away recently aged 91. Anyone worth their salt in the film
industry of the Fifties and Sixties will be familiar with Peter's journalistic
history.
Leaving school towards the end of World War
Two, he joined the advertising department of Bradford's evening newspaper,
where there was the bonus of free cinema tickets through collecting the
advertisement copy for the city's forty-odd cinemas (yes, that many in one city
in those days!). Films also featured in Peter's army service, for he had the
good fortune to be posted to Radio SEAC, the forces broadcasting service (in
what was then Ceylon), where his duties included writing programmes on film and
theatre music among other scripts.
On demob he moved to London and secured a job
in the news division of BBC Radio. During that time he also compiled the
crossword for the monthly magazine ABC
Film Review, which led to him being offered a full-time position on the
staff. He remained there for a period of thirty years, the latter half as its
editor. Having first started as a promotional magazine for the ABC cinema
circuit, Film Review became a popular
film monthly, packed with news and information, literate reviews and an
emphasis on the pictorial as well as the written word. For sixty years it never
lost its initial and essential aim of appealing to film fanatics. Although
Peter retired from the publication in the Eighties, he continued to compile the
magazine's film crossword. Film Review
ceased publication in 2007.
Many of Cinema Retro's readers, especially
those in the UK, will remember ABC Film
Review, and indeed have countless copies in their collections. For me, it
was a must-have purchase every time I went to the cinema, and it was always the
name of Peter that was to the fore. When he offered to be part of Cinema Retro
back in 2004 it was an honour to have him on board. Peter was a guiding light
during the past 14 years, always offering suggestions and advice on every
issue. For me, and many cinema-goers of my era, he was a legend. Bless you,
Peter. We will miss you dearly.
(In 1997, Peter's novel 'Picture Palace:
Fifty Years of Comedy and Drama Both On and Off Screen' was published by
Minerva Press (ISBN 1-86106-798-4). It is a family saga spanning from 1927 to
1977 which revolves around a provincial cinema and its staff, in particular the
owner-manager and the head usherette who is an incorrigible film fan. The lives
of these ordinary people are inextricably linked with the films and their
stars. Their fictitious stories are told against a background of cinematic
history providing a stimulating and poignant window into fifty years of films.)