Publicity (Mike Williams)

Mike Williams interviewed by Richard Wallace

Projectionist Mike Williams describes undertaking publicity activities, including borrowing an elephant from a visiting circus.

I would do publicity for them, taking publicity around Cardiff and putting show cards everywhere around the City. I organised a few publicity schemes while I was a rewind boy for God sake. I borrowed an elephant one day to take to the cinema because I thought it was a good thing to do. And the cinema thought it was wonderful, you know, they hadn’t had many elephants go to the cinema. Good days. A film called Jumbo, you probably remember the film called Jumbo with Jimmy Durante in. And at the same time Chipperfield’s circus was in Cardiff, so I thought, logical, on my way home, on my bicycle one day I popped in and said, “Could we borrow an elephant to go to the cinema?” And they thought it was great. They marched this damned elephant down through Cardiff into the cinema on the Sunday night. Wonderful publicity. And of course, kudos for me, you know.

Title

Publicity (Mike Williams)

Subject

cinema publicity

Description

Projectionist Mike Williams describes undertaking publicity activities, including borrowing an elephant from a visiting circus.

Creator

The Projection Project

Source

Interview with Mike Williams

Publisher

The University of Warwick

Date

04/12/2015

Contributor

Richard Wallace
Mike Williams

Relation

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7970

Format

.mp3

Language

English

Type

Sound recording
interview extract

Coverage

1956-1964

Interviewer

Richard Wallace

Interviewee

Mike Williams

Date of Interview

25/08/2015

Location

Cardiff

Transcription

I would do publicity for them, taking publicity around Cardiff and putting show cards everywhere around the City. I organised a few publicity schemes while I was a rewind boy for God sake. I borrowed an elephant one day to take to the cinema because I thought it was a good thing to do. And the cinema thought it was wonderful, you know, they hadn’t had many elephants go to the cinema. Good days. A film called Jumbo, you probably remember the film called Jumbo with Jimmy Durante in. And at the same time Chipperfield’s circus was in Cardiff, so I thought, logical, on my way home, on my bicycle one day I popped in and said, “Could we borrow an elephant to go to the cinema?” And they thought it was great. They marched this damned elephant down through Cardiff into the cinema on the Sunday night. Wonderful publicity. And of course, kudos for me, you know.

Original Format

One-to-one interview

Duration

00:00:46

Bit Rate/Frequency

320kbps

Cinema

ABC (Olympia) Cinema, 67 Queen Street, Cardiff

Citation

The Projection Project, “Publicity (Mike Williams),” Cinema Projectionist, accessed April 20, 2024, https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/items/show/399.

Output Formats