Classic Films was created back in October 1981 as a Special Interest Group (SIG) for the Mensa organization. Des Kennelley and I both worked for a company in the Aerospace Industry that specialized in space surveillance systems. I was working in the proposal development group responsible for developing management sections of company bids for government contracts. Ms. Kennelley was an editor in the publications department responsible for editorial proofing and correcting before the bid packages were sent to the potential government agency or sometimes major defense contractors that we were subcontractors to.
During our contacts we learned that we had a mutual interest in movies and that we were both members of Mensa. It was my thought that we should pool our smarts and put out a SIG publication which we named Classic Films. Starting with the two of us initially Classic Films continued to grow and eventually we added three additional writers. Since one of these was New York based and a second in Canada it broadened the base of our coverage.
We put out Classic Films for a little over six years. Since then it has sat in limbo until earlier this year when we were approached by one of our former subscribers from back in the 80's about putting the 60 or 70 issues on to the Fairview Collaborative website:
The Webmaster recently suggested that we could possibly update the work we did some 25 years ago with some current comments and perhaps reviewing more recent films. This has proved attractive and we have decided to pursue that event. The first such effort in this line was a piece which was done on the exceptionally focused English actress Wendy Hiller who made several outstanding films in the 40's and one Academy Award winning film in the late 50's. Ms. Hiller was principally a stage actress and reportedly was George Bernard Shaw's favorite actress having starred in two of his plays including "Pygmalion" which she also starred in on the screen.
We have a number of other pieces in mind which I'm sure will interest many of you.
Dick Gardner, Classic Films
Read the 25th Anniversary Edition of Classic Films No. 12, October 1982
Buy all your favorite classic films at the Classic Films aStore
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