News on Screen

Frank Danvers Yates began his film career as an actor, later claiming to have had ‘considerable success’ in this branch of the business. However, after the Warwick Trading Company adopted the Cinephone sound system in 1908 Yates moved into film directing, and in 1909 he directed the short sound films ‘Apache Dance,' ‘The Taximeter Cab,' ‘Sneezing,' and ‘Land of Hope and Glory.' Yates then joined Barker Motion Photography, apparently as a ‘technician’ in the darkrooms, although he also acted as a cameraman. In January 1911 Yates was listed as one of the cameramen on Will Barker’s [qv] documentary ‘Fox Hunting,' along with Buckstone [qv], and Bassill [qv]. In December 1911 Barker sent Yates and Raymond [qv] to cover the Delhi Durbar for Barker Motion Photography, and they not only filmed the ceremonies, but also developed, edited, and printed the footage, which was exhibited in Delhi on the same night and was afterwards distributed throughout India. Yates then joined Cherry Kearton [qv], whose company, Cherry Kearton Ltd., had taken over the Warwick Trading Company in 1912, along with the Warwick Bioscope Chronicle and the company’s interest in the lightweight Aeroscope camera.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914 Kearton and Yates went to Belgium to take film for the Warwick Bioscope Chronicle and for Kearton’s war cinemagazine The Whirlpool Of War. Both men used the hand-held Aeroscope camera, but it was reported that ‘they preferred to dispense with the gyro device on account of its weight.' Yates filmed at Ostend, Louvain, Malines, and Namur, returning to London in October 1914. He then went to film in Russia for Cherry Kearton Ltd., but in 1915, when the company collapsed, he joined the Royal Navy. Yates was discharged in 1916, and joined Pathe, presumably working for the Pathe Gazette. After the war he joined Fox News, which was launched in April 1920, but by August 1922 Yates was working for the Topical Budget, and provided film for the item ‘LET THE DUBLIN GUARDS BURY ME!', reporting Michael Collins’ funeral in No.575-1. Over the next fifteen months Yates provided film for more than a hundred and fifty Topical Budget items, including ‘ALL HIGHEST COUPLE,' reporting the wedding of the ex-Kaiser for No.585-1 of November 1922,and several items on the Prince of Wales’ tour of the North of England, starting with ‘PRINCE AMONG THE WORKERS’ for No.614-1 in May 1923. Yates was still working for the Topical Budget when he died in December 1924 at the age of fifty-one, and he was remembered by Ken Gordon [qv] as ‘one of the most colourful news men.'

Sources

PRO, COPY 3/198, copyrighting of ‘Fox Hunting,' 25/1/1911: Bioscope, 27/6/1912, p.963; 3/9/1914, p.864, ‘Trade Topics’: Film Censor, 28/10/1914, p.2: Kine Year Book 1921, p.594, ‘Frank Danvers Yates’: K. Gordon ‘Forty Years With a Newsreel Camera,' Cine Technician, March-April 1951, p.46: Cine Technician, January-February 1952, pp.2-5: B. Honri ‘Newsreel Nostalgia,' British Journal of Photography, 1/7/1977, p.550: NFTVA, Luke McKernan’s biographical index of Topical Budget staff.