News on Screen

Robert Gibbon was commentator for a small number of Movietone stories, starting with ‘NAMES AND NEWS: BENITO MUSSOLINI - REPORTED BY ROBERT GIBBON’ in British Movietone News No.337 of November 1935, and ending with ‘SCREEN: OSA JOHNSON PARADE AFRICAN NATIVES FOR LIVINGSTONE EPIC’ in No.439 of November 1937. After the outbreak of war in 1939 Gibbon was in charge of Movietone’s overseas distribution, preparing foreign versions of the newsreel and "translating and scoring foreign versions of shorts made by the Ministry of Information," handling over seventy films including ‘DESERT VICTORY,' ‘TUNISIAN VICTORY,' and ‘TRUE GLORY.' Gerald Sanger [qv], Movietone’s editor, recalled that "marvellous was the patience exercised by him with foreign commentators and truly amazing was the speed with which he got through the sessions’: ‘He presided over the making of 482 foreign versions of short films, and 478 editions of foreign newsreels.' When Terry Gallacher [qv] joined Movietone in October 1945, Gibbon was the company’s general manager. As Gallacher recalled, ‘it is probable that he joined the company either with Sir E. Gordon Craig [qv] or soon afterwards’: ‘It was said that he was a Major in the First World war and in the same unit as Sir Gordon Craig who was then a Captain.' In 1948 Gibbon was listed as assistant general manager under Sir Gordon Craig [qv], and he also appears in the Movietone staff list for October 1951. Gibbon apparently retired in the late 1950s.

Sources

'Year Book of the Association of Cinematograph and Allied Technicians 1948/49,' p.54: Information from Terry Gallacher, 1998.