News on Screen

Bunny Hutchins was born in London, and joined the film industry in 1896 at the age of about eighteen. By 1899 he was working for Alfred West’s ‘Our Navy’ shows, and in 1902 he joined Will Barker’s [qv] Autoscope Company as cameraman, projectionist, and darkroom hand, transferring with Barker to the Warwick Trading Company in 1906. Soon afterwards Hutchins joined Moss Empires Limited as a projectionist, and spent some time working at the Finsbury Empire. In 1907 Hutchins wrote to the Kinematograph Weekly to advocate an examination for projectionists, and he later became a prominent member of the National Association of Cinematograph Operators, being its Honorary Secretary in 1911 and its Vice-President in 1912. In June 1911 Hutchins left Moss Empires to join Barker at Barker Motion Photography, in time to film both the Coronation of George V and the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, at which Barker also filmed. Hutchins now specialised in newsfilming, and in December 1912 he published an article in the Bioscope on ‘The Trials and Troubles of the Topical Taker.'

Hutchins did not stay long with Barker, for he was with the Williamson Film Company when Williamson’s Animated News was launched in May 1913, and in January 1914 it was announced that he had become ‘chief camera operator to the ‘Eclair Journal’,' as the replacement for Albrecht [qv]. Hutchins also worked for Charles Urban’s [qv] Kineto Company around this time, but after the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Army Service Corps as a driver. In May 1917 William Jeapes [qv] applied for Hutchins to be transferred to the Topical Budget, which he joined in the following month, working in charge of the darkroom and occasionally acting as cameraman. After the war he became a full-time Topical Budget cameraman, filming the Victory March in Paris for No.412-1 in July 1919 and the visit to Britain of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks for No.461-1 in June 1920.

A specialist in filming royalty and horse races, Hutchins probably remained with Topical until 1925, after which he worked for a time with Gaumont before joining the newly-formed British Screen News as their chief cameraman in 1928. Hutchins may have lost financially when British Screen News went out of business in 1932, and during the next few years he had periods of unemployment between freelance jobs for Universal Talking News and for Norman’s Film Library in Morocco. In 1937 Hutchins joined Movietone and featured with Paul Wyand [qv] in a comedy item entitled ‘HARMONY’ in British Movietone News No.434 of September 1937. Hutchins continued to work for Movietone in Britain throughout the war, working on home front stories such as ‘REMEMBRANCE 1939’ for British Movietone News No.544A of November 1939. He appeared in his role as an Air Raid Precautions officer in ‘ARE WE DOING EVERYTHING WE CAN?' for British Movietone News No.577A of June 1940. Hutchins was designated war correspondent with the rank of captain, and filmed numerous home front stories, such as ‘BOYS FOR RAF JOIN TRAINING CORPS’ in British Movietone News No.607 of January 1941, and ‘SPALDING DEFENDED IN REALISTIC EXERCISE’ for No.697A of October 1942. His last credit as cameraman was ‘THE MANY SALUTE ‘THE FEW’' for British Movietone News No.850A of September 1945, but he afterwards worked as ‘sub-editor,' selecting news stories.

Sources

Kinematograph Weekly, 16/5/1907, p.15: Bioscope, 6/7/1911, p.17; 1/2/1912, p.305; 29/1/1914, p.421, ‘Items of Interest’: House of Lords Record Office, Beaverbrook Papers, BBK/E/2/2 and BBK/E/2/5: Kine Year Book 1921, p.592, ‘John Hutchins’: Cine Technician, August-September 1937, p.112:BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 1032, J. Hutchins rota dopesheet, c.January 1941: NFTVA, Luke McKernan’s biographical index of Topical Budget staff.