News on Screen

Eric Mayell was born in Peterborough but ‘spent his early life in Nottingham.' In March 1913 Val Steer [qv] established the Eclair Journal, having resigned as editor of Pathe Animated Gazette in order to do so. George Pearson, who was then in charge of Pathe’s London studio, suggested Mayell as a possible replacement, although the choice was a strange one for Mayell was neither a journalist nor a cameraman. He was in fact a teacher who at one time had been an assistant master at Loughton High School for Girls, but who in 1913 ‘had just been appointed Headmaster of a country school in the west of England.' Mayell resigned his headmastership when offered the job at Pathe, and by August 1913 was writing to the Home Office from the ‘Editorial Department’ of Pathe’s Animated Gazette, for permission to film convicts at Dartmoor - which was refused. In April 1914 the Kinematograph Weekly printed a piece by Mayell on the problems of editing Pathe’s Animated Gazette, and in August 1914 he had the task of sending Pathe cameramen to cover the war. Mayell subsequently resigned as editor of Pathe’s Animated Gazette, and by March 1916 he had been replaced by Lloyd [qv].

Mayell transferred to Pathe in the United States, where in 1916 he became ‘managing editor’ of Pathe’s Weekly in succession to Hugon [qv], who had just resigned. However, Mayell himself remained in this job for only a short time, being replaced by his assistant after just few months. Mayell later became a naturalised United States citizen, and by 1937 he was working as a newsreel cameraman for Fox Movietone. Mayell’s material also appeared in the British Movietone News, but he was not on the staff - Norman Fisher [qv] recalling that he simply did ‘occasional freelance on Movietone’s behalf.' In November 1937 Mayell provided footage for the item ‘CAMERA TELLS DRAMA OF DOOMED BATTALION WHEN SHANGHAI FALLS’ in British Movietone News No.442A, and also appeared on film. In January 1938 he provided footage for ''PANAY SINKING’: The historic film document shot by Eric Mayell’ in British Movietone News No.449, and he again appeared on film. In June 1939 Mayell was arrested in Tientsin whilst acting as a cameraman for Fox Movietone, filming the Japanese end of the international bridge. He was released after two days. Mayell continued to work for Movietone during the Second World War.

Sources

Public Record Office, HO45/10551/163175, file 63a, letter from E. Mayell, 7/8/1913: Kinematograph Weekly, 9/4/1914, pp.60-1, ‘The News-Film: A Symposium’; 14/1/1943, p.41: Moving Picture World, 21/7/1917, p.420, ‘The Weekly News Reel’: New York Times, 15/6/1939, p.12, ‘Japanese Tighten Tientsin Cordon’: [London] Times, 15/6/1939, p.14 col.1, ‘Tension at Tientsin’; 17/6/1939, p.12 cols.1-2, ‘Blockade of Tientsin’: G. Pearson ‘Flashback: The Autobiography of a British Film-Maker’ (London, 1957), pp.28-9: R. Fielding ‘The American Newsreel 1911-1967 (1972), p.209: L. Pontecorvo ‘The British Newsreel Companies: Staffing 1910-1945,' in J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels’ (BUFVC, 1983), p.92: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels: Vol.III’ (1993), p.75.