Eric Pulford, artist; designed film posters, 89
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For nearly half a century his design promoted British cinema
Sim Branaghan
Thursday September 15, 2005
The Guardian
The poster artist Eric Pulford, who has died aged 89, was the single
most important figure in the history of the British film poster and
responsible for some 1,000 designs during almost 50 years.
Simultaneously he marshalled a team of artists the like of which is
unlikely to be seen again. Yet he remains a great unknown name of
British cinema.
It was in 1940 that Pulford - then freelancing on engineering
illustration - began painting posters for Leeds Rank cinemas. Titles
included Gaslight, The Bluebird, and Thief Of Baghdad. Three years
later, Rank invited Pulford down to London to set up a design studio
and work on the company's publicity.
Rank had acquired an interest in the Fleet Street agency Downton
Advertising, and Pulford Publicity was initially set up nearby, and
funded through Downton. Early employees included the lettering artist
Tom Brownlow, father of the writer and director Kevin.
Pulford initially did much of the finished poster artwork himself -
classic early titles include Henry V (1944), Odd Man Out (1946), Oliver
Twist (1948) and several Ealing films. In the early 1950s he began to
personally focus more on design, employing a band of illustrators for
the finished art.
Eventually Pulford Publicity was employing 44 artists and
photographers. By 1963, having bought a controlling interest in
Downtons, it became, as Downtons, Britain's main film agency, handling
Rank and its Gaumont and Odeon chains, Universal, RKO, United Artists
and British Lion. Following a 1965 merger with the Dixons agency it
took on Columbia and Disney, and later Avco-Embassy and Brent Walker.
Perhaps Pulford's most distinctive contribution was his employment,
from the mid-1950s, of Italian artists. Their vivacious, explosively
colourful illustrations, as on Reach for the Sky (1956), revolutionised
the more conservative look of British posters.
As Downtons increased in size, Pulford's role became increasingly
executive - although he kept a grip on the most important Rank series,
designing many of the later Norman Wisdom comedies, the "Doctor" films,
and Carry Ons. He sometimes watched films in production - including the
1959 Ben Hur chariot race in Rome - and won a US poster award for his
design for Disney's The Island At the Top of the World. (1973). He
continued to contribute occasional finished artwork, including that for
Stranger In The House (1967), The Lady Vanishes (1978), and Breathless
(1983). His last such poster was for the Charles Bronson thriller The
Evil that Men Do (1984).
Downtons underwent various corporate changes following the Dixons
merger. It was finally taken over by Saatchi & Saatchi in 1975.
Pulford was born in Leeds. At Cockburn high school, an art teacher
encouraged his drawing abilities, and he was apprenticed to a local
commercial printing house. His first printed artwork was apparently for
a Brocks firework box, and he also sold still lifes through a Leeds Art
Gallery exhibition. Then came the path to London.
Pulford retired in 1984. But he contributed a few further design
layouts, the final one seems to have been for The Last Emperor (1987).
He thereafter devoted himself to sailing and golf. Along with that of
his prolific contemporary Tom Chantrell. Pulford's retirement marked
the end of the great days of British film posters, the field then
rapidly taken over by bland computer graphics. The British Film
Institute plans to publish a history celebrating British posters in
2006.
Pulford is survived by his wife Alma and their four children, Janice,
Gilly, Nicholas and Robert.
· Eric William Pulford, commercial artist, born August 8 1915, died
July 30 2005