The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 161

The Age 19 October 1985. Saturday Extra A lifetime of make believe on both sides of the camera OIBQjQIiOQafi By Brian Courtis Jf 7 Lewis Gilbert: survivor in a notoriously treacherous industry. it Why did Michael Jackson, the elusive superstar of pop music, agree to fly to Perth to appear on a charity telethon this weekend? The short answer is because he loves the Beatles, and because Western Australian millionaire Robert Holmes a Court asked him. ROBERT HILBURN, of the 'Los Angeles Times', and GEOFF MASLEN, in Melbourne, report on a curious multi-million dollar deal. WHEN HE WAS seven years old, and the cinema bad just begun screening child actor Lewis Gilbert worked out why-cowboys allowed themselves to be shot for the entertainment of others.

It seemed ridiculous, and perhaps a little unnerving, that his fellow performers would throw away their lives for a western, so he had puzzled over this for days before approaching his mother's dressing room to test out his theory. "See, I knew about acting, but could not understand what sort of actor would want to get a bullet through him," he recalls. "Then, inspired, I knew the great truth; what they did, how they did it! "The producer would obviously go along to the local prison and approach someone who was about to be executed. He would say to the unfortunate man, 'You're going to be killed, so you may as well come with us and get an arrow through you in our film, and, as a reward, we will give your family a lot of money'. "I remember offering this revelation to the company and being confused by their roar of laughter.

That was a long, long time ago. I've since killed many people in my films, but I promise I've never been recruiting around any jail!" Lewis Gilbert, the English prr ducer-director, now 65, was in Melbourne briefly last week to help promote his 33rd film, 'Not Quite Jerusalem', a production based on Paul Kember's play about an international group of young people meeting at a kibbutz. It is his first film since the immensely successful 'Educating Rita'. Mr Gilbert, a Londoner with a manner that seems as mild as his accent, tells you his own survival in a notoriously treacherous indus- try is simply the result of keeping within "the mainstream of film He has, he says, avoided experimenting with and has restricted himself to what he calls "entertainment "I have never been an innovator," he says. "I suppose it is partly because of my background, of being brought up as a child in the cinema, but I'm very conscious of entertainment and the business side of films.

"I've had Academy Award nominations, I've had marvellous notices, and I've had lousy notices but, the main, even when they have not been received: well critically, the audiences seem to like my films." And the credits, from the 1950s to the '80s, tend to bear that Mr Gilbert's films include 'Albert RN 'The Sea Shall Not Have Them', 'Reach For The Sky', 'The Admirable Crichton', 'Carve Her Name With Pride', 'Ferry To Hong Kong', 'Sink The 'Al-fieVi'You Only Live-Twice'; 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'Moonraker and, of course, 'Educating Rita'. IT WAS AS a music-hall performer that Tawis fiilhert mnrfp hie thenr- fer and scheduled a 14 December meeting in London. Branca, who would personally attend meetings only when Holmes a Court was present was represented at these sessions by David Gullen and Gary Stiffelman. Holmes a Court was represented by Geoffrey Davies, a London and Alan Newman, a key executive. The Jackson team's objective at the meetings in the ATV headquar-- ters in London was to get a letter of agreement so they could undertake the massive task of verifying ATV's legal and financial reports.

Stiffelman, who estimated that he spent 900 hours on the purchase between 14 December and 10 August) realised that the negotiations were going to be extremely ATV had already devised method for the sale that involved restructuring the company into jseveral subcompanies. Jackson's attorneys wanted a bindingi agreement so that he would be assured of the catalogue if an examination of books and documents confirmed ATVs state ments about income and copyright ownership. But the company did not want to commit itself unless Jackson agreed virtually to take the catalogue "as is" or regard-, less of findings. While; the studies were being Stiffelman continued to meet in London with ATV representatives. They began sketching contracts in January and then sat down for a series of follow-through meetings that lasted weeks.

The parties went through eight drafts of the contract Things moved slowly, according to the Jackson team, as parties debated endlessly on the issues of price, warranties and the complicated structure of the deal. By April, it was time for Branca and Holmes a Court finally to meet face to face. Agreement at last? Not quite. Whenf they met in New York, Holmesna Court had already reviewed the contract and found various provisions unacceptable. The promise of a quick settlement faded rapidly.

Frustrated, Branca concluded that Holmes a Court was noteven close to making the deal final. vide about 50 per cent of that income, around $25,000 each. The publisher now Michael Jackson collects the other 50 per cent If bought at a reasonable price and well administrated, catalogues are considered an excellent investment They are such good investments, in fact, that it is increasingly difficult to find one on the market The rule among today's songwriters after the Bea- ties' example: never sell your publishing. So, why didn't McCartney buy back the rights? McCartney reportedly made offers to ATV over the years but according to those close to the Jack-son-ATV negotiations, he was not a serious bidder in recent years. Many people may have been surprised when Jackson demonstrated the ambition and resources to pull off such a complex business But the people close to him were not surprised.

Frank Dileo, Jackson's personal manager, said -he has long been impressed by Jackson's sound business sense. "A lot of artists don't want to know anything about business affairs, but Jackson is involved in every facet of his career. He's not one of those people who stops thinking when he walks out of the recording studio or off the stage." Once Branca had Jackson's go-ahead on purchasing the Beatles catalogue, he phoned Michael Stewart the president of CBS songs. Branca and Stewart discussed Michael's interest in the ATV copyrights. Stewart thought it was a great idea and remained an informal adviser throughout the negotiations.

Branca's first task was to determine the value of ATV's music catalogue. Earlier offers for ATV reportedly ranged from $39 million to $60 million, but after meetings with Stewart, accountant Marshall Gelfand and others, Branca suggested an amount to Michael: $46 million. Michael agreed to move forward. On 20 November he communicated the $46 million bid in a telex to ATV's owner, Holmes a Court, requesting a meeting be held within 10 days in London. Holmes a Court acknowledged MICHAEL JACKSON was in great spirits when Paul McCartney invited him to London a few years ago to work together on a record.

He loves the Beatles' music, especially such McCartney melodies as1 'Yesterday and 'Eleanor Rigby'. They spent several days at the Abbey Road studios, scene of the legendary Beatles sessions, and came up with the lilting 'Say, Say, Say, which eventually went to number one in America. Jackson stayed at a hotel that, as irony would have it, was across the street from ATV music, the publishing company that owned the Beatles' catalogue of more than 200 songs. He would meet McCartney at Abbey Road around noon, and the two threw ideas back and forth while Paul sat at the piano. Jackson usually ate dinner at McCartney's house, a Tudor-style residence on nearly 400 hectares, an hour's drive from the heart of London.

Sometimes they end up'in the kitchen with McCart- r' ney's wife, Linda, and their children all helping to cook. One night McCartney showed Jackson a thick, bound notebook filled with song titles. Jackson knew that Paul had bought numerous song catalogues, including the works of Buddy Holly. Jackson, never one to hide his emotions, became more excited as he turned the pages. He wanted to know more about owning songs: how do you buy them? What do you do with them after you have them? The conversation moved on to other matters, but Jackson could not get the song catalogues out of his head.

Soon after, Jackson met with his attorney, John Branca. They were supposed to talk about resigning with BMI, the performance rights organisation that collects songwriter fees for radio, TV and live performances. At the end of the meeting Jackson told Branca, "I want to buy some copyrights, like Over the next few months, Branca came up with lists of copyrights that were for sale. Jackson bought the Sly Stone col-, lection, which includes such pop-soul gems as 'Everyday People' and 'Everybody is a Star. He also purchased the double diamond package that features Len Barry's '1-2-3', and the Soul Survivors' 'Expressway To Your Heart', songs Jackson has liked since his pre-teen days.

Among other acquisitions were two Dion hits: The Wanderer and 'Runaround Sue'r Those purchases cost Jackson less than $1 million. Branca realised that Jackson was ready for a larger move. He was already a very wealthy young man, having made an estimated $100 million from his 1982 LP 'Thriller' alone. Branca mentioned Combine Music, whose song catalogue includes many Kris Kristofferson hits (including 'Help Me Make It Through The Night') and Tony Joe White's 'Polk Salad Annie'. But Jackson passed.

He wanted only songs that meant a lot to him, so he declined to bid on all but three of the 40 catalogues presented to him over three years. By the beginning of 1984, Jackson was engulfed setting up the Victory tour and the matter of cat-' alogues had faded into the back--" ground '4- until' a September meeting' with Branca in Philadel- phia. Branca had a surprise. The -attorney said casually, "By the way, the ATV catalogue is Jackson looked puzzled. Branca added teasingly, "It includes a few things you might be interested in." "Like what?" Jackson asked.

"Northern Songs," Branca replied. Jackson recognised that name. "You mean the Northern Songs?" "Yeah. Mike The Beatles." Jackson did a full turn, jumped in the air and shrieked. "But wait," Branca warned.

"Other people are also after the catalogue. It's going to be a struggle." Jackson replied, "I dont care. I want it please." Northern Songs, the publishing company that the Beatles estab- lished in the '60s, was bought in 1969 by Sir Lew Grade's entertainment conglomerate, ATV. The Beatles music became the most glamorous and valuable part the 4000-song ATV Music Ltd. catalogue; which was later bought by Robert Holmes a Court's Bell Group.

Holmes a Court is no great fan of the Beatles, although the same cannot be said for some of his four children, three of whom are in their teens. According to visitors to the Holmes a Court mansion in posh Peppermint Grove, the adults are more likely to be listening to Pavarotti than Paul McCartney, to classical piano pieces rather than 'Sergeant Pepper's Loney Hearts Club Band'. Michael Jackson's acquisition of ATV music for $47.5 million believed to be the largest music catalogue purchase by an individual illustrates the tensions and strategies of finance, show-biz style. Negotiations became so snarled with Holmes a Court last May that Jackson's representatives walked away from talks, and refused, in effect, even to answer calls for nearly a month. This, despite the fact that they had already invested more than $1 million in verifying the validity of ATV's claims about earnings and song ownership.

The decision to walk away from the negotiations was but one of several key moves in a chess match as fascinating as it was frustrating. Why did the Beatles ever give up their publishing? And why didn't McCartney buy the songs back himself? JOHN LENNON and McCartney faced major tax problems in Britain in the 1960s and to avoid paying 90 per cent on earnings, they were advised either to sell their publishing rights outright or form a public corporation to deflect the tax So, they established Northern Songs Ltd. as a public company with manager Brian Epstein and publisher Dick James. The move made financial sense but it resulted in the Beatles losing the rights to the songs when ATV purchased the majority stock in Northern Songs. ATVs music catalogue also included such early rock classics as Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' and Lloyd Price's 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy'.

One common misconception about the Beatles music is that McCartney and the Lennon estate -no longer collect on the songs. They, in fact, split the songwriting revenue with the publisher. If, for instance, 'Yesterday' earns $100,000 a year in royalties from record sales, air play and live performances (it probably earns more), the Lennon estate and McCartney as co-writers di he explains. "One way to milk the applause was to bring on a cute kid to do a little dance. A lot of them used to do it The theatre manager would not be watching, but he would hear what he thought was a pretty ordinary act getting big cheecs." The world of cinema encroached on music hall.

Theatres began showing a program of films and variety acts; the brightest vaudeville performers began turning their talents towards the cameras. And the young Gilbert found himself in film. "My earliest memories are of a studio in which five films were being made simultaneously," he says. "There was no sound, so it didn't matter how many productions were made there. "But it was absolute bedlam; one would be a comedy, another a drama, and there might also be a romance with a band playing to help the cast along through it all the director would be shouting to the various actors as the camera rolled." It was a wonderful world of make-believe and reality for the child of the stage.

Actors who died for their craft a ventriloquist's dummy who came to life for a few hours a day there could never be any other career. His last film as an actor was Alexander Korda's "The Divorce Of Lady which starred Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Korda was impressed with the 16-year-old performer and offered to send him to RADA, the Royal Academy for the Dramatic Arts, it "But I didn't want that thank you, and told him that I preferred to be a director. Can you imagine that 16 or 17 and saying that? "I had grown up with acting and it seemed to me that the most glamorous job of them all was actually with those people who used to look through the camera. I used to love clambering over the camera.

Korda said, 'Okay, you start next week'!" a That first job was as third assistant director, a role that involved carrying the tea and running around the studio. But Mr Gilbert stuck with it Twenty years later; after the huge success of the Douglas Bader film biography 'Reach For The Sky', Alexander Korda asked Lewis Gilbert to make "The Admirable Crichton' for him. The Hungarian film maker had not worked with the director since those early days. VICTOR? Vi iiWi TRULY A GIFT OF LASTING VALUE. Newly released soft cover edition just $38.95 From quality booksellers everywhere.

"I went to see him, we had dinner, and then, suddenly, he said to me, 'How did you start in That was a shock. You don't remember I asked. No, Mr Korda certainly did not Then I tpld him my storyt told how he started me off, and how grateful I was to him. "And he looked at me and said; 'Oh my God, you're that little Sadly, Korda died four days after their meeting. Lewis Gilbert, however; went on to direct The Admirable Crichton'.

THE PRE-TELEVISION 1950s were exciting times for both film makers and distributors. People went to the cinema at least once, often twice, a week and there were queues in front of "super cinemas" that held up to 2000 a sitting. "It was difficult for us in Britain in one way," Mr Gilbert says. "The Americans had such a stranglehold on our cinemas that it was not always easy to get our films shown. "The audiences made it easier to raise money for production back then.

Today it is not so difficult to get distribution, because there is usually a shortage of product but it is getting increasingly difficult to raise the money to make films." With tax incentives removed by the Thatcher Government the British movie "revival" appears to have hit a major setback and, like other British film makers, Lewis' Gilbert is casting his eyes overseas again for funds. After leaving Australia, he will eventually return to New York to make 'Josephine Baker with Diana Ross we're having quite a lot of with the and adapting the English farce 'Run For Your Wife to an American setting. Lewis Gilbert looks back on his heady days in British cinema, and on stars like Kenneth More, with a' great deal of pleasure. But it is the later "unexpected" successes 'Alfie' and 'Educating Rita' for which he holds the greatest affection. "One had thought they might be a success in England, but one wasn't at all prepared for their success in America," he says.

"That's such a huge, unpredict- -able market And, you know, there is something pleasantly strange about going to Texas and seeing people queueing up to see some- thing so unlikely as 'Educating Rita'." will be a present-that will be appreciated for generations. Children especially will benefit from the wealth of knowledge contained in the pages of this beautifully presented set By giving Victoria's colorful past, youll be giving a present that will take pride of place on any family bookshelf. mm If i receipt of Jackson $46 million of me Taike "befefe 'ileal debut His parents, a song- ana-aance act, would bring the toddler on stage when the audience became a little lethargic. "You lived from show to show on the reaction you could draw," llili The publication of the three volume set The Victorians' is the publishing event of 1985. This collector's history of Victoria, commissioned as part of the 150th Anniversary celebrations.

is now being released in soft cover in time for vv. Christmas. As a gift, The Victorians' 1 i 1 1 VICTORIAN POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION COMMISSION Working Party on Occupational Health and Safety The Commission lias established a Working Party on Occupational Health and Safety with the following terms of reference: 1. To review the need for training personnel in the field of Occupational Health and Safety. 2.

To review the present provision of courses in post-secondary education institutions and the supply of trained personnel in the field of Occupational Health and Safety. 3. To identify the present provision of courses outside the post-secondary education area. 4- To advise the Commission on a comprehensive policy on Occupational Health and Safety education, in particular to advise on the means by which post-secoodary education institutions can meet the needs of the community in this field in the light of government policy. S.

To advise on the suitable placement of courses in this field in order to encourage coordination of facilities and avoid unnecessary duplication. For the Working Party purposes Occupational Health and Safety is defined as: "Occupational health and safety should aim at the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-betog of workers in all occupations; the prevention among workers of work related trauma and departures from health caused by their working conditions and environment; the protection of workers ia their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health and safety; the placing and maintenance of workers in an occupational environment adpated to their physiological and psychological ability and, to summarise: the adaptation of the working environment to suit the person." xWlGlllA'S PAST 4plSffHE PRESENT Continued Extra 8 Telephone (03)824098 I I There's nothing quite like a Teddy Bear to cuddle in bed. Unlike people they don't whistle in their sleep and do unkind things with their elbows; Or steal all the covers. They just lie there. And love you.

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1122 If you wish to discuss tout views in nenon with the WorUne Teddy Friends, Cnr. Riversdale Rd Bourke Rd, Camberwell Junction (right at the Party or desire further information please contact Mr R. Stewart (Telephone (03) 811SI1). Itwtd he ajwrttlatu II written wshaiiatit tmdi fcwte a uiy a lina, an be lorwarted to the later than tl Deeeaber IMS..