Norman Mclaren: Between the Frames

Dobson, Nichola. "Stirling’s Sons." Norman McLaren: Between the Frames. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 53–81. Animation: Key Films/ Filmmakers. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 27 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501328800.ch-002>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 27 September 2021, 17:25 UTC. Copyright © Nichola Dobson 2018. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 53 Chapter 2 S TIRLING’S SONS John Grierson (1898–1972) Figure 2.1 John Grierson (date unknown). I oft en wonder what would have happened to me if I’d been born 2 years earlier, and never met John Grierson at the Scottish Amateur Film Festival in 1935. I was just very lucky – what a matter of chance! 1 John Grierson is oft en credited for much of McLaren’s success; he ‘discovered’ young McLaren at the Glasgow Amateur Film Festival in 1936 and off ered him a job at the GPO in London, and later at the NFB of Canada. Th ese key job off ers did indeed impact dramatically on McLaren’s career and is commonly referred to in literature on McLaren. Th e depth of their relationship could be argued to be more than a boss- employee role, but rather mentor, and eventually a friend. Th is chapter will examine their lasting relationship which developed over time 9781501328817_pi-168.indd 53 16-11-2017 20:04:28 54 54 Norman McLaren to become what Forsyth Hardy referred to as ‘one of the most fascinating stories in the whole history of fi lm’. I was sitting beside Grierson when we fi rst saw this fi lm at the Scottish Amateur Film Festival in Glasgow. One was made from painting directly onto the celluloid and, when Grierson saw this, he grasped my arm (I’ve still got the dent) and said, ‘Who made these?’ I told him a little about the man. Th at was the beginning of the contact between Grierson and McLaren. Th e other fi lm was about life at the Glasgow School of Art, called Seven till Five or something of the kind. It was full of amateurish camera tricks. Norman later told me Grierson was aghast at this fi lm because he thought it was full of sexual symbolism. Grierson took him off and gave him a proper wigging about making a fi lm full of sexual symbolism, and that certainly put Norman off . Th e link between Grierson and McLaren is one of the most fascinating stories in the whole history of the fi lm . Th e full inter- relationship between the two men is utterly fascinating. I think it would have happened anyway but it appeared stronger because both men came from Stirling. 2 Grierson is well known in fi lm studies as a pioneer in documentary fi lmmaking and is credited with much of the modern understanding of factual fi lm produc- tion. He was also well known outside of the academy as a prolifi c writer and presenter of Scotland. Th is chapter begins with a biographical approach and consider the parallels between Grierson and McLaren’s lives at home and how they intersected abroad. It looks at Grierson’s own relationship with Scotland and suggests that by maintaining this in a more explicit way than McLaren, he was able to perhaps enjoy more recognition at home, even while he lived away. Th is connection to Scotland is perhaps what inspired the initial enthusiasm, beyond the talent Grierson spotted, but was something which lasted over the years as an important link between the two men. From this biographical account, the relationship will be considered once again through McLaren’s letters to his parents and friends, about Grierson, but also to Grierson, and their opinions gathered in interviews. It is interesting to see how their initial meeting was recalled by each party and the how their prac- tices complimented one another. Th ere have been numerous, detailed accounts of Grierson’s life over the years, perhaps most importantly the publications by Forsyth Hardy, who spent a considerable amount of time with him. He is also the subject of several notable articles and books on his work including Ellis 3 and Murray4 as well as several more general accounts on documentary, 5 Hardy’s books are far more in depth than this chapter needs to be but will be referred to throughout out as a vital resource. Th ough these other texts give full accounts of Grierson’s life, it is useful here to examine it further as both a reminder of his legacy, and to fully consider the nature of their lasting mentor and friend relationship. 9781501328817_pi-168.indd 54 16-11-2017 20:04:28 55 Stirling’s Sons 55 Born in Deanston Village, Perthsire, on 26 April 1898, John Grierson, like McLaren, was from a relatively comfortable family, with working- class roots in the fi shing industry in the northeast of Scotland, then transformed by his father Robert Morrison Grierson, who took a job as a schoolmaster in Deanston. Th e Griersons had a long family tradition of light keepers, but Robert’s success at the school saw him promoted to headmaster. Grierson’s mother Jane Anthony was also a teacher and was very politically active due to strong family infl uences from her own father; she was a suff ragette and a socialist. Th is had a great deal of infl uence on the young John, who was surrounded by political discussion from an early age. Grierson had three older sisters and a younger brother when they moved to Cambusbarron, Stirling, in 1900 (he later had three younger sisters [one died]). Notable among his siblings were fellow future directors Marion and Ruby, who would share his interest in political and social fi lms. Grierson attended Stirling High School in 1908, as McLaren would in the 1930s; he thought some of his father’s teaching focused too much on the indi- vidual and education for its own sake. He was concerned with social issues (as his mother and grandfather had been). Grierson did very well at school and was accepted to the University of Glasgow in 1914, but the breakout of war disrupted his education. He initially went to work in munitions in Alexandria then joined the Navy volunteer reserve (NVR) and trained at Crystal Palace in London. Forsyth Hardy makes reference to Grierson’s upbringing in Scotland as fun- damental – his parents were teachers who were ‘dedicated to their profession to a degree one seldom fi nds today, even in Scotland, with its long tradition in Education’. 6 Grierson’s mother came from a suff ragette background, her father a staunch socialist. Due to this exposure to a very specifi c educational and political life, John very quickly became aware of social inequalities in his local area and in the wider country. ‘For Grierson, therefore, education as we knew it in Scotland in the fi rst decade of the century was a way of life.’ 7 Th is suggests that he continued to have a desire to educate in much of his work; his fi lms and writing are educational (albeit for an adult audience), as well as trying to facilitate the creation of bod- ies which could provide education such as fi lm boards providing propaganda, something which would be the driving force of much of his later career. Th e distinction should be made here that Grierson viewed propaganda as a tool to educate and inform the state, rather than the perhaps more sinister connota- tions that the phrase has in contemporary, and particularly post- war society. In order to participate in the war, which had disrupted his studies, he lied about his age to become a telegraphist in the NVR and from 1916 was aboard minesweepers where he became ‘accustomed to shipboard life’ 8 and the regi- men of navy life. Grierson was fi nally able to join the University of Glasgow in 1919; however, Hardy described his classmates as ‘an angry generation’, “discourteous and arro- gant and impatient with our masters’, 9 and suggested that ‘the rebelliousness 9781501328817_pi-168.indd 55 16-11-2017 20:04:28 56 56 Norman McLaren which had been generating in Grierson’s mind since his return from war service began to take deliberate and articulate form . Grierson was a member of the University Fabien Society . its star performer’. 10 Th e upheaval of war had left its impact but likewise the issues at home were of equal concern for Grierson, who had seen injustice and poverty in his local mining village. ‘In Glasgow and Clydeside it was a time of social upheaval and it would have been strange if Grierson, with the infl uence of his parents concern added to his own humanist inclination, had not responded.’ 11 Grierson began writing and focused on the problems he saw, Hardy suggest- ing that, ‘he was developing and strengthening his concepts of man and society which were so important to him in his later work’. 12 (He was known to be highly argumentative, a trait he was said to enjoy and used this passion in his work.) He wrote poetry for Glasgow University Magazine (1920– 23) and won several prizes at the university. 13 Despite his grandfather’s and mother’s socialist affi liations, Grierson was not so specifi c in his politics, having a ‘disinclination to make an explicit party com- mitment – a disinclination which was to be present throughout his lifetime’.

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