John Fraser aggregated film & cinema collections, ca. 1920s-1994

fonds

ca. 1920s-1994

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Posters, Architectural and Technical Drawings, Ephemera, Clippings

9661670

John Fraser

John's father was Warrant Officer John Charles Fraser (known as "Jack") - service no. NX 29785, Concert Party, 24th Battalion, 9th Division of the Australian Army from 1941.
John started working in the film industry in 1946 when he left school at 16 years of age and joined Warner Bros (Aust.) as an office boy. He then joined Greater Union Organisation (GUO) as an office boy because the Australian company was considered a better prospect for promotion. John was promoted to be an executive with the company and remained with them until retirement in 1990.
John moved to the Publicity Dept. at GUO in 1948 and then Film Promotions Dept., handling product from Universal, Paramount, Columbia and British Empire Films (BEF) - whose main interest included the films of the Rank Organisation. John worked on the promotion of many popular films including The Cruel sea, Genevieve and Reach for the sky. He was involved in film programming for GUO from 1963-1968 and became the London manager of BEF (1968-1972), negotiating product for the Australian circuit at many film festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Milan. He met many people he revered like directors Billy Wilder and Michael Powell, actors Bette Davis, Wendy Hiller, Roger Moore, David Niven, Kenneth More and the "Carry on" gang. Always an avid audience watcher of their expectations and responses, John had an eye for a good film and had many successes with films he negotiated, for example Murder on the Orient Express and the Monty Python comedy series.
He also managed to fit in some theatre work, joining Hayes Gordon's acting school at the Ensemble Theatre in 1957. He appeared as John Dennis and later as John Denison in several successful productions there, including The Drunkard, Billy Liar, The Seven year itch and The Canterville ghost (which he co-produced with Reg Livermore), before heading for London in 1968.
John advocated Australian film, particularly the films of Ken Hall whom he admired. He moved into GUO's Australian film production plans in the 1970's and was Co-Executive Producer of his friend Brian Trenchard-Smith's film The Man from Hong Kong, (the first Asian-Australian co-production). His exhaustive knowledge of Greater Union led to him researching and co-writing, with Terry O'Brien, The Greater Union story, 1910-1985 : 75 years of cinema in Australia. John also took over the editorship of GUO's Movie Magazine in the early 1970's.
In his retirement, John continued to work with film, setting up the McMahon's Point Community Centre Film Society in the mid-1990's, where he presented classics from the Golden Years for over 10 years. This work led to an invitation to present a movie music program for community radio. John names the Hitchcock films among his favourites, as well as the comedy To be or not to be with Jack Benny, film noirs such as Double indemnity (and all the films of Billy Wilder), as well as the MGM musicals.
-- David Barclay (Apr 2007)

For John Fraser's obituary, see: Sydney Morning Herald, 22 September 2010

Collection 1:
John Fraser film & cinema collections, ca. 1920s-1994

Collection 2:
John Fraser further papers, 1967-1987

Collection 3:
Fox Movietone publicity scrapbook, 1931-1937, 1993-1994

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