Billie Bristow
Billie Bristow | |
|---|---|
Billie Bristow, from a 1921 publication. | |
| Born | Millicent Frances Bristow 5 January 1897 Cowes, Isle of Wight, England |
| Died | 14 March 1981 (aged 84) Cowes, Isle of Wight, England |
| Other names | Millicent F. Husband, Millicent Pleydell-Bouverie |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, publicist |
Millicent Frances Bristow (5 January 1897 – 14 March 1981) known as Billie Bristow and later as Millicent Pleydell-Bouverie, was a British screenwriter, press agent, and publicist, active during the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1940s and 1950s, she lectured and consulted on housing issues.
Early life and education
Bristow was born in Cowes on the Isle of Wight,[1] the daughter of Albert Guyton Bristow and Frances Susan Longworth Bristow. She attended Alexandra College in Southampton.[2]
Career
Film industry
Bristow began her career as a journalist and studio publicist.[3][4][5] She worked at or with several different agencies and studios, including George King Productions, Broadwest, Ensign Productions, PDC, and British Lion.[6][7][8]
Bristow wrote articles for The Motion Picture Studio magazine, "The Press Agent and the Star" (1921) and "Principles of Publicity" (1922).[9][10] In the 1920s, she headed the planning committees for the Kinema Club Carnival and the Kinema Garden Party,[11][12] industry events held in London to raise money for the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund.[13][14]
Housing
Millicent Pleydell-Bouverie became an authority on housing during and after World War II. She compiled a book, The Daily Mail Book of Britain's Post-War Homes (1944),[15] based on input from women and trades organisations.[16] In 1947, she was a delegate to the International Conference of Women when it met in Philadelphia; she also gave lectures on British housing in Detroit,[17] Chicago,[18] and Los Angeles,[19] representing the Home Building Industry's Standing Committee of Great Britain.[20] In 1951 she was a delegate to the Building Research Congress in London.[21] She chaired the housing and rent reform committees of the National Council of Women in the 1950s.[22][23]
Selected filmography
Bristow often wrote her scripts with Charles Bennett (who wrote many of Alfred Hitchcock's earliest films).[6] Her films ranged in genre, from crime dramas and comedies to a musical,[24] and in settings from Loch Ness[25] to a Northern steelworks[26] to an unnamed South American country.[27]
- Night Mail (1935, crime drama)[6]
- Gay Love (1934, with Bennett and John Paddy Carstairs; a musical adapted from a play)[24]
- Warn London (1934)
- The Secret of the Loch (1934, a monster movie set in Scotland)[25][28]
- Tiger Bay (1934, a crime drama starring Anna May Wong)[27]
- The House of Trent (1933)
- Shepherd's Warning (1933)[8]
- Men of Steel (1932, with Douglas Newton and Edward Knoblock; set in a steel works)[26]
- Self Made Lady (1932)
- Deadlock (1931, crime drama set in a movie studio)[29]
- Leave it to Me (1930, with Patrick L. Mannock; detective story)[30]
- Too Many Cooks (1930, comedy short, with Laurence Olivier in his first film role)[6]
Personal life
Bristow married twice. She married William F. Husband in 1922.[31] Her second husband was Michael Pleydell-Bouverie; they married in 1935. Her husband died in 1963, and she died on the Isle of Wight in 1981, at the age of 84.[1][32]
References
- ^ a b "Death of lecturer". Southern Daily Echo. 20 March 1981. p. 10. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ 1901 England Census and 1911 England Census, via Ancestry.
- ^ Chibnall, Steve (2007). Quota quickies: the birth of the British 'B' film. BFI Publishing. ISBN 9781844571550.
- ^ The Film Renter and Moving Picture News. 1922.
- ^ "Billie Bristow". Motion Picture Studio. 1: 6. 15 October 1921 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b c d Nelmes, Jill; Selbo, Jule (29 September 2015). Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. Springer. ISBN 9781137312372.
- ^ "Billie Bristow Leaves P.D.C." The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (695): 6. 5 March 1927.
- ^ a b "New British Film Company". The Daily Telegraph. 14 October 1933. p. 8. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Bristow, Billie (7 January 1922). "Principles of Publicity: On Advertising". Motion Picture Studio. 1: 8.
- ^ Bristow, Billie (13 August 1921). "The Press Agent and the Star". The Motion Picture Studio. 1 (10): 13 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Club Clatter". The Motion Picture Studio. 1: 11. 8 April 1922.
- ^ "The Kinema Karnival". The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (692): 24. 12 February 1927.
- ^ "Brilliant Film Carnival". The Sunday People. 20 February 1927. p. 8. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Kinema Garden Party". Leicester Chronicle. 4 July 1925. p. 6. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Bouverie, Millicent Frances Pleydell (1944). Daily Mail Book of Post-War Homes, Etc. London.
- ^ "The House Women Want to Live In; Privacy a First Priority". Grimsby Evening Telegraph. 2 August 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Kilcoyne, Mary Jane (14 September 1947). "UN Speakers to Initiate Federation Activities". Detroit Free Press. p. 50. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "English Housing Under Labor is Called Fiasco". Chicago Tribune. 26 September 1950. p. 36. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Calls British Housing Setup Inefficient". Daily News. 2 October 1947. p. 3. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "England's Home Woes Are Aired". Detroit Free Press. 24 September 1950. p. 23. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Builders 'Slow to Use New Methods'". The Birmingham Post. 13 September 1951. p. 7. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Woman's Notebook". The Surrey Advertiser, County Times. 22 December 1954. p. 11. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
- ^ "Rent Curb Means More Slums". Westminster and Pimlico News. 4 September 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Wright, Adrian (2020). Cheer Up!: British Musical Films, 1929-1945. Boydell & Brewer. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-78327-499-4.
- ^ a b Senn, Bryan (26 March 2015). A Year of Fear: A Day-by-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films. McFarland. p. 314. ISBN 978-1-4766-1090-0.
- ^ a b "Steel Works Hustle; Film to be Made at Middlesbrough". Evening Chronicle. 10 June 1932. p. 10. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Richards, Jeffrey (9 November 2016). China and the Chinese in Popular Film: From Fu Manchu to Charlie Chan. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-1-78673-064-0.
- ^ Senn, Bryan (3 September 2015). Golden Horrors: An Illustrated Critical Filmography of Terror Cinema, 1931-1939. McFarland. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-4766-1089-4.
- ^ "The Picture Palace". Wilmslow and Alderley and Knutsford Advertiser. 1 April 1932. p. 8. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Theatre and Cinema; Review of This Week's Shows". Evening Post. 3 March 1931. p. 4. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Highlights; Intimate Studio Gossip". The Motion Picture Studio. 2 (73): 7. 28 October 1922 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Mrs. Millicent Pleydell-Bouverie". The Daily Telegraph. 17 March 1981. p. 12. Retrieved 3 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
- Billie Bristow at IMDb
- A photograph of Anna May Wong, taken by Billie Bristow in 1934, at Getty Images