I joined the Forum today because whilst idly browsing the internet this morning I came across my name and business mentioned back in 2015 by Robert Crewdson:


[i]Bentleyfilms.
#1 by Robert Crewdson ( deleted ) , Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:47 pm

Did any of our older member have any dealings with a company trading as Bentleyfilms, ran from Yorkshire by a D.M. Bentley; when I got to know him in the late 60s he had gone from films, into selling books. I wondered who he was an agent for, and if he issued anything under his own label?


I notice that it was 4 years ago and that Mr.Crewdson is no longer a member. Anyway let me reassure him and others that I am still around but now retired at the age of 80. But he is correct, I opened a shop and mail order business at 78 Commercial Street, Brighouse in 1962 (The shop is still there and run by Lords Photography). We specialised in 9.5mm and were the main retailers for Pathescope. On their demise we took over much of their stock and reintroduced 9.5mm camera film sold inclusive of processing. First a black and white stock specially made for us by Ilford. They would not let us use their name as we were re-cutting and perforating the stock from 35mm (unperforated) into triple 9.5mm, so we called it Bentleyfilm. Later we negotiated the supply of 9.5mm colour stock from Ferrania which was already cut to 9.5mm saving us a lot of work. Again we had to rename it so it became Bentleycolor. The film was processed locally in Ilkley by Microfilms Ltd. We were selling 10,000 units a year at the peak.


A little later, in 1965, we went into packaged movies and produced a big catalogue listing the products of nearly all UK film distributors, especially Walton Films.


By the 1970s trade started being lost to video and as Mr.Crewdson remembers, I added bookselling to our activities and that continued for about 20 years.


I a now living in the Yorkshire Dales but I still enjoy my home cinema - but using 35mm, which has always been my personal favourite.


They were happy days and I would be pleased to hear from old customers of mine from that time!


Michael Bentley.

Michael,
Thanks for joining us here, and I hope some of our members will share some great stories. Please feel free to share more of this history with us all.
Interesting to learn about the 9.5mm. While not a collector of this gauge (yet anyway), I have heard folks say it is now getting more difficult to find 9.5mm stock for shooting.

On a side note, your "Username" for logging in has been changed from "BentleyFilms" to "HM Bentley". This was done to meet our current format standard--the password you have has not been changed.

Best Regards,
Greg