A Tale Retold

In 1998 Frank Marshall told Trilith about a collection of old cine film that had lain under his workbench for decades. He thought that amongst them might be one film he had particularly enjoyed as a boy. It was an advertisement for an early wireless loudspeaker, the "Amplion", and had been used in local cinemas in the 1920s by his father's pioneering radio business on the Isle of Portland. When rescued from a pile of rotting nitrate film it was discovered that the film, entitled "The Tale of the Amplion" was a hitherto unknown work by the famous illustrator William Heath Robinson. It is almost certainly the only animated cartoon that he ever made. The tale is retold by Frank Marshall who preserved the film, Gerry Wells of the Vintage Wireless Museum in Dulwich, London and Geoffrey Beare of the William Heath Robinson Trust. Included is the film as it orginally appeared but with a specially composed musical sound track created by composer Stephen Deutsch. This video was shot and edited by John Holman for Trilith and now appears on Transition Vision's Heritage Channel.