Gary Cooper Film Festival - Dunstable 2010

[Coopsgirl]

Site member maggiejones was able to go to the festival to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gary beginning school in Dunstable, England in 1910. She got some great pictures and information and is going to share it with us here. ;D

Thanks so much Maggie for taking the time to get involved and get us lots of great stuff from the festival!

[Coopsgirl]

Maggie posted some pictures in the other Dunstable thread but I want to make sure that everyone sees them so I started this thread and have moved them here with her comments.

Pictures from the exhibit:









The famous clip from The Virginian " If you wanna call me that, SMILE" Taken from the Bio documentary "American Life, American Legend" Narrated by Clint Eastwood. This was played at the exhibition which I think was a great way of introducing Gary's life to visitors.



Tim Kingston of Village Green Cinemas being interviewed by the BBC about the Gary Cooper Festival.

[Coopsgirl]

Gary's school photograph from 1910, his first year there.



Gary is circled in red:



Location where the picture was taken:

[Coopsgirl]

Posters advertising the festival

[maggiejones]

Film festival in Dunstable will celebrate Gary Cooper
Movie star was educated in Dunstable

A film festival celebrating the life and career of actor Gary Cooper will be held in September.

The movie star spent some time in Dunstable and was educated at Ashton Middle School between 1910 and 1912 when it was a grammar school for boys.

To celebrate this, the Village Green Cinema is organising the Gary Cooper Festival, showing some of the actor's best-known films.

The festival begins on Tuesday, September 14 with a talk about Cooper, hosted by the Methodist Church in High Street South.

Following this, the film High Noon will be screened at the Grove Theatre on Saturday, September 18.

The film Sergeant York will be screened at the Gary Cooper pub on Tuesday, September 21 and another picture, Fountain Head, will be shown at the Star and Garter pub on Thursday, September 23.

The Little Theatre is showing two films – Love In The Afternoon on Sunday, September 26 and Mr Deeds on Wednesday, September 29.

A photographic exhibition about Gary Cooper and Dunstable will be held throughout September at Priory House.



The only reference to Gary in the school Magazine is April 1912.

220 yards under 11's 2nd place Cooper ii. Arthur his brother was known as Cooper i and Gary (Frank) Cooper ii



Gary's school registration form detailing start, leaving date's and Father's occupation. Gary was a day boy which gave him more freedom than the boys who were boarders

[maggiejones]

The venue for the talk by John Buckledee on Gary's link with Dunstable. We did make a recording of the talk which is being transferred to mp3 format so it can be uploaded to the site.



John in the middle of his in-depth talk.



Informal chat after the talk. The lady in the red coat ( Audrey Brown ) produced a copy of her autograph book which held an entry by Charles Cooper (Gary's Father) on his visit to what was previously his families farm ( Bull Farm ) dated December 20th 1936. She was 13 years old at the time.

[maggiejones]

The Grove theatre on the evening of the showing of High Noon. Martin Thurlow of (Village Green Cinema) engaging in conversation with people who have come to see the movie on the big screen.
The theatre and the Gary Cooper pub have been built in the grounds of Grove House. This was the home of one of Gary's school chums and it is lovely to see that many years later the area where Gary played as a child has now embraced his memory.





Martin and Tim addressing the audience before the showing of the film. The Grove theatre claims to have the biggest screen in Europe. It seats 700, so there were still a few seats available on the night.



Another shot of Tim being interviewed.

[maggiejones]

Grove Theatre





The BBC interviewing Martin Thurlow, of Village Green Cinema at the Exhibition held at Priory House Dunstable.

[maggiejones]

[maggiejones]

[maggiejones]

Historian John Buckledee has kindly e-mailed his newsletter for the coopsite, which has just been published.

One of the history society’s very special visitors to the talk about film star Gary Cooper was Audrey Brown, who once lived at Bull Farm, Hockliffe.

This was the home of John Cooper, Gary’s grandfather, before he moved to Manor Farm, Tingrith.

Bull Farm still stands, largely unchanged, alongside the Watling Street, opposite the entrance to what is now the McDonald’s drive-through restaurant.

Mrs Brown, whose father John Olney farmed at Bull Farm all his life, brought along to the history society her prized autograph book, which had been signed by Charles Cooper, Gary’s father, on a nostalgic visit there on December 20, 1936.

He wrote: “In memorium of my return to the Bull Farm after fifty eight years absence, with the gracious permission of the Olney family. Charles H. Cooper, father of Gary”.Charles Cooper, born in 1865, emigrated to America in 1883. Thanks to the autograph book, we now know that his family was living at Hockliffe until around 1878. Charles spent much of his boyhood at the White House in Houghton Regis, the home of Josiah Freeman, whose sister had married John Cooper.

Charles Cooper settled in Montana, USA, in the days when the west really was wild! Nearby, only seven years previously, General George Custer and his cavalry had been defeated by Native American tribes at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Cooper’s second son, Frank (better known by his film name of Gary) was born in 1901 and spent his boyhood on the family ranch.

Audrey Brown’s grandfather, Warwick Olney, ran the old King’s Arms public house at Stanbridge. Her parents were at Bull Farm until 1943, when her sister, Sybil Nash, took over. Sybil will be 95 next April.

The Gary Cooper talk also brought a response from Patricia Heath, who shed some light on the famous story about Gary Cooper having a fight with a local lad when he was a pupil at Dunstable Grammar School.

It appears that the boy involved was Frank Aldersey, whose daughter May is pleased to think that her dad may have had that brief moment of fame. She was only 16 when he died.

Patricia writes: “After talking to various members of the family it seems that only my Uncle George remembers this. He is the eldest of the family still about and his memory is excellent. Frank Aldersey married George’s aunt, Ivy Powell.

“Frank was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and moved to Staffordshire aged two years – then to Dunstable.”

It’s not clear how serious this fight was, or who won! It became a favourite tale of Gary Cooper when he was being asked to recall his schooldays in Dunstable. He particularly remembered being reprimanded by the formidable headmaster, Mr Thring, for indulging in a bout of fisticuffs with a lad from the town.

One more local revelation about Gary Cooper’s Dunstable connections: A 1912 photograph has come to light showing Gary’s elder brother, Arthur, in a Dunstable Grammar School cricket team. It had lain uncared-for in the school’s cricket pavilion at West Parade and was “rescued” by Elsie Buck, who had been historian Thomas Bagshawe’s secretary. It had been badly damaged but history society member Trevor Turvey has carried out a lot of restoration work on its digital image.

Below is a very faint copy of a photocopy of Audrey Browns prized autograph from Charles Cooper.
Audrey was 13 years old at the time

Thanks for those lovely pictures and the report, maggiejones. It's nice to know that after all these years our dear Coop is still that loved and admired that much by so many people around the globe.

[maggiejones]

Here's a challenge for all us site members ...Find Arthur Cooper among the students in the school photograph....I think I've found him...well I'm sure I've found him....he too was a good young looking man.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea...I guess you can only guess if you didn't know him personally.

Jun 30, 2011 14:10:20 GMT -6 maggiejones said:

Here's a challenge for all us site members ...Find Arthur Cooper among the students in the school photograph....I think I've found him...well I'm sure I've found him....he too was a good young looking man.

[maggiejones]

There is a photograph on the 3rd page of the tread "Gary Cooper's England" which shows Arthur with the cricket team 1912...I was hedging my bets from that pic. Have a go !