Michael Balcon's close encounter with the american market, 1934–1936

Michael Balcon is generally recognised for his stewardship of the Ealing Studios from 1939 and the portfolio of highly esteemed films which emerged over the decade 1942-52. Perhaps as a consequence of the critical preoccupation with those films, less attention has been given to his activities as Director of Production of what was Britain's largest film organisation during the 1930s: Gaumont British (G-B). Based upon archive material held by the British Film Institute, The Michael Balcon Special Collection (MBSC) and the US box-office information contained in Variety, this article sets out to redress partly this state of affairs by concentrating on the organisation's efforts, 1934-36, to become a major player in the world film industry; a rival in scale and output of the principal Hollywood studios.