Phillip Fawke was born in Leamington Spa in 1926. He remembers witnessing the bombing of Coventry during the Second World War. During his youth he developed a passion for cinema. During Operation Grapple, he helped to build and run the ‘Kamak San’ cinema on Christmas Island. He also worked for the UK military during the Korean War. Fawke went on to have a long career in the cinema industry, working until the age of 83 as a projectionist at the Midlands Art Centre.
Interview extracts
Description
Phillip Fawke was a civilian who helped to build and then run the ‘Kamak San’ cinema on Christmas Island ahead of Operation Grapple in 1957-1958. Fawke had experience running cinema projectors and worked for the UK military in Korea. In this clip, it is clear how important the cinema was for the men stationed on Christmas Island. Fawke had a long career in the cinema industry, working until the age of 83 as a projectionist at the Midlands Art Centre.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. Phillip Fawke was recorded for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2024. The interviewer was Jonathan Hogg. This project was run in partnership with National Life Stories and the full interview can be accessed at the British Library.
Transcript
It poured. I think it was The Quatermass Experiment, or one of them films.
Oh yeah.
It absolutely poured. And it was on and it kept… So I went, I come out of the box, I had a sort of balcony. I said, ‘Lads, I shall have… it’s no good carrying on’, I said to them, ‘we’d better stop’. And the sergeant, he was sitting in front of the projection, he said, ‘No’ he said, ‘give me a blinkin’ cloth’ he said, ‘and if it smears’ he said, ‘I’ll clean it’. And then he sat there in the pouring rain and every time it got a bit blurred he cleaned it. And if a plane went over, the floodlights would absolutely block everything out, you know…
Oh, of course, yeah.
… because they landed it sort of, over, if they happened to land while a show was on.
[ends at 0:00:53]
