Page 6.
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1961.
RUN RUN SHAW
THE STORY BEHIND THOSE SIX CADILLACS
THEATRES
are the forts of a film studio's empire. With this in view, the Shaw Organisation started an expansion pro- gramme two years ago the fantastic project of building "one cinema a month" over a period of two years -to make their extensive cinema circuit even bigger.
Daily, half a million people pass through the box offices of 127 theatres throughout Southeast Asia to enrich the Shaw Brothers.
No wonder people say there
bust
thr
owners
is no business like shox ness abd no brothers ske Shaw Brothers
if the biggest show-musitaess empire in the whole of Ariu
Kun 10241
The work of Shows now re- volves and the axis of Run Shaw Ink Hongkong Runne Shawn Singapore
for the business Ink- 1. are poles apart in
ebay fa
Cab sam, fely and ftam. boxar Fan Rim runs About In
E his SIA swif air-
LIC BAM Vaitilats
reserved and
Rum
rides
f his four
sive-prey Robis Royee--with
top back seats
11t Je convenience
WIZARD
They have been buying man- sion: and Lungalows-up to now the Shaws vwn 10 man- sions and sence f bungalows used as guest houses scattered all over Southeast Asia.
The poles do come together, However, when Rimm younger of the two,
Run. Anmutes
10 out
montidy between two ports duse plans end thresh Boblems with his brother.
W! He Runire is a financiel WIZATO. Run Run is the business Spearhead
Though Hun
Kun works his
sia i a3 huurs of the day and night, he commands fanatic kavally
From cameraman to movie mogul-Run Run Shaw.
He holds court at 2 ath and insists upon knowing the de- Lalls. When he gives a ban-
Shaws' rise to power parul- quet. he works out everything himself down to the specifie leied the history of the Chinese Lype of flower for the table movie industry.
layout.
HARD WAY
This thoroughness also marks the way he goes about the career. He spent years learning every phase of the film industry catting. camerawork, make-up. script-writing and directing. He knows what
other
In 1923, when their family fortune was at a low ebb, the Shaw brothers beid an einer- gency conference in Shanghai to decide whether to sell the family theatre or the only house they had.
They decided to sell the house and live in the thestre
ACCIDENT
The Arsi night the hero
the air and leapt into
fell right through the rotten floor board of the stage. The au- dience, thinking It part of the plot roared with laughter.
The brothers nade the ac- cldent a permanent part of the show.
Reputedly the Arst Chinese filmi, "Man from Shensi" set the golden eggs rolling Into Shaws' bank account.
The film cost, the brothers two thousand dollars and earn- ed them hundreds of thousands.
With such u fantastic profit margin and a potential market of 500 million customers in sight, there seemed to be * golden minc for the budding film industry in China.
Bul
BLOW
incessant Wars
strife, und natural disasters nade the lucrative market un- tenable.
The crowning blew was the rise of warlordism and private armies. These soldiers gatecrashed the theatres in their territories, nodding their heads as cumplimentary tlo- kets. BBW the shows Estd created scenes. And gradually audientes dwindled.
So in 1825, the Shaws looked south. Runme lurked three films
Beginning a new series by staff
writer DAVID LAN
diately. They bought up the only equipment available and were ready before anyone else by stizing control of the pro- duction and distribution sides of the industry.
Newly completed and ultra modern Shaw House and Show's Lido Theatre in Singapore. The Lido is one of the 127 theatres the Shaws own throughout. Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, the Shaws res, selain monument to the mile executive desk to steer the organised themselves, Brother lionaires philanthropy.
course of the plant enterprise. Run Jl refused to leave Shang-
He spends his; mording giv- hat where he remained with $5 For nostalgic reasons, their Ing directives, reading mai? million of the company's assets; headquarters, however, remains which he insists on plying to Rup Di went into semi-retire in the same old building where the same day.
TITANS FROM THE NORTH
into a abre suitcase and went steerage to Singapore.
Having combed the Malay peninsula, Rurime found to his consternation that there were no movie theatres whatever.
He scraped up enough capital to build four, Alimsy
in
structures Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh.
SMALL ROOM
In 1926, he sent for the younger Run Fun and started
It was the time when Ameri- a partnership, Laying the can silent films were making a foundation of the Shows' debut in Shanghai by throwing empire.
Charlie
pies and flaunting
At that time, their head- Chaplin. People queued for quarters was a small back room hou's.
in a four-stortyed office build-
It
was home. He
also
The brothers decided to in. ing in Singapore. he is talking about when he dis-
Among themselves, the vest in a movie camera. After a cusses production or any
brothers arranged to present five-minute run-down by the movie problens with his staff.
play which was an immediate salesman how to operate the
went Born of a theatrical family, hit. All Shanghai came to see camera, the brothers
melo- film "Man from Shensi" by day Run Run, like his three other "Man from Shensi,"
continued theatre per- brothers, has come up the hard drama with a Robin Hood style and
hero,
formance by night. way.
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to
Run Run's Sperous together until 1941 when worked there by the Japanese overran Asia.
The Shaws then day and, by night, slept
converted all their available assets into wedged between Alm cans and
cash, jewels and gold. Shortly movie equipment. He had barely
before the fall of Singapore enough to buy
In February, himself a twice-daily bowl of
1942, they buried all their treasure In noodles.
their garden.
Shaw's new movie studio! they rented their first office room at Clearwater. Bay. Con- a quarter of a century ago.
struction going on.
work is stili
ment in Hongkong, Run Bah and
In between he receives directors, stare producers and executives, and answers phone calls which are incessant.
His afternoons are taken un with script comference on Thursday's lasting for four hours at a stretch,
On other days the week, the afternoons are reserved for. social engagements.
Any free afternoon he will disappear into his preview room one of, the cinemas to see rushes or films,
BATHHOUSE
As often as possible, he nips down to the studios to watch shooting
If is nine-to-Ave for him on Saturdays On Sundayalo he Tises later than usual and dresses fancier and then break- fasts out with his wife.
By 10 am, he arrives at Kowloon Tong Club to watch his staff play badminton, in- vites them to lunch and later drives all lady stare home:~**
A merger of East and West,
As they grew richer, the Shaws bought up the whole buliding room by room
With the Southeast Asian Bun Run still likes the Shanghai of nationalism, the market floundering on the rise style bathhouse.
Shaw's are
As there is none in Singapore, In 1932, plummeting tin and When the Japanese arrived, Runme in business.
looking to the world market for he often drivès straight to rubber prices In Malaya was the Shaws lost everything. Their In the two years between survival and expansion in the bathhouse in Hondco putting almost everyone out of theatres were ruined, their
1958 and 1959, the Shaws years to come, business. Movie theatres toppled equipment stolen, their houses
Kat Tak Airport **** carried out -a fantastic pro-:
turns from that one after another.
burnt, all their assets went up
owa This, In Rún Butts ow gramme of expansion-bulld words, means "top-quality pro- For dis pleasure, Run Run suggested Importing in flames.
ing 22 theatres throughout kiction and co-operation among foreign "talkies.” The Shaws
Singapore and... Malaya Ins period of 24 months, adding one new theatre a month: to their already extensive'cir eult.
not only survived but thrived.
The
first "talky machine"
they imported was a portable
STILL RICH
and they commuted from one The night the Japanese came theatre to another "with both bursting into their office,
OUT
Kun
of us sleeping on either side of Run and Rumme escaped across
magic money-making the roof in their pyjamas. machine like folthut watch- dogs."
TALKIE
Having successfully pioneered talkies in Malaya in the latter part of 1932, the Shaws wit
to produce the first ever Chinese talkie, "White Golden Dragon" in Shaws' newly- opened Hongkong studios.
After the
war, the Shaws found their garden treasure trove intact.
MONUMENT
Today, the Shaw Organisation has remained primarily a family concern employing more than 5,000,
Astan producers,"
TEETOTALER
And this is why he has bufit
the re
house has been planned in his villa beside his new studios in Clear Water Bay::
Aman
Me
takes a long time to def Once he has made up his nina he will never change it.
a US$5,000,000 studio complex
in Clear Water Bay travelled
and to Hollywood America late in 1960.
Since the start of Astan Film Festivals in 1954, Shaw Brothers
"The pearls were a little brown, the watches rusty, the bank notes mildewed but the At least 170 films travel their have won 15 awards.
It was gold was nice and yellow, the croult each year.
A non-smoker and teetotaler, estimated that half diamonds, sapphires
& milion Run Ruh uses his luxurious emeralds in excellent form offices daily and more are en parties.
people file past. Shaws box villa in Repulse Bay only for We were still rich."
tertained in Shaws ten amlise-
a11
Taking advantage of the ment paris E post-war entertainment famine In Singapore recently they put in Asia, Run Run and Hunme up a $10 milión Shay Founda- pro- renovated their theatres imme- tion Building, a glass and 'por-
From then on Shaws and the Chinese cinemas grew
up
His fortunates. *for our children
Children children
For efficiency, he has taken a-modest flat on the seventh fidor of the 12-storey- ed Shaw's Ballding in down! town Kowloon,
On a typical day Run Run rises," at 6 am For 15 15 80 minutes, he remains undis turbed while going through the Intricate movements of Chinese shadow boxing.
happy: all th
TARGET
After the exercise, he plunges OUL
into script-reading. He has to wade." through hundreds
of
screenplays to cope with his production schedule which now stands at 70 pictures a year.
DIRECTIVES
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