Yorkshire Film Sales Agency

The Yorkshire Film Sales Agency — also known as the Yorkshire Sales Agency or YSA — appears to have been formed in May 1914 by Lewis Roach[1] with offices at 30 Gerrard Street, West London.[2] It acted as a distributor for new short comedy films made by Bamforth & Co. Ltd. of Holmfirth.

The firm and its London offices were acquired by the Yorkshire Cine Co. Ltd. in October 1914.

A letter written by Horace Ottewill Bruce of the Yorkshire Cine Co. to The Bioscope in December 1914 suggests that the Yorkshire Sales Agency was created and owned by Bamforth & Co. Ltd.:[3]

The business, premises, goodwill, furniture, fittings and fixtures of the Yorkshire Sales Agency were bought in their entirety from Messrs. Bamforth and Co., Limited, and no other person or persons were in any way associated with the transaction.

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Notes and References

  1. ↑ Roach had previously worked in the publicity department of the Trans-Atlantic Film Co. Ltd. of London. The Kinematograph Weekly (19/Mar/1914) page 35 contains a brief note that Roach would shortly be leaving Trans-Atlantic. It seems likely he is the Lewis Roach (born 1899 in Edmonton, Middlesex, to Frederick and Ada Roach) listed in the 1911 Census as a journalist residing with his mother and step-father at 54 Fairholt Road, Stoke Newington. It is believed that, together with his wife Isabelle (or Isabella) Doris Roach (née Levy) whom he married in Q3 1940, he was a civilian victim of the Blitz, dying on 11 January 1941 at 108 Lambeth Road, London (if so, he is listed in the 1939 Register as a "temporary Post Office sorter" and his wife worked in a Post Office canteen).
  2. ↑ The YSA office "house-warming" was reported in Kinematograph Weekly (07/May/1914), which included private screenings of Winky Learns a Lesson in Honesty and Winky and the Flies. A Mr. Botting was also associated with the firm.
  3. ↑ The letter is quoted in full on on the Y.C.C. page.