[20th Century Photographer] — Griffith Jones and Jessie Matthews

London: Gaumont British, [Ca. 1930s]. Original hand colored real photograph issued as a postcard. 5.5 x 3.5 inches. Very Good. Printed on verso: "Film Partners" Series, 85, Long Acre, London; No. PC 236. Penciled notation and minor wear on verso. Made in Great Britain. Gaumont-British was founded in 1898 as the British subsidiary of the French Gaumont Film Company. It became independent of its French parent in 1922 when Isidore Ostrer acquired control of Gaumont-British. In 1927 a leading silent film maker, the Ideal Film Company, merged with Gaumont. The company's Lime Grove Studios was used for film productions including Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of The 39 Steps (1935), while its Islington Studios made Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). In the 1930s, the company employed 16,000 people. In the United States, Gaumont-British had its own distribution operation for its films until December 1938, when it outsourced distribution to 20th Century Fox. In 1941 the Rank Organisation bought Gaumont-British and its sister company Gainsborough Pictures. Griffith Jones (born Harold Jones; 19 November 1909 - 30 January 2007) was an English film, stage and television actor. Born in Notting Hill, London, on 19 November 1909, Jones was the 5th child of William Thomas Jones and Harriet Eleanor J. Doughty (1878-1973), a Welsh-speaking dairy owner. In 1930 Jones was studying law at University College London when Kenneth Barnes, the Principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, noticed him in a student performance and offered him a career as an actor. His first professional engagement was in Carpet Slippers at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, in 1930, while still at RADA. He won the annual RADA Gold Medal in 1932. Jessie Margaret Matthews OBE (11 March 1907 - 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, Matthews developed a following in the USA, where she was dubbed "The Dancing Divinity". Her British studio was reluctant to let go of its biggest name, which resulted in offers for her to work in Hollywood being repeatedly rejected. .