Ivor Montagu
Ivor Goldsmid Samuel Montagu ( born April 23, 1904 in London, † November 5, 1984 in London ) was an English filmmaker, editor, film producer, film critic, table tennis player, left-wing politician and probably a Soviet spy.
From 1926 to 1967 he was president of the Table Tennis ITTF.
Life
Montagu studied botany and zoology at the Royal Science College, later Zoology at King 's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Masters Degree. As a left-wing politician and activist, he initially belonged to the Socialist Party of Great Britain and later to his death the Communist Party. 1927 married the banker's son Ivor Montagu, the typist Helstern Eileen, the daughter of a shoemaker, secretly in London.
Film
Montagu founded in 1925 together with Sidney Bernstein, the London Film Society, one of the first film club that showed independent films, among others, and movies imported from abroad. During this time Montagu began even making short films he produced himself, it carried out the direction and the cut took over. In part, he wrote the screenplays for his own films. As a film critic Montagu published his contributions among others in the Observer.
His political activities led to acquaintance with Sergei Eisenstein, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. With Eisenstein Montagu traveled through Europe and later to Hollywood. His experiences on this trip Montagu described in the book With Eisenstein in Hollywood.
Montagu, who during the Spanish Civil War in Spain turned propaganda films for the Republicans later, produced and worked the end of the 1920s ( as an editor ) and the mid-1930s together (as a producer) with the young Alfred Hitchcock. 1926 was Hitchcock's first thriller The tenant, who received the blessing of the lender only after Montagu's post and thus helped establish Hitchcock's fame.
In 1934 he produced the documentary film about the first flight over Mount Everest ( Wings Over Everest ), the best short film won an Oscar in 1936. 1935 or 1936, Montagu producer of the Hitchcock thriller The 39 Steps, Secret Agent and Sabotage. In 1948 he wrote the screenplay for Scott's last ride that is based on the diaries of the Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Montagu, which was awarded on May 1, 1959 in Moscow with the International Lenin Peace Prize began in the late 1950s for the television work. Previously, he wrote the screenplay for 1956 Terence Fisher's court film The Last Man to Hang.
Table tennis
Ivor Montagu was a son of Louis Montagu, 2nd Baron Swaythling, a financier, and his wife Lady Gladys Goldsmid Montagu Swaythling ( 1879-1965 ), which the team trophy donated at the Table Tennis World Championships 1926, which was named the Swaythling Cup in a row.
Ivor Montagu, who was himself a top player of this sport, organized this World Cup 1926. He founded in 1926 the English Table Tennis Association, which he chaired until 1966. In the same year he was co-founder of the ITTF and its first president was. It was his concern to classify all table tennis associations as equal. He held until 1967 president. During this time, the number of members increased from 4 to 160 nations. His successor was Roy Evans.
His books Table Tennis Today (1924 ) and Table Tennis (1936 ) were known. In 1970 he wrote an autobiography The Youngest Son