Kenneth George Hall, AO, OBE (22 February 1901 – 8 February 1994), better known as Ken G. Hall, was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Academy Award.
Early years
Hall was born Kenneth George Hall in Paddington, Sydney, Australia in 1901, the third child of Charles and Florence Hall. He was educated at North Sydney Boys' High School.
At age 15, with the help of his father, he gained a cadetship at the Sydney Evening News, where he became friends with a young Kenneth Slessor, then a cadet for another paper. Two years later, he became a publicist for Union Theatres, initially working as an assistant to Gayne Dexter. He had a six-month stint as manager for the Lyceum Theatre then returned to publicity, working his way up to national publicity director, "the highest post in film publicity in Australia" at that time.
In 1924, Hall joined the American distribution company First National Pictures as a publicist, and visited Hollywood the following year.
Directing career
Early years: 1928–1930
Hall began making films in 1928 when at First National he was assigned to recut and shoot additional sequences for a German movie about the Battle of Cocos, Our Emden. The resulting film, The Exploits of the Emden, was a local hit.
Hall moved back to Union Theatres, running publicity for the State Theatre in Sydney, and working on the campaign against the proposed entertainment tax from Stanley Bruce's government. He eventually became assistant to Stuart F. Doyle, managing director of the company.
Formation of Cinesound: 1931–1934
Doyle established Cinesound Productions to make local films and assigned Hall to direct a number of shorts including Thar She Blows! (1931), about the whaling industry, and That's Cricket (1931). He then gave Hall the job of directing a film adaptation of the popular play On Our Selection, adapted by Bert Bailey from the writings of Steele Rudd about the adventures of a fictional Australian farming family, the Rudds, and the perennial father-and-son duo, 'Dad and Dave'. Hall persuaded Bailey to reprise his stage performance as Dad Rudd. The result was a massively popular film, which was among the top four most popular films in Australian cinemas in 1932, earning £46,000 in Australia and New Zealand by the end of 1933.
Hall and Cinesound decided to follow it with another adaptation of a play written by Bailey, The Squatter's Daughter (1933). It was a melodrama set in the Australian bush, and starred a discovery of Hall's, Jocelyn Howarth, who later had a Hollywood career as "Constance Worth". It was successful at the box office. During this time he made a short documentary Ghosts of Port Arthur (1933).
Hall's third feature was The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934), another melodrama based on a play (which had been based on a novel). It starred English stage star John Longden. The film encountered censorship issues but was highly popular. Dean Maitland was released on a double bill with Cinesound Varieties (1934), a short film directed by Hall featuring several musical acts.
Hall's fourth feature, Strike Me Lucky (1934), was a vehicle for stage comedian Roy "Mo" Rene, one of the most popular performers in Australia. It was Hall's first feature that was a film original, and not based on other material. However the film was not well received and Hall later said it was the only one of his movies not to go into profit.
Middle career: 1935–1937
Needing a sure-fire hit, Hall then persuaded Bert Bailey to reprise his role as Dad Rudd in Grandad Rudd (1935), based on a play co-written by Bailey. It was popular, although not as big a hit as On Our Selection.
Hall intended to follow this movie with a version of Robbery Under Arms but decided not to proceed because of uncertainty arising from a ban the NSW government had on films about bushrangers. Cinesound ceased production for several months in 1935 to enable Hall to travel to Hollywood and research production methods.
Hall returned to Australia with new filmmaking equipment and an American screenwriter Edmond Seward, who was to take over Cinesound's story department. Seward wrote Thoroughbred (1936), a horse racing drama based on the life of Phar Lap. It starred imported Hollywood actor Helen Twelvetrees and was a success.
Seward also wrote Hall's next film, Orphan of the Wilderness (1936), the story of a boxing kangaroo. It was meant to be a 50-minute movie in the vein of Cinesound Varieties but Hall decided to expand it to feature length.