Biography of 'GILLESPIE, James Stirling'

Journalist, photographer and film-maker

Born: 1908, Aberdeen
Died: 1993, Rothesay

James Gillespie Jnr was one of four children brought up in a world of cinema. His father, James senior was a missionary, evangelist and tenor before joining JJ Bennell as a silent film commentator in Aberdeen the early 1900’s. Gillespie senior moved his family to Rothesay around 1913 to manage the island’s Palace Cinema, for whom he made topicals of local events and with religious and temperance undertones. One of his films starred his son James coming out of a shop with a bottle of whisky, followed by his younger sister who was laden with all the groceries that could be bought for the same cost as the alcohol.

Stirling Gillespie (as he was known professionally) started in journalism first at the Rothesay Express, then the Daily Record, through which he met J Blake Dalrymple who was to bring Gillespie into his film company Elder Dalrymple Productions. Hired to cover the company’s literary and photographic concerns, Gillespie also became involved in the making of films. In 1936 J C Elder and Dalrymple decided to take the company out on Dalrymple’s yacht to make educational films around the world. Gillespie was to act as press correspondent for the Daily Record coverage of the trip. His cabin aboard the yacht was completely fitted out as a developing and printing studio. However, the trip was curtailed prematurely by the Spanish Civil War, so that the only substantial filming to be completed was of a later voyage to the Baltic.

In 1937 Gillespie and Dalrymple undertook an overland expedition from Cape Town to Cairo making educational films as they went. Gillespie taking photographs and film, recorded the expedition in a book "Celluloid Safari" and with the film Land of the White Rhino (1939). After the Second World War was over, Gillespie was to make only one more film with Elder Dalrymple Perchance to Sail (1947) in which he starred as a young artist at sea. He was then until his death to pursue a successful career as a watercolour landscape painter.

Researcher: Ross Ferguson

Films associated with 'COCOZZA, Enrico'

13 hits

Asc Desc
	BRITISH MOVING PICTURE NEWS NO. 165, ROTHESAY PEACE CELEBRATIONS [2336] Add to my films Footage of the peace celebrations, including the parade, crowds and band. General Sir Hunter Weston takes the salute at the Town Hall. An effigy of Kaiser Bill is hoisted up the mast of a boat.		1919 silent bw
	DUNOON AND ROTHESAY PIER [2333] Add to my films Shots of Dunoon pier from approaching steamer, passengers pass through the ticket gate.		1920 silent bw
	HOLIDAY SCENES AT ROTHESAY [2334] Add to my films Holiday-makers arriving in Rothesay by the steamer "Columba". Beach scenes, the ladies' bathing pond, the putting green.		1922 silent bw
	ISLE OF BUTE CARNIVAL [2184] Add to my films General scenes of the Isle of Bute carnival in Rothesay.		1949 silent col
	KILSYTH RAILWAY STATION [2340] Add to my films Two men alight from a North British Railways first class carriage onto Kilsyth station platform. [Fragment of film].		1920 silent bw
	LADY LAUDER IN ROTHESAY [2339] Add to my films Beach scenes. A tram approaches Ettrick Bay. Lady Lauder and party arrive to judge the sand modelling competition.		1922 silent bw
	LAND OF THE WHITE RHINO [2175] Add to my films Shot during a Cape to Cairo expedition, October 1936 to January 1938, the film shows Blake Dalrymple and J. Stirling Gillespie being taken into the bush by Zulu tracker Charlie Ninela to film white rhino. [See also refs. 2176-2177, 2183].		1939 sound bw
	MACEWEN'S FREEDOM OF ROTHESAY [2337] Add to my films Passengers disembark from steamer, possibly including Sir William MacEwen and party. General scenes of the freedom ceremony in the grounds of Rothesay Castle.		1922 silent bw
	PADDY'S MILESTONE [0916] Add to my films Ailsa Craig or "Paddy's Milestone" as the source of rock for the manufacture of curling stones.		1947 sound bw
	PERCHANCE TO SAIL [2365] Add to my films Drama concerning the yacht voyage by J. Stirling Gillespie from the West Coast of Scotland to Germany and Poland in 1936. The film includes actuality footage of both countries shot by Elder-Dalrymple Films at that time.	Onsite only	1946 sound bw
	ROTHESAY 1918 [2338] Add to my films A parade through the streets of Rothesay led by a pipe band, the colour party outside a church, with the Marquess of Graham and other prominent citizens.		1918 silent bw
	ROTHESAY ACADEMY, CHRISTMAS 1928 [2332] Add to my films Children leaving the school building and close-ups of several prominent local citizens.		1928 silent bw
	ROTHESAY FANCY DRESS PARADE [2335] Add to my films One of a collection of local topicals commissioned from cameraman in Glasgow by James Gillespie, proprietor of the Palace and later Waverley Picture Houses, Rothesay. The film shows children in fancy dress and the parade of decorated floats.		1928 silent bw