OBITUARIES

LARRY THOMPSON AMPS

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Laurence Jennings Thompson, better known as Larry Thompson, who passed away on 7th April 2000 at the age of 79 after suffering a heart attack. Larry entered the film industry in 1935 at the age of 14, serving a three year apprenticeship at Merton Park Studios working on cinema commercials. The studios closed on the outbreak of war, and Larry came to work at Korda’s Denham Studios where we first met in 1941, Larry was employed in the Sound Department under AW Watkins, working on such pictures as Gaslight, Dangerous Moonlight and Pimpernel Smith. He was a quiet, retiring person who knew exactly what he was doing, offering help gladly to anyone who asked. We actually became neighbours and spent many hours pursuing our joint hobby of home movies, and giving film shows in air raid shelters and ARP depots in exchange for a supper of bacon and eggs.

We parted in 1942 when Larry joined the RAF and I joined the Army. But we soon met up again in our respective service film units located at Pinewood Studios. After initial training in service photography, Larry was packed off with a Visatone sound-on-film channel to join the North African Campaign in 1943. He later saw service in Italy, landing at Salerno. When VE Day finally came he was looking forward to coming home; but instead he was posted to Burma, via India and Ceylon, to join Mountbatten’s campaign. Eventually, after VJ Day, he arrived at Southampton on a troopship and was demobbed. 

Larry soon found work back at Denham Studios as a boom operator on Carol Reed’s picture Odd Man Out. But his career was halted when a random chest X-Ray examination revealed that he had contracted a tropical respiratory infection, probably in Burma although this was never proved, and so had to have one of his lungs removed. His fiancee, Lorna, was frequently by his side in hospital. Larry had met her whilst we were both on holiday at Sandown in the Isle of Wight. Eventually I was best man at his wedding in 1950, but he was finding work hard to get. He finally found employment with a film distribution company at Rock Studios, repairing film prints. In 1953 he joined me in the sound department at the new MGM Studios at Boreham Wood, working as a boom operator on Knights of the Round Table, MGM’s first Cinemascope film made in the UK. He went on to work with the Rank Organisation’s ‘Independent Frame’ unit at the Gate Studios, Elstree,

which eventually led to his employment at Pinewood in their sound department in 1954 with Cyril Crowhurst. 

Larry was an occasional contributor to the AMPS Newsletter (see issue 14, July 1995 and Issue 19, October 1996), but he will best be remembered for his untiring efforts in charge of all the photographic sound transfers at Pinewood’s three Dubbing Theatres. By this time I was working at Rank’s Denham Laboratories, so our paths continued to cross as I was developing all Larry’s sound negatives and answer prints. He could never bring himself to switch over to the video era, and was at his best when discussing films and photographic sound. 

After his retirement to the West Country in 1986 we remained good friends, and he, together with his wife Lorna, made several trips to see me in Spain. In his last letter written shortly before his death, he wrote to say that he was having difficulty in breathing, but even Lorna had no idea that it was to be life threatening. Larry loved his mint condition Bolex H16 camera, and his old home movies which he continued to show to friends. His friendly disposition will be missed by many people, and our sympathies go out to his widow, Lorna, and their son Clive.

JOHN ALDRED

John Wykes, one of the industry’s foremost experts on radio microphone design and application died on February 3rd, in a car accident. His level of knowledge and practical experience was unique. He joined Audio Engineering Ltd as an electronics engineer in 1967 and was promoted to senior engineer in 1972. During his 28 years with the company he was part of the team working on their range of radio microphone products. He amassed an immense knowledge of all aspects of radio microphone technology, encompassing RF physics, product design, environmental practicalities, spectrum management and licensing.

In 1995 he joined ASP Frequency Management where he continued his work on spectrum management and licensing. He was active on the committees (RA, CEPT, ETSI) dealing with detailed spectrum investigations (DSI) which eventually recognised the existence of radio microphones and vision links used by the nonbroadcast sector throughout Europe. 

He was largely responsible for the band plans