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Arnold at the Walpole.
The highlight of the weekend was a great talk by my friend Arnold Schwartzman. Arnold is the Oscar winning documentary film maker who spent his formative years in the seaside town of Margate. Arnold’s life is very much like the story of the little boy in Giuseppe Tornatore film, Cinema Paradiso.
Arnold came to the Walpole Bay Hotel near where he had grown up in Cliftonville, Margate to talk to a packed ballroom in the Edwardian Hotel on Sunday . The story he told is soon to me made into a documentary film with the working title of Margate Paradiso. For those lucky enough like Arnold and I to have grown up in the the post war years at the seaside in Margate, the town leaves unforgettable memories. If Arnold gets the backing to make his movie it will be a great success.
In 1947 Arnold and I were in a movie shot partly on the sands around Margate called The Weaker Sex.
My Dad’s friend, Roy Baker, the Director, wanted some beach scenes and Roy was persuaded to by Dad to shoot in and around Margate. When it was known there was a child in the script I was volunteered for the part. Unknown to me Arnold was also in the movie and it was not till some 50 years later we got to know each other and became friends.
Arnold found me through the memorial web site I did for my Dad and this can be found at : www.frenchpix.com/herbert.html
The talk was warmly received by all present and we all await the movie with much anticipation. Thanks to Arnold for much enjoyment last Sunday by the Seaside !