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50-535: Originally known as Momentum Place , the tower was built as the new headquarters of MCorp Bank. The site, which included the Woolf Brothers and Volk Brothers department stores, was one of the busiest blocks in downtown Dallas. Adjacent blocks included the Neiman Marcus Building , Wilson Building , Titche-Goettinger Building and Mercantile National Bank Building . The entire block from Ervay to St. Paul

100-585: A Hollywood visit that the studio had cancelled the project because of Lewin's problems with the House Un-American Activities Committee . According to John, this resulted in the Woolf's concentration on developing transatlantic projects. Their mentor, Alexander Korda , advised against half-financing The African Queen (1951): "Two old people going up and down an African river . . . who's going to be interested in that? You'll be bankrupt!". Korda

150-1128: A deal with the BBC to gain access to Rank's nineteen feature offerings. In 1987, the Rank Film Distributors group received a $ 100 million fund for film financing, and the Rank Film and Television division had invested in $ 32 million that they would take the budget against non-U.S. rights. In 1995, the Rank Group acquired all the outstanding shares of the Rank Organisation. In spring 1997, the Rank Group sold Rank Film Distributors, including its library of 749 films, to Carlton Communications for £65 million and immediately became known as Carlton/RFD Ltd. Pinewood Studios and Odeon Cinemas were both sold off in February 2000 for £62 million and £280 million respectively. The company finally severed its remaining connections with

200-653: A debt of £16 million, and reported an annual loss of £3.5 million. Managing Director John Davis cut staff, reduced budgets and concentrated film production at Pinewood. Other studio facilities (in Islington ) were closed, sold (Lime Grove Studios) or leased (Denham). The Rank Organisation closed Independent Producers Ltd. The policies of Davis alienated many in the industry; in particular they led film director David Lean , responsible for some of Rank's most critically and financially successful films, to look elsewhere for backing. J. Arthur Rank stepped down as managing director of

250-482: A group profit of over £6 million and stated 41% of its film production income came from overseas. In October 1964 Davis reported profits of £4.6 million. From 1959 to 1969, the company made over 500 weekly short cinema films in a series entitled Look At Life , each film depicting an area of British life. From 1971 to 1976, Rank only invested around £1.5 million a year in film production. According to executive Tony Williams "the two main streams that they were down to

300-481: A large corporation. In 1948, they went to S.G. Warburg for financial backing for two new companies, Independent Film Distributors, and a production arm, Romulus Films. According to critic Ronald Bergan in his obituary of Sir John Woolf: "Their aims were ambitious: to produce artistically valuable and yet commercially viable films, whose subjects would be wider than the Little Englanderism of British pictures of

350-484: A partnership with the Haloid Corporation to form Rank Xerox , to manufacture and promote its range of plain paper photocopying equipment. In later years, the waning film company assets were hastily converted and pressed into 'Rank Xerox' service. This venture was a huge gamble but ultimately the company's saving grace, until, once more in financial difficulties, it signed off increasing percentages of its holdings, to

400-586: A portfolio of 10 service areas until the takeover of Mecca Leisure Group by the Rank Group in 1991, when they were spun off to ex-Mecca CEO Michael Guthrie under the name Pavilion (later acquired by Granada and now forming part of Moto Hospitality ). There were other small specialised groups, including Rank Taylor Hobson who made inspection equipment, Rank Cintel who made telecine (television film scanners) machines, and Gaumont Kalee who made audio analysis equipment. During this period, Rank started focussing on primarily solidly commercial ventures, largely aimed at

450-457: A producer. In 1968 he bought British and American Film Holdings from Minster Trust. That year he produced his first film on his own, Oliver! , which ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture. John Woolf was knighted in 1975 and remained a director of Anglia Television until 1983. In 1982 he joined Bernard Delfont and Max Rayne to form First Leisure Corporation , of which he was a director. He

500-404: A quick mind that panned and found the nuggets before other prospectors on the trail had even arrived at the mine... Jimmy was a shield, quite fearless when tackling the front offices. He knew everybody and he was rich enough in his own right not to have to depend on the largesse of others when it came to getting a project off the ground. He had taste: taste in actors, taste in subject matter... There

550-575: A spokesman for Rank. The following year, Rank reported a record pre-tax profit of £102 million. According to Tony Williams: After a time Rank Film Distributors was in trouble because they hadn't got any new product. So Rank Film Distributors was then given chunks of money to go and buy into pictures because they made a blunder. And they carried on, on that basis, not directly making them and they had no direct control over what they made at all, no influence. They just bought into pictures. They did an output deal with Orion and that carried on until they sold

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600-495: A star. In the mid '50s they formed a partnership with Korda, helping him to finance his films, including Richard III (1955). By 1959, they estimated their movies had earned more than £3million overseas. John Woolf became interested in Room at the Top after seeing an interview conducted by Woodrow Wyatt with the novel's author John Braine on Panorama on 8 April 1957. He bought a copy of

650-470: A worldwide distribution deal with StudioCanal . In 1971, film critic Alexander Walker wrote about James Woolf: [He] was a rarity in British films at the time, and would still be so if he was alive today: a man of taste and judgement who loved craftsmanship and supported a director instead of suffocating him or using him as a surrogate talent for the film he himself would have liked to direct had he dared... He

700-539: The Mercantile National Bank Building . At time of completion it was the most legally-contested building on the Dallas skyline due to the economic downturn of the late 1980s and the savings and loan scandal . MCorp Bank collapsed shortly after the building's opening and the bank was dissolved by Bank One . Developers and financial backers sued over ownership of the tower. Other parties defaulted on loans, and

750-531: The Royal Ballet . In February 1956 Davis announced Rank would make 20 films at over £3 million. He said "great care will be taken to ensure that, while retaining essentially British characteristics the films will have the widest international appeal. This is part of an intensified drive to secure ever widening showing in overseas markets which already return more than half the revenue earned by Pinewood films." That year, Rank announced it would set up distribution in

800-788: The Teacher Retirement System of Texas for $ 238 million. On December 14, 2006, Crescent sold the structure for US$ 216 million to Los Angeles –based Metropolitan Real Estate Developers. On March 6, 2007, Comerica announced its decision to relocate its corporate headquarters to Dallas. In August the company announced that it selected 1717 Main Street in Downtown Dallas and that the tower would be renamed Comerica Bank Tower. The company executives began moving into 1717 Main Street in November 2007. The firm TM Advertising planned to move into

850-581: The "classic" Rank TV ran in the mid to late 70s, some interim models appeared and the "modern" Rank TV appeared in the early 1980s. The NEC badge did not appear in the PAL /220/240 volt countries until the mid-1980s. Top Rank was one of the early operators of motorway service areas in the UK, opening its first services at Farthing Corner on the M2 in Kent in 1963. Top Rank operated

900-605: The Cannes Film Festival in 1980, Ed Chilton of Rank announced a £12 million slate of projects. However, by June, they withdrew from production once again. "The decision was made to plunge on in and then it was pulled back", said Williams. The Rank films that had been announced for production – including an adaptation of HMS Ulysses , The Rocking Horse Winner and a film version of To the Manor Born – were cancelled. "It now takes too long to recoup money on films," said

950-539: The Rank Organisation in 1952, but remained as chairman until 1962. In October 1955 the company reported its film production was "satisfactory". In 1945, the company bought the Bush Radio manufacturing facility and began to diversify its interests. In the early 1960s Rank took over Murphy Radio to form the Rank Bush Murphy Group (which was eventually sold to Great Universal Stores in 1978). In 1956 Rank began

1000-434: The Rank Organisation's associated acting school often referred to as "The Charm School", was founded in 1945. It launched several careers including those of Donald Sinden , Dirk Bogarde , Diana Dors and Christopher Lee . Although she was not a member of the school, Petula Clark was under contract to Rank for a period of time and starred in a number of films released by the studio, including London Town (1946), one of

1050-464: The Sands and Silver Dream Racer . Many of these stories were set in the past. "You have to go back in time to tell a story that doesn't have to face seventies problems", said Williams in 1978. "What people are nostalgic for isn't necessarily any particular period, but the happier values that are missing today." Few of these new Rank films performed well at the box office, losing £1.6 million overall. At

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1100-569: The US. In October Davis listed the Rank actors he thought could become international stars: Dirk Bogarde , Peter Finch , Kay Kendall , Jeannie Carson , Virginia McKenna , Belinda Lee , Michael Craig , Tony Wright , Maureen Swanson and Kenneth More . In October 1957, at the 21st birthday for Pinewood Studios, Davis said Rank would make 18 films this year and 20 the next, with the latter costing £5 million. However cinema attendances fell. In September 1958

1150-486: The book the next day, and quickly purchased the film rights. Individually, John was instrumental in the formation of Anglia Television in 1958 and James wrote novels. In 1963, the Woolf brothers ran into trouble from the film distributors' Defence Organisation owing to their refusal to withhold the rights to their old cinema films from the sale to television. There was some talk that their new films would be boycotted by British cinemas, but that did not happen. By now

1200-464: The brothers were working separately. James went to Hollywood to produce King Rat . Shortly afterwards he was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel when he failed to keep a dinner arrangement with director Lewis Gilbert about making a film version of the musical Oliver! . A hotel employee found him dead, sitting up in bed with an open book on his lap; the cause was reported to be a heart attack. He

1250-482: The building on January 2, 2008. It was scheduled to take four floors, with a total of 130,000 square feet (12,000 m) of space. 340 employees were scheduled to move there. The space TM moved into was previously occupied by TXU Energy . Woolf Brothers Sir John Woolf (15 March 1913, London – 28 June 1999, London) and his brother James Woolf (2 March 1920, London – 30 May 1966, Beverly Hills, California) were British film producers . John and James founded

1300-484: The building went into foreclosure in 1991 and again in 1995, the two largest in city history. Without a lead tenant, the tower was remarketed into fully leasable class AA office space. Due to the economic downturn , this was the last high-rise to be completed in downtown in the 1980s. In 1997 Crescent Real Estate Equities, in partnership with the financer Trizec Properties, bought the Bank One Center from Cigna and

1350-458: The company chairman. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution, and exhibition facilities as well as manufacturing projection equipment and chairs. It also diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox ). The company name lasted until February 1996, when

1400-404: The company had lost £1,264,000 on films causing the group's profit to drop from £5 million to £1.8 million. John Davis wound up several long term contracts Rank had with talent. "The trouble with some of them is they won't work," he said. "They lose their sense of proportion." To recoup some of their losses, Rank sold Ealing Studios and its library to Associated British Picture Corporation . In

1450-465: The costliest flops in British film history. Also under contract to Rank was the Canadian actor Philip Gilbert . The company grew quickly, largely through acquisition. Significant developments included: By the late 1940s J. Arthur Rank (or the Rank Organisation as it was now called), owned: Despite funding films which were both popular and critically acclaimed, Rank was in crisis by 1949, having built up

1500-577: The family market. These include the popular Norman Wisdom comedies, the Doctor films series and, later, Rank took on the Carry On film series from Anglo-Amalgamated . Films of note were produced during this era including Carve Her Name with Pride , Sapphire , A Night to Remember and Victim , as well as a clutch of prestige topics such as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and filmed performances by

1550-501: The late 1940s the brothers' uncle, Maurice Woolf, left £130,000 to a showgirl, Prudence Wise. John Woolf challenged the will and settled out of court. Sir John Woolf's son, Jonathan Woolf, revived Romulus Films as of 1999, producing the film Revelation (2001). In 2013, Romulus Films, Ltd. changed directions from film production to regenerative medicine, being involved in a $ 5 million stock and warrant purchase funding arrangement with BioTime Inc. In April 2021, Romulus signed

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1600-439: The late 1950s Sydney Box became head of production although he retired from the industry in 1959. In January 1960, John Davis announced that Rank would concentrate on bigger budgeted, internationally focused productions. In 1961 they announced a production slate of a dozen films worth £7 million. In October 1962 Lord Rank resigned as chairman of the company and was replaced by managing director Davis. That year to company made

1650-581: The name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group plc . The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997. The company logo, the Gongman , first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film Distributors and seen in the opening titles of the films, became a celebrated and enduring film emblem. The company founder J. Arthur Rank, born in Kingston upon Hull , UK,

1700-441: The parent company, finally becoming fully integrated into Xerox in the late 1990s. Rank was also a significant shareholder in the consortium which became Southern Television , the first ITV television contract holder for the south of England . In the late 1950s, The Rank Organization set up Rank Records Ltd. , the record label division was named Top Rank Records and Jaro Records (a US subsidiary). In 1960, Top Rank Records

1750-513: The period, and featuring big stars." James Woolf's obituary in The Times stated that John "was the main financial brain and James primarily in charge of artistic policy." The first Romulus release was Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) with James Mason and Ava Gardner . The American director-producer Albert Lewin had begun to prepare the film for MGM, but James Woolf discovered on

1800-422: The production companies Romulus Films and Remus Films , which were active during the 1950s and 1960s, and the distribution company Independent Film Distributors (known as IFD), which was active 1950–59 and handled the UK distribution of films such as The African Queen and Gift Horse , as well as several films made by their two production companies (such as Room at the Top ). John and James Woolf were

1850-414: The shooting match. Then the decision was made to get out of (the) film (industry), so RFD was closed down, Rank Film Advertising was sold off, eventually, the laboratories went. Cinemas was the last one to go. In 1982, the company partnered with Andre Blay Corporation to license its British title library to home video. In 1986, Rank Film Distributors, and archrival Cannon Screen Entertainment had signed

1900-411: The sons of the British producer C. M. Woolf (1879–1942), who was co-producer with Michael Balcon of two early Alfred Hitchcock films, Downhill (1927) and Easy Virtue (1928). Woolf senior was a major figure at Gaumont British and established General Film Distributors in 1937. John and James were educated at Eton , while the older brother also attended Institut Montana, Switzerland. John

1950-473: Was 46 years old. Bryan Forbes later claimed the heart attack was brought on by an accidental overdose of painkillers. Gilbert had to pull out of the Oliver! project shortly before filming began because of his Paramount contract. John Woolf remembered The Fallen Idol (1948), which suggested to him that its director, Sir Carol Reed , had the requisite skills to work with children. John continued his career as

2000-515: Was Carry On pictures and horror films made by Kevin Francis". However, in 1976, Rank enjoyed much success with Bugsy Malone (which they co-produced with Paramount Pictures , who held its American rights). This encouraged them to re-enter film production. In 1977, Rank appointed Tony Williams head of production and over two years Rank made eight films worth £10 million, including Eagle's Wing , The Shout , The Thirty Nine Steps , Riddle of

2050-532: Was a sadness about him at times because he had demons to fight, and in the end he died alone. In 2022, John Woolf was portrayed by Reece Shearsmith in the British-American film See How They Run . Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation ) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937, Rank also served as

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2100-471: Was already a wealthy industrialist through his father's flour milling business, Joseph Rank Ltd , before making his start in filmmaking by financing short religious subjects in line with his Methodist beliefs. As Rank was a Methodist Sunday School Teacher, he wished to introduce these beliefs to a wider audience. The Rank Organisation was established, as a means for Rank to consolidate his filmmaking interests, in 1937. A loose collective of filmmakers

2150-504: Was also a trustee of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund. James was gay and was rumoured to be a lover of Laurence Harvey . John Woolf was married three times. His second wife was the actress Edana Romney . His third wife, Ann, was the daughter of director Victor Saville . She survived him. In 1999, the year of his death, John Woolf was estimated to be worth £40 million, through a combination of his films and shrewd investments. In

2200-425: Was an obsessional filmmaker, loving the wheeling and dealing, relishing the juggling with human talents that it involved, and taking pleasure in spotting youthful proteges and promoting their careers, thereby gaining a vicarious satisfaction from their success that was lacking in his own basically lonely nature. Filmmaker Bryan Forbes concurred: He was a midwife for talent and smacked many of us into life... He had

2250-460: Was created in 1960, bringing together Rank's acquisitions in multimedia, including Bell & Howell (acquired with Gaumont British in 1941), Andrew Smith Harkness Ltd (1952) and Wharfedale Ltd (1958). Subsequent acquisitions included Strand Electric Holdings (1968) and H.J. Leak & Co. (1969). In the mid and late 1970s, Rank Audio Visual made a 3-in-1 stereo music centre, as well as TV sets in conjunction with NEC of Japan. The production of

2300-402: Was established by Rank under the banner of Independent Producers Ltd. including The Archers , consisting of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger , Cineguild Productions , consisting of David Lean , Ronald Neame , John Bryan , and Anthony Havelock-Allan , the filmmaking duo of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat , and the directors Ken Annakin and Muriel Box . The Company of Youth ,

2350-478: Was leveled to make way for the new tower. The original design as proposed by Johnson called for several office buildings, a hotel and a large shopping mall designed in an ornate classical style. MCorp Bank instead desired a more restrained office tower without any retail; the design for the banking hall was also scaled down. Construction began in 1985 and the tower opened in 1987, with MCorp initially leasing 600,000 square feet (56,000 m) of space after moving from

2400-538: Was proved wrong. From this John Huston film they gained international critical and financial success. Two further films directed by Huston followed, Moulin Rouge (1952) and Beat the Devil (1953), but were less successful. Romulus became one of the most significant English production companies of the time. They made several films with producer Daniel Angel and helped turn Laurence Harvey , whom they had under contract, into

2450-508: Was taken over by EMI , and in 1962 they replaced it with Stateside Records . Top Rank Records artists included Gary U.S. Bonds , the Shirelles , B. Bumble and the Stingers , Wilbert Harrison , Skip & Flip , Andy Stewart , Craig Douglas and John Leyton . A US branch operated from 1959 to 1961; its artists included Jack Scott , Dorothy Collins , and The Fireballs . Rank Audio Visual

2500-676: Was the sales manager of General Film Distributors until it was taken over by the Rank Organisation James worked for Columbia Pictures in the Hollywood publicity department. John Woolf served in World War II and was demobilised with the rank of major. When their father died in 1942, J. Arthur Rank became director of General Film Distributors. John returned from the Army as joint managing director. However, neither John or James enjoyed working for

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