Biography

Jackeydawra Melford

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Jackeydawra Melford born in Basford, Nottingham in 1888, she began as a child performer in comedy at the Nottingham Theatre Royal in the 1890's and grew into something of a beauty, starring in drama and fantasy films written and directed by her father, Mark Melford for the Heron Film Company in 1912, she was also one of the first women in Britain to direct films with titles such as 'The Herncrake Witch' 'The Land of Nursery Rhymes' and 'The Inn on the Heath'. She married Wallace Colegate in London in 1915, and lived to the remarkable age of 98. In 1913 Jackeydawra, an enthusiastic suffragette was arrested by the police, she was seen by a constable to fire a missile from a powerful catapult and struck the Westminster Palace Hotel with resounding force, it was found the missile to be a heavy leaden bullet, with 'Votes for Women' mould on it, her father film director Mark Melford said to the court, I have no control over my daughter, Mr. Horace Smith imposed the full penalty under the Police Act of 40 shillings or month's imprisonment, her father Mark Melford at once paid the fine.
- IMDb mini biography by: Paul Rothwell-Smith

Daughter of Mark Melford. She was the second ever woman to direct a film in Britain.
The first multiplex was the Regal Twins in Manchester in 1930 which is now Studios 1 to 5.
The largest British screen is the height of a 5 story building- 62 ft x 45 ft and is at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television at Bradford.
She was the first woman director with a story about highway men called The Inn on the Heath in 1914.
The first film with a Dolby encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Ken Russell's Lisztomania in 1975. Since then over 600 films have been released with Dolby sound.

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