Wood`s son John C. Wood Jr. and John Payne of (WWII Round Table of Virginia) were the presenters of an exhibition at the Virginia Production Alliance Presentation and Meeting Monday night February 25th, 2013 at Artworks, featuring John C. Wood Jr.`s father`s company TV & Motion Picture Productions. The presentation was at 6:30 pm followed by a business meeting at 7:30. "The Virginia Production Alliance (VPA), headquartered in Richmond, was formed to promote production in the Commonwealth. We unite the Virginia creative community — professionals involved in film, video, audio and new media — and provide valuable educational, social, and networking opportunities that help grow the industry."
The exhibit consisted of photos from John C. Wood`s life, including his days as a photographer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and his WWII service. The highlight of the exhibit was the continuous showing of a 16 mm film by TV & Motion Picture Productions made for the Appalachian Power Company (American Electric Power Company) in 1962 called Sky Hook For A High Line, which I secured from Creative Services at AEP Communications. J.C.Wood Jr. shared with the attendees his experiences accompanying his father on movie making adventures. He told of flying in helicopters and planes while his father shot footage while flying the crafts.
Appalachian Power had a project to build power lines from Roanoke across the mountains to West Virginia. The mountainous terrain and limited access caused Appalachian Power to come with the idea of using helicopters to airlift aluminum transmission towers to remote locations. John C. Wood loved to fly and took some fantastic footage of the mountains of Virginia. In pages 3-12 of the book Hollywood Homestyle: Making Motion Pictures During the Brief Heyday of 16mm Industrial Films, Fred Frechette, author and one time partner of Wood, describes his experiences during his partnership with Wood and the filming of Sky Hook For A High Line. Frechette was present at the screening for the company`s top brass at AEP headquarters in New York .
John C. Wood made a number of films for companies such as Reynolds Metal, Philip Morris, A.H. Robins Pharmaceuticals, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Thalhimers, American Machinery & Foundry, Westinghouse, General Electric, Commonwealth of Virginia, Virginia Electric Power Company, and American Oil, before his death in 1967. TV & Motion Picture Productions had their office at 207 East Main Street as well as Dawn Street in Richmond Virginia. Wood was also a correspondent for CBS. John C. Wood Jr. has a vast collection of his fathers negatives which I hope to digitize over the next couple of years. It will be a huge undertaking, but there is a chunk of 1940`s -1960`s Richmond history waiting to be rediscovered when I turn those negatives in to photo images. John C. Wood Jr and I are discussing making some of the photographs available for sale as well.
The manager of Creative Services at AEP has requested me to send photos made during the filming of Sky Hook For A High Line and the Smith Mountain Lake project to him to add to AEP`s historical archive.
J.C. Wood Jr. worked with me at R.T. Sunday Company until it went out of business in 2004. We have remained friends ever since. I look forward to working with him on digitizing his fathers negative collection.
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| John C. Wood exhibit at Virginia Productions Alliance presentation |
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| John C. Wood Jr. at Virginia Productions Alliance presentation |
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| advertisement for TV & Motion Picture Productions |
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| awards from the Richmond Times-Dispatch |
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| discussion of the film |
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| J.C. Wood with John Payne |
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| J. C. Wood Jr. beside book Hollywood Homestyle and his father`s film presentation |
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| John C. Wood & his mobile camera platform atop his 55 Chevy Nomad on Monument Ave. at the Robert E. Lee Monument |
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| John C. Wood shooting photos from a piper cub plane Please contact J.C. Wood Jr. (804-779-2714) if you know any of the employees pictured in the TV & Motion Picture Productions company photo, or if you or any one you know might have known John C. Wood, the photographer & movie maker. Please contact me at SundayHistorical@gmail.com regarding this post or if you are having trouble commenting on this post. Thanks Laura Smith |
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