Gordon Martin - Jack of all trades

It's hard to sum up Gordon Martin's career, because he's worn so many hats over the years. He's lent his talents to film production, journalism, photography, teaching and marketing among other activities. Some would call him a Renaissance Man, but he prefers the title Jack of All Trades!

Gordon reckons he became a film producer because his religious parents forbade him to see Hollywood movies as a child. The way they looked at it, the Lord wouldn't be pleased if He returned to earth and found Gordon at a nickel matinée. But educational films and documentaries were acceptable, and those are the kind of movies Gordon has focused on ever since.

The most interesting person Gordon has met through his work as a film producer was Lotte Reiniger, the pioneer of animated movies. Her film The Adventures of Prince Achmed was a critical and popular success when it was released in 1926 and it has influenced animators from Walt Disney to Helen Hill ever since.

Image from Lotte Reiniger's animated movie The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Gordon met Lotte Reiniger through her producer at a party in London in 1973. Reiniger hadn't made a film in ten years, but Gordon arranged for her to be invited to Canada by the National Film Board, where he was working at the time. Reiniger made two animated films at the NFB: Aucassin and Nicolette, based on a 13th century medieval song, and The Rose and the Ring, based on a story by Thackery.

Gordon's interest in still photography also came from his father, who had a camera that used 3 1/2" x 5" negatives. Gordon borrowed his father's printing frame to print his own photographs in the family darkroom. Once Gordon joined the high school camera club, he began using the darkroom there as well. He took pictures for Canadian High News, a national high school newspaper that was a training ground for Gordon and many others, including journalist Robert Fulford and philanthropist Robert McMichael, co-founder of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. With a friend, Gordon also started taking pictures for a music distributor in Toronto. Gordon and his partner were often asked to take photographs at the Casino Theatre on Queen Street, where chorus girls and well-known musicians performed. One evening Gordon photographed the country singer Hank Williams.

Gordon is currently researching his family history, a project that has taken him to the British Library in London, among other places. Two of Gordon's more colorful ancestors are Charles Martin and Silas Carpenter. Charles Martin lived on Trig Lane in London and spent time in debtors's prison in the Victorian era. Silas Carpenter was on the other side of the law - he was a detective and police administrator in Montreal and other Canadian cities.

Gordon says his favorite medium is talking. It comes to him naturally, according to his wife Pat, who points out that when they first met as practice teachers in southwestern Ontario, Gordon was the only young man she could have an intelligent conversation with. She observes that Gordon likes people, and he listens carefully. Perhaps Gordon's acquaintance Marshall McLuhan was thinking of Gordon's warm nature when he said "the medium is the message."