29/07/1927 – 27/07/2025
From Peter James ACS ASC
John Barry is a name many of us are familiar with. Selling camera equipment and expendables, John Barry the company seems to have been around forever, in one form or another.
John Barry, the man who founded the company, was born in Melbourne in 1927. He studied cinematography at Melbourne Institute of Technology, and he then worked as a cinematographer in Melbourne shooting documentaries and ads to be shown in the cinema.
In 1956 the Melbourne Olympics were about to happen and Television was coming to Australia. John was working at Swift and Bleakley in Sydney which was the only company that repaired cameras and lenses and imported equipment into Australia. John was responsible in setting up all the television stations, supplying them with the gear necessary to do broadcast and filming. What a huge job.
John had a keen interest in flying gliders and when he came to Sydney, he flew light aircraft. I first worked with John 60 years ago, in the laboratory at Supreme Sound Studios in Paddington, Sydney, where he was liaison manager.
John saw there was a need for a Camera rental company and a Sales department and he teamed up with Birns & Sawyer from Hollywood to come to Australia with equipment.
Freelancing was just starting, so people needed to rent gear – before this it was all done through the TV channels or small Studios. John was a very good businessman. He bought the company and renamed it John Barry Cine Group. He soon expanded to Melbourne, Perth, Manila, then Brisbane, Adelaide and later to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and New Zealand. The company also made custom lightweight aluminium cases to protect the equipment. Later, he sold the company to Samuelson’s and the company is now part of PANAVISION.
John is an honorary member of the ACS, a member of Australian Cinema Pioneers and he’s a life member of the SMPTE and several organisations in France and the UK. John and his wife Judy were based between London, Switzerland and Sydney. John always had a huge interest in cinematographers and technology.
The ACS and the Australian film industry has lost a brilliant friend and colleague.
Our deepest sympathy to Judy and the family.
TED RAYMENT – MY MEMORIES OF JOHN BARRY
I first met John Barry in the very early 1960s when I was starting out at the ABC. He was instrumental in supplying the ABC Film Department with early Auricon Cinevoice cameras through what was then known as Birns and Sawyer but then became John Barry Sales Pty Ltd. I think he bought them out but I am not certain of the exact series of events.
John then went on to be the major supplier of Arriflex cameras and other equipment and accessories to the ABC Film Department and many other organisations and was, I believe, also the agent for Samuelson’s Film Services, later taken over by Panavision when John Barry’s became their sales division.
John became very successful with several John Barry branches around Asia and when he retired he divided his time with his second wife Judy between Australia and Switzerland where he owned property. I believe he also had an apartment in London as well. In the last several years he had dispensed with his overseas properties as he and Judy were finding the travel too difficult and settled in Sydney where they both became regulars at the Tusitala Club monthly lunches and John also attended David Lewis’s Last Friday of the Month lunches at the Northbridge Hotel.
He and Judy became good friends to Anne and me and we enjoyed their company on many occasions until Judy’s health declined to the point where John could no longer look after her and she went into care. I know this had a huge impact on John and he often commented to me on how hard he was finding life without her at his side.
Despite his great success in life he remained a humble man who enjoyed re-connecting with all his old industry colleagues’ right up until just a few weeks before his passing. I for one will miss him very much.
Rest in peace John.
Ted
From Virginia Barry, John’s daughter