Who Hit the Gong at the start of Rank films?

Answer 1

Carl Dane, a 6ft 5in (1.96m) strongman, was the first gong-banger, starting in 1932 and banging on until 1948. Because of deteriorating film stock in the early days, the sequence had to be refilmed every three years. It was no simple task either, often taking several weeks to get right, thanks to the bronze make-up covering Dane from head to foot. “The perspiration would make it streak and we’d have to start all over again,” he remembered.

He spent his early life in the circus ring as part of an acrobatic act where he was billed as the “Boy Hercules”. As an adult he was so strong that he became the first man to pull a London double-decker bus with his teeth. But ironically the gong he pounded so impressively was made of nothing but papier- mâché.

The noise was created by the percussive genius of James Blades, also famous for the “V-for-victory” Morse Code signal broadcast by the BBC during the Second World War. Blades used a Chinese instrument called a tam tam for the Rank gong noise.

Dane was superseded as the Golden Gong man by Bombardier Billy Wells in 1948. Wells was the first heavyweight to win the Lonsdale Belt (in 1911) and to have a beer named after him. But it was Dane who was considered the definitive Rank icon. “It is an extraordinary thing,” he said years afterwards. “That one episode has haunted me all my life. But I just did it for the money.”