Soaring from Beverly Hills to Paris with Paul Newman’s ‘Gullwing’
Making a name








Oil and gas company Shell may not be known for its groundbreaking filmmaking today, but in 1953, its documentary film unit was one of the most highly regarded within a private corporation. The result of increased competition between oil companies in the 1930s, Shell’s movies were used less as out-right propaganda and more as a form of media to inform and entertain audiences, using action and animation to explain the mechanical marvels of the time. The filmmakers consciously took a journalistic approach and were highly respected. One of those was R.H. Bill Mason.

