Personality - Alfred Hitchcock

Think suspense, think Alfred Hitchcock; such was the popularity of the man who made thrillers in Hollywood. Hitchcock did not have an extraordinary family background. His father, William Hitchcock, was a greengrocer and had set up his wholesale and retail fruit-selling business at Leytonstone High Road. Three of his brothers were fishmongers. William Hitchcock’s first offspring was a son, also named William. He was born in 1890. This was followed by the birth of a daughter in 1892. His third and youngest child was born on August 13, 1899 and named Alfred Joseph.
That year seemed to be a good one for English show business. Two other renowned figures came from respectable middle class families : Charles Laughton and Noel Coward.

Lonely Childhood

Alfred had a rather lonely childhood. He was the youngest child in the family, nine years younger than his elder brother was and seven years junior to his sister. By nature, he was very shy. He often resented the big age-gap among the brothers and sister. Once, during his childhood, he was not taken along on a bicycle and told that he was still a kid for such a ride. Young Alfred angrily reasoned that the bicycle should have had three wheels instead of two so that no one would fall off. It was only later that he discovered that something like a tricycle did exist and congratulated himself for the same.

In early childhood, the Sunday Mass was a must for Alfred. When he grew a little older, Alfred was allowed to deliver fruits and vegetables to grocers in the nearby area, and he enjoyed it a lot. Childhood had both sweet and sour memories attached to it. On one occasion, Alfred found himself very lonely when he woke from sleep at eight in the evening. He was alone at home, though entrusted to a nanny. William was a stern father. He took great care of his children. Once, as a lesson to young Alfred, his father sent him down to the police station with a note as per which naughty children were kept locked there. He was actually locked in for five minutes. Overall, Alfred was a quiet and well-behaved child.

Alfred briefly attended a convent school run by the Faithful Companions of Jesus. At the age of nine, he was sent to Salesian College in Battersea but Alfred did not stay there for long. His father took him away as he thought that the living conditions at that place were not proper. The next school Alfred went was St Ignatius College, Stanford Hill, where he remained till the age of 14. This place was no less strict. As a student, Alfred kept a low profile. He was not very brilliant in his studies. Geography was his favorite subject. In games, Alfred was mostly a spectator than a participant. He preferred solitude.

As he preferred solitude, he had very few friends. Even when he stepped into his teens he felt lonely having been separated from his siblings due to the age-gap. He was also curiously distanced from his parents though being the youngest child. The fear of police and authoritative figures lasted for quite some time. He was extremely sensitive and introvert, and described himself as unattractive. In youth, he had no encounter with any girl except his elder sister. He was rather shy with girls and did not know even the basic facts of life.

First Job

It is hard to imagine a shy and rather nervous teenager, watching the seemingly remote and cool blondes could handle his beautiful heroines when he entered filmdom. In 1914, Alfred’s father died. Shortly after this, he left school, saying he wanted to pursue engineering. He went to study at the School of Engineering and Navigation. There, he learnt drawing and drafting. After the training, he took up his first job as a technical clerk at the W T Henley Telegraphy Company, a firm manufacturing electric cables.

Young Alfred had taken a fascination for collection of maps and timetables. By the time he was 16, he took active interest in the geography of New York and knew it so well that he could recite all stops of the Orient Express. He even invented games with ship routes on maps of the world marking them with colored pins. These games he played with a childish enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, World War I broke out. But it did not bother him much. In 1917, he had his Army medical test, did not qualify for it but joined as a volunteer with the Royal Engineers. He became a regular cinemagoer from the age of 16. He also began to buy movie magazines regularly and seriously. He also read small, paperback volumes of Dodd’s Penny Plays. Having realized his talent, he joined a technical draftsmanship course at London University under E J Sullivan.



Creativity To The Fore

By the age 19, his interest in engineering had almost evaporated. His worked intermittently and gradually customers complained of abnormal delay. Since Alfred was a bright young man, gifted with artistic talents, he was promoted to the advertising department at the Henley’s. Here, he wrote or edited the copy for newspaper and magazine advertisements and prepared brochures. The job was of his taste. It needed him to be creative. He proved his creativity through an advertisement of a lead-covered electric wire designed especially for use in the churches and historic buildings.

In 1919, the Hollywood company, Famous Players-Lasky, which later became Paramount, was to build a studio in Islington. Here was Alfred’s chance to enter the industry but the important question was how. The opening of an American company in Britain was a mystery. The film industry in Britain had already gone through two major jolts in 1909 and 1918. This was attributed to a severe competition from the American stars, directors and technicians. Filmgoers always preferred American films to British ones. Thus, the industry was at a complete standstill. This was mainly because the British films looked amateurish compared to the foreign ones. In this competition, only a few British films were distributed outside the country.

The new company aimed at eliminating the weak points. Though the control and management of the company was done by British capital and a British Board, its equipment, considerable part of the management team and its regular staff was from America. Alfred was attracted by this company and decided that this was the right place for him to start a career.