{{infobox company | name = West's Pictures | industry = Entertainment | founder = Thomas James West | foundation = | defunct = 1912 | fate = Merged with Australasian Films | products = Film production, film exhibition }}
'''West's Pictures''' was a short-lived Australian film production and exhibition company during the silent era. It was established by English theatrical entrepreneur Thomas James West (1885–1916) who helped turn the company into one of Australia's largest exhibitors.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154552668 |title=Picture Profiles in the Olden Days |newspaper=Winner |location=Melbourne, Vic. |date=9 February 1916 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=11 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The company also produced a regular newsreel and several narrative films, some made by Franklyn Barrett.<ref>Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 26</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102805251 |title=Theatrical Gossip. |newspaper=The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People (Sydney, NSW : 1900 - 1918) |location=Sydney, NSW |date=26 August 1911 |accessdate=10 December 2014 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | title=Universalto Spetid £3,600,000 On Ambitious 1931 Schedule. | journal=Everyones. | date=4 February 1931 | location=Sydney | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-576714538 | id=nla.obj-576714538 | access-date=16 August 2024 | via=Trove }} </ref>
Many of their early films were contemporary stories made on a joint writer-technician-director basis.<ref name="shirley">Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, ''Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years'', Currency Press 1989 p 39</ref>
West partnered with Henry Hayward in presenting films in New Zealand and Australia, supplementing the film show with variety performers, "The Brescians"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234430971 |title=On and Off |newspaper=Smith's Weekly |volume=VI |issue=12 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 May 1924 |accessdate=31 March 2024 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> later establishing a chain of cinemas in Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain, including: *On 5 December 1908 West's "Olympia" (previously the Adelaide Glaciarium) opened in Hindley Street. Adelaide was the last of Australia's capital cities to have a permanent picture theatre. *In 1909 Royal Hall (later West's Cinema) on the corner of Peter Street and Bath Street, St Helier, Jersey.
West's Limited merged with Australasian Films in 1912, becoming part of "The Combine" that later became the Greater Union organisation.
T. J. West's film company was often confused in the public mind with that of A. J. West's quite separate 'Our Navy' company (incorporated 1902), but there was no connection. However, T. J. West did secure the exclusive right in 1912 to show A. J. Wests's 'Our Navy' films in Bournemouth (Bournemouth Graphic, 27/09/1912).
==Select filmography== *''The Christian'' (1911) *''All for Gold, or Jumping the Claim'' (1911) *''The Strangler's Grip'' (1912) *''The Mystery of the Black Pearl'' (1912) *''The Eleventh Hour'' (1912) *''A Silent Witness'' (1912)
==See also== {{Portal|Television|Australia}} *List of film production companies *List of television production companies
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.imdb.com/company/co0089427/ West's Pictures] at IMDb *[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Organisation%3A%22%2FOrganisation%2Fkey%2F80800-3%22;querytype=;resCount=10 West's Pictures] at National Film and Sound Archive
Category:1910s in Australian cinema Category:Film production companies of Australia