“WHEN YOU CAN’T COOK YOUR GOOSE, YOU’RE GONE”
Born Erszsebet ‘Boezsi’ Guttman in Berlin, both her parents were of Hungarian / Czech origin. They were Adele and Heinrich (known as Harry) Guttman. The family was Jewish and were very wealthy having made their money in vineyards and distilleries in Lower Carpathia, in what is now Hungary.
This was a part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire that had changed hands many times in the chaos that followed the First World War.
Harry had originally qualified as a rabbi, but hated the religious life, so he changed career and became a journalist. He worked in Austria, Sweden and Spain before marrying Adele in 1919.
He was nearly executed in the Communist Uprising in Hungary in 1920, so the couple fled to Berlin – hence Erszsebet being born there.
Soon after her birth, the Guttman family moved to Paris.
Harry was writing for various magazines, but soon realised there was more money to be made from photographs. He started assembling a massive photo archive. Erszsebet grew up surrounded by photo-journalism.
She had a knack for picking up languages quickly, speaking Hungarian and French.
The family kept on moving. They had a brief stay in Munich where Erszsebet instantly learned the German language.
The Guttmans were extremely disturbed by the violence they saw from the Brownshirts, so moved on from Munich very quickly.
They moved back to Austria but felt the Nazi threat there as well.
To get out of Austria, they had to bribe Nazi sympathising guards with Elizabeth’s christening gifts of a gold medallion and chain.
Brief spells in both Switzerland and Belgium followed, but Erszsebet’s parents still feared the Nazis.
In November 1934, the family arrived in London. They rented basic accommodation – and Harry still had his treasured photo archive with him – approximately a quarter of a million photos.
Erszsebet anglicised her name to Elizabeth and quickly became fluent in English, reading Dickens within two months of her arrival.
Elizabeth had grown to hate the Nazis, so at the outbreak of the Second World War, was thrilled to watch English planes shooting down the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.
However, tragedy struck when her mother, Adele, died of cancer just as the Blitz began. Elizabeth was just fifteen years old.
On a freezing night during the Blitz, Elizabeth was crouched by the kitchen boiler reading ‘Gone with the Wind’. Her father suggested an early night. Shortly afterwards, a massive bomb was dropped by the Luftwaffe, and it destroyed most of the street – including their kitchen. Luckily, their bedroom, at the back of the house, was unscathed. Father and daughter hid behind the boxes of his archive, until the attack was over.
Elizabeth helped her father catalogue his complete archive.
She achieved very high grades in her education, but as a foreigner, no British university would accept her.
Instead, she went to Secretarial School.
Her father’s contacts led her to get a job as a secretary for the Free French in London. Elizabeth was quickly running her own department, aged just nineteen, getting supplies to the troops – anything from “Explosives to ‘preservatifs” (condoms).
It was through friends that she met Frank Selby (birthname Ferenc Saluzinszky), a Hungarian soldier in exile, and they started a romance.
They were married at the end of the war in Marylebone Town Hall. There were very few guests and they had an inexpensive reception due to rationing.
They then treated themselves to a slap-up meal at the Czech restaurant in the Edgware Road. They booked a rare treat – goose. When they sat down to eat their pre-booked meal, it turned out to be fish. Goose was off the menu.
For their honeymoon, Elizabeth and Frank took the Golden Arrow train to Paris and then toured all their pre-war haunts throughout Europe – France, Switzerland, Prague, Budapest etc. They loved France and Switzerland but recognised the fear of communism in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In those countries, they could only meet their families in secret.
Back in London, they struggled financially, both going through a number of jobs. They worked together well, complementing each other – Elizabeth with her linguistic and organisational skills and Frank with his persuasive charm.
In 1948, they created a photograph agency called ‘Rex Features’. Harry sold part of his photo archive to Picture Post, enabling Elizabeth and Frank to buy a house in Brondesby Park, North London – although Harry continued to collect photographs.
Rex Features was syndicated with Lynx Photo Agency in Paris and became very successful.
Meanwhile the couple had two sons, Mike and John, and a daughter, Sue. All three of them would eventually work in the family firm.
As the Selby’s business grew, their contacts expanded.
Elizabeth found herself multi-tasking, travelling around Europe to acquire new clients. She learned both Italian and Spanish.
Nevertheless, the business continued to be run from their front room.
Frank would go off to Fleet Street every day with a brief case stuffed full of photographs.
They eventually rented offices in King Street, Covent Garden, but moved a few times until they found offices near Fleet Street, where they settled. By now, Harry had donated his whole collection to them.
Elizabeth and Frank were both seen regularly socialising with journalists in Fleet Street pubs, but it was purely business – neither of them ever got drunk. Elizabeth considered themselves lucky to appoint “super salesman” Allan Day in 1966. He was considered the best in the business and stayed with them for the rest of his career.
The company were always honourable and trustworthy. They stuck to the agreed price and always delivered what was wanted.
Young photographers were always knocking on their door. Elizabeth loved giving young talent an opportunity.
One of their big scoops was in the early 60s when a young employee, Dezo Hoffman, photographed an unknown band – The Beatles. When the band popular, the images were in demand.
Elizabeth kept all the accounts personally and wrote all of the cheques. She knew each contributor in person and maintained all their contacts. She was a stickler for correct grammar and spelling and kept the photo library, knowing exactly where everything was, being able to immediately locate a required photo.
Two of their most famous photos were one of a young Prince Charles meeting Camilla Parker-Bowles at a polo match; and one of Elizabeth Hurley in her safety pin dress, with Hugh Grant, at the premier of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral”.
In 1979, an electrical fire at their office, nearly brought about the end of Rex Features. It took months of hard work, cleaning film and restoring images, to get the business back on it’s feet. They subsequently moved the office to Clerkenwell.
They received acclaim for the speed at which they produced photographs of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer’s wedding in 1981 – much faster than any other agency.
Another famous picture, taken by their agency photographer Herbie Knott, was of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher working late into the night at 10 Downing Street during the 1983 General Election.
Elizabeth was a superb cook and was known for her big staff lunches. Cakes and pastries were her specialities. And she always cooked a (real) goose at Christmas.
Eventually, she was forced to give up the staff lunches as so many people just happened to ‘drop in’ at midday, that it all became unmanageable.
The whole company was like one big family and hardly anybody ever left them to work elsewhere.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the company managed to expand into Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, their own family continued living in the home in Brondesby Park.
Elizabeth was a very good tennis player, continuing to participate well into her eighties. She was a good potter, an avid stamp collector and loved learning languages.
Frank died in Elizabeth’s arms, at their home in 2018. She was absolutely devastated. He was one month past his hundredth birthday.
She absolutely hated getting aging. One of her notable phrases was “Old age isn’t for sissies.”
Eventually, Elizabeth was forced to give up cooking as she was too frail. She said, “When you can’t cook your goose – you’re gone.”
Rex Features remains one of the biggest photo agencies in the world, supplying every British newspaper, magazine and many other publications around the globe.
After Elizabeth’s death, Rex Features was sold to Shutterstock.
RIP – Rex Images (and) Photographs
