Pinewood Studios continued to be based at the studios since then. J. Arthur Rank (by now Lord Rank) retired as chairman in 1962 and was succeeded by John Davis, who had begun to move the Rank Organisation away from mass film production and towards more profitable and less risky businesses like bingo and holidays. The 1970s were an uncertain period for Pinewood and the film industry in general, with the studios being used more for television programmes, including ITC Entertainment's "UFO" (1970), "The Persuaders!" (1971), starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, and "" (1975–77). Throughout the lean years of the 1970s the
Elstree Studios opened a film vault service. The Rank Organisation bought the music stage for the production of documentary films. It later became the headquarters of the film and sound-effect libraries. Amalgamated Studios Ltd constructed a large studio on the north side of Elstree Way between 1935 and 1937, but its plans collapsed and the facility was soon sold to Rank, who never used it for making films. After a brief period owned by the Prudential, the studios were purchased by the American film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1944 and was renamed MGM-British Studios. After improvements the studio contained seven stages totalling