The Rank Group and Rank España in Spain (10 bingo clubs). Rank is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The company was formed to acquire the business interests of the Rank Organisation, which itself was formed out of the business interests of its founder, J. Arthur Rank. Until the start of the 21st century, the group still had a tremendous amount of leisure holdings; however, as the decade progressed it divested these interests, beginning with Pinewood Studios and the Odeon cinema chain. It also shed its engineering interests, such as its share in Rank
Fountain Studios opened in September 1929. Perhaps because of a major fire, the studio was never as successful as had been hoped. They were taken over by the American Fox Film Company, who leased the site and then bought it outright in 1936. Fox used the studio for the production of their 'quota quickies'. A change in the law in 1938 led 20th Century Fox to use other studios, but it retained ownership. During the war the studios were leased to the military (the Army Kinematograph Service and RAF Film Unit), with intermittent rental to independents. Ealing Studios filmed "Ships with Wings"