Bernstein of Leigh, Sidney Lewis Bernstein

▪ 1994

      BARON, British business executive (b. Jan. 30, 1899, Ilford, Essex, England—d. Feb. 5, 1993, London, England), built a small chain of music halls into the Granada Group, a vast multimedia empire that included Granada Television, one of Britain's first (and most successful) commercial television companies. Bernstein, who was the son of an immigrant property dealer, left school at the age of 15 to join the family business, and when his father died in 1922, he inherited a group of music halls and theatres. He soon took advantage of the burgeoning English movie industry by converting the theatres so they could show films, and in 1930 he opened the first of a chain of opulent Granada supercinemas. He also managed other theatrical houses, served as an adviser to the Ministry of Information during World War II, and produced three films directed by his friend Alfred Hitchcock. In 1954 he applied for one of the first four commercial television licenses in Britain, and in May 1956 Granada Television began broadcasting. By the time Bernstein retired as chairman in 1979, Granada was the only one of the original four still in operation and was a financial and critical success, with such popular series as "World in Action," "Brideshead Revisited," "Jewel in the Crown," and the long-running "Coronation Street." He was created a life peer in 1969.

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