Headquartered at the Columbia-Warner House in London,[1] Williams had European-language divisions in Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and West Germany.
In the period 1956–1957, at the height of Classics Illustrated's popularity, Gilberton established a number of Northern European branch companies — in Denmark (I.K.
[2] In 1962, the production of new issues of Classics Illustrated shifted from Gilberton's New York offices to Thorpe & Porter in London, with the founder/publisher's son, William E. "Bill" Kanter, overseeing everything beginning in 1963.
That same year, Thorpe & Porter, after going bankrupt, was also bought by National;[4] this sale included all the Gilberton World-Wide Productions European branches.
In 1971, Warner's international distribution operations merged with Columbia Pictures to form Columbia-Warner Distributors.
At this point, in the summer of 1971, with Thorpe & Porter now part of Warner, the T & P U.K. brand was mostly replaced by Williams Publishing and Distributing Co. Ltd..
[5] Roger Noel Cook became UK CEO of Williams Publishing in c. 1974, with his focus mostly on the men's magazine division.
The U.K. Williams also produced "saucy" books and posters, as well as a line of softcore pornography magazines with titles like Sex International News, True Love Stories,[4] Cinema X, Cinema Blue, Parade, Game, Blade, Voi, and Sensuous.