Why Was Cinema Going so Popular in the First Half of the Century?

Frances Con zero(pre no.inal)ly Year 1 Modern Britain Linda Polley sixteenth May 2006 Essay Why was movie firm going so favorite in the front half of the century and wherefore did it adjust after 1950? Both the place upright in popularity of photographic hold going and its step for fightdstanding chasten are non lone(prenominal) well docu custodyted and discussed, but surprisingly, set come out generated little general disagreement among historiautonomic nervous system. Eddie Dyja states unconditionally that motion-picture cross-file popularity is easily apologiseed, it is cheap approachable and glamorous1. Where as most of the clean for the decline is attributed to the advent of tv set.Each is correct tho n every is the apprehend explanation of either scenario. No study would be complete without examining the social aspects of the picture going pick up, consultation lead officipation as well as demographics. The impact of the fight can non be ignored. A war while social stick to in 1943 found that 70 part of the adult population admitted attending the picture regularly. jam Chapman tells us that during this period big groups of the population are relatively burst represented in the movie theatre earshot than they are in the publics reached by early(a)(prenominal) media2.Similarly, to explain the decline in moving-picture show solely in terms of television is to ignore the fact that television had rattling been around for whatsoever meter forrader the decline. in all case although the rapid decline began in 1945 television wasnt widely addressable until after the coronation in 1953. 3 In asset, an examination of both what was hazard in the application and particularly to the cinema buildings themselves sheds further light on the decline of audiences.The first public screening of a ask in this farming in the first place a paying audience was on 20th February 1896. It was orchestrated by french magicia n Felicien Trewey victimisation a Lumiere cinematograph, at Regent Street Polytechnic in London. Admission was 1s and it marked the beginning of Britains litre year love engagement with the cinema. Luke Mc Kernan and Stephen Herbert tell us that by the close of the ni topeenth century it was securely established as a intermediate of entertainment, instruction and experiment. During the first 10 years of the ordinal century Britain was at the cutting edge of developments with the work of men like William Friese Greene who make the first pitiful picture on celluloid film in Hyde Park. Another British man, George Albert Smith, real devised the first colour strategy Kinemacolour in 1908. Interest in innovation and scientific advancement mated with a semipolitical will to potpourri the lot of the vile meant that this new, cheap form of entertainment appealed to an increase tally of heap.Social developments in the former(a) twentieth century, for example Lloyd Georges peoples figure, meant that a tardily increasing number of people had silver to spend on non indwelling items. Also increasingly, those people with specie to spend were women and they mandatory a socially welcome venue for their entertainment, the cinema fitted the bill. As they bore the brunt of the grind of daily life so their get hold of for escape and a vision of another world was expectanter. Not entirely the pickaxe of film but the whole record of cinema going were factors which drew audiences.The early small flee pits where diademical anesthetic communities self-possessed to socialise, Marwick suggests that eating, dozing and, for young couples courting, were all part of the experience5. Behaviour was somewhat little than becoming it was accepted practice for audiences to shout at the screen and across the auditorium, making it a more(prenominal) more interactive experience. The films either in the silent era or the early talkies showed a world that the clean on the job(p) contour audience could not know about any other way.Even when the images were idealised and less(prenominal) than accurate they provided a glamorous escape from the reality of poverty. When the woolgather palaces typified by the Odeon cinemas built by Birmingham man of affairs Oscar Deutsch began to replace these small local cinemas they evidently added to the glamour of the occasion by providing melody from the moment a person entered the building. ikon choice was a similarly critical indicator of the reasons people went to the pictures. The most popular films were in general the the Statesn imports.The labor in that respect had expanded exponentially, the studio system created by the major studio owners and the big home audiences allowed for the production of big budget high tonicity films on a tremendous scale. The studios spent vast amounts of time and money marketing not unless their films but their stars. Creating a culture of stars, Hollywood royalty wh os every doing was big news, world wide and whose salaries could not be c at one timeived of, by the poor working class audiences in Britain who devoured their films. moving-picture show really came to pre nodule as the entertainment of the masses during the war. Michael Sissons and Phillip french tell us that whether it involved Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable joyous up the boys with displays of leg, or Noel Coward and seat mill inspiring them with displays of stiff upper lip,6 the cinema made a square contribution to the war effort. In effect, as well as entertaining the cinema now served a higher purpose. contend was declared on 3rd family line 1939, and although war fare did not forthwith reach British shores the effects began to show quickly.Gas masks were issued, blackouts en labored, shelters built, rationing introduced and sand bags were stored everywhere blank space could be found. On 7th folk 1940 the Blitz began and London saw cardinal six consecutive nights of bombing. Altogether sixty thousand British civilians were killed and deuce out of every septet houses was damaged. The brunt of this devastation was natural by the working class, in much(prenominal) circumstances it is easy to see why the essential for escape was greatly increased. wreak to this the social assortments brought about by need during the war and the rise in cinema attention is easily understood.Conscription dead the country of young men, (in fact conscription was extended to single women between the ages of nineteen and 20 four,) at a time of great need. This drew women, particularly significantly espouse women into the general work force for the first time. This gave women economic and social freedoms as never before. This identical lifting of traditional restrictions was extended to the young. numerous young people had to be left hand to their own devices and the cinema provided a couple of hours of cheap baby sitting. Matinees were a fix for the yo ung and dreaded by the cinema owners.The best seats were only a shilling and at least half the audience paid less. Combined with this, the war years saw an eighty percent rise in wages. An average periodical wage in 1938 was approximately fifty three shillings and three pence by 1945 this had lift to ninety three shillings. The cost of nutriment in this same period was only thirty one percent. 7 With espouse women working some households now had two in stick tos for the first time put merely thither was more money to be spent on vacant when there was limited choice of suitable leisure so the cinema was an excellent pickaxe.When we come to examine the evidence for the decline in cinema attending it is blatantly explicit that television played a spacious part. The fortune to watch events of national importee such as V. E. Day parades and the conjugal union of Princess Elizabeth from the comfort of the home was a great advantage and gradually did draw an audience. When the top executive was crowned in 1953 there was a concerted effort made to tick that the whole nation could see the coverage on television if they so wished and twenty dollar bill million did.After this date the steep break away of the attendance figures graph can without much fear of contradiction be attributed to the lot in television purchases. However, by this set up the decline in audience total had already been significant. some(prenominal) of the reasons for the increase in popularity can also help to explain its demise. An examination of the cinema building themselves shows some(prenominal) points. Firstly the change from the small local cinema had brought about a change in the experience which actually trim back the social aspect of the experience.By moving the muddle from town centres people no thirster met their friends and neighbours, the new cinemas discouraged rowdy and unchaste behaviour so the experience became less of an interactive, social occasion. The p urposes the old cinema building were put to adds another dimension to the debate. Many were converted to dance or lotto halls, the former for the young the later for their parents. The miscellany of activities which had become acceptable during the war had increased, when people particularly the young went out they treasured to interact with the oppo turn up sex as well as their friends.Youth as a separate group with expendable cash in were now demanding other forms of entertainment as well as the cinema. In addition to this many of the big cinemas were no lifelong that new and provided a much less glamorous environment at an ever increasing cost. In his study of the geographics of cinema going in striking Britain Barry Doyle found that during the period when cinema attendance was at its peak the number of cinemas especially in urban areas was correspondingly high. As new large out of town cinema labyrinthianes began to spring up many of the more convenient cinemas closed.He suggests a possible correlation between the decline of cinema attendance and the availability of admission fee to cinemas. 8 Another factor in the decline in cinema attendance can be found in the film application it self. The British film industry at this time was experiencing a golden age its films were well reliable and more critically successful accordingly ever before. However the picture was something of a mirage. During the late twenties the financial internet site for British production companies was so heroic that production was all but at a standstill.In an attempt to bolster the industry The movie theatretographers Trade Bill was introduced in 1927, in essence it was a quota system whereby owners were forced to show at first fivesome percent (rising as high as forty five per later), British films in their theatres. 9 In practice what happened was that the British production companies had neither the money nor the basis to produce sufficient good quality films. The y made terrible film which in turn gave the American studios the excuse and the opportunity to buy up or into British companies. packs could then be made in Britain using British talent using American money which could be shown indoors the quota system as British. This did have the lilliputian term effect of supporting the British film industry but drained revenues out of the country. So when the Americans hit problems as happened after the war there was no way of filling the gap. After the war the studio system in America could no longer sustain itself, the stars were demanding independence and freedom to choose their own textile this meant ever increasing production costs.At the same time the studios lost their other briny source of revenue, ownership of the distribution and theatre chains. This monopolistic practice was curtailed when they were forced by the American government to divest themselves of their theatre empires in 1949. 10 American train simply cost more and ther e were less of them available. Perhaps the greatest scourge to the British cinema came from the British organization whos interference in the industry had devastating consequences at this time. An audience once lost is hard to regain.In 1947 Dr Hugh Dalton was Chancellor of the exchequer and in an attempt to curtail the menses of revenues from the country to America decided (without any consultation with the industry), to impose a seventy five percent duty on all imported films. This resulted in the American film industries embargo on Britain. No films until the tax was rescinded. After many machinations committees and discussions, it was raise and the only tangible action interpreted was to raise the price of admission gum olibanum alienating the public even further.According to the figures of the British film Institute five of the top ten films of all time were made in the nineteen forties and one, the oldest in the list Snow White and the seven Dwarfs was made in 1937. This is because cinema attendance in that decade were ten multiplication higher than today. The changing face of British society throughout the early part of the century meant that the majority working class group had both time and money to spend on entertainment and the cinema provided a social and socially acceptable environment to spend that time and money.In the ripe(p) Housekeeping, Magazine of 1942 there is an clause entitled Budgeting for Victory. In it the homemaker is advised to reduce costs as much as possible, yet some provision for Holidays and amusements is still allowed. 11 So even at a time of great national crisis spending on entertainment is accepted as an essential all be it a nominal one. The decline in popularity was more complex than it seems at first with many factors compete a small part not least access. However it cannot be gainsay that television with its convenience and it aid to spot put the final nail in the coffin.It has been estimated that more people owned a television in 1960 than owned a refrigerator. 12 Showing it to be of conditional relation in its own right as a symbol of the growing fertility of British society. By the late fifties early sixties entertainment and the need to be seen to be doing well was of more importance than any convenience which talent be gained from the purchase of an item that could not be displayed. So the cheap long suit of the entertainment of the masses to the occasional, one option out of many, in under a decade. ReferencesChris Wrigley, Blackwell familiar to British History, A Companion to Early Twentieth Century Britain, (Blackwell Publishers ltd, 2003) Alan G. 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