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

Frances Con no.y Year 1 Modern Britain Linda Polley 16th may 2006 Essay Why was picture going so popular in the first half of the carbon and why did it decline after 1950? both the rise in popularity of cinema going and its spectacular decline argon not only well documented and discussed, but surprisingly, have gen epochted miniscule general disagreement among historians. Eddie Dyja states categoric totallyy that cinema popularity is easily explained, it is cheap amicable and glamorous1. Where as most of the blame for the decline is attributed to the advent of goggle box.Each is correct however uncomplete is the complete explanation of either scenario. No piece of perish would be complete with reveal examining the social aspects of the cinema going experience, audience interlocking as well as demo representics. The impact of the war cannot be ignored. A war sequence social survey in 1943 nominate that 70 portion of the adult population admitted attending the cinema r egularly. James Chapman checks us that during this period adultr groups of the population are relatively better represent in the cinema audience than they are in the mans reached by opposite media2.Similarly, to explain the decline in cinema solely in name of boob tube is to ignore the fact that television had actually been around for several(prenominal) clipping before the decline. Also although the rapid decline began in 1945 television wasnt enormously available until after the coronation in 1953. 3 In auxiliary, an examination of both what was happening in the manufacturing and oddly to the cinema buildings themselves sheds further light on the decline of audiences.The first public screening of a bourgeon in this country before a paying audience was on 20th February 1896. It was orchestrated by cut magician Felicien Trewey using a Lumiere cinematograph, at Regent Street engineering school in capital of the United Kingdom. Admission was 1s and it marked the begin ning of Britains fifty body love affair with the cinema. Luke Mc Kernan and Stephen Herbert tell us that by the close-fitting of the nineteenth century it was firmly established as a strong point of entertainment, instruction and experiment. During the first 10 years of the twentieth century Britain was at the cutting edge of developments with the work of men like William Friese Greene who do the first moving picture on celluloid film in Hyde Park. Another British man, George Albert Smith, actually devised the first colour arranging Kinemacolour in 1908. Interest in innovation and scientific advancement coupled with a political will to flip-flop the lot of the poor meant that this new, cheap form of entertainment appealed to an increasing derive of people.Social developments in the early twentieth century, for congresswoman Lloyd Georges peoples budget, meant that a slowly increasing number of people had capital to slide by on non inwrought items. Also increasingly, thos e people with funds to spend were women and they haveed a socially acceptable venue for their entertainment, the cinema fitted the bill. As they bore the brunt of the drudgery of daily life so their need for move and a vision of another world was heavy(p)er. Not only the weft of film but the whole nature of cinema going were factors which move audiences.The early trivial flee pits where local anaesthetic communities ga in that respectd to socialise, Marwick suggests that eating, dozing and, for young couples courting, were all p craft of the experience5. Behaviour was somewhat less than decorous it was current practice for audiences to sh issue at the screen and across the auditorium, making it a much to a greater extent interactive experience. The films either in the silent era or the early talkies showed a world that the average functional fork audience could not k like a shot astir(predicate) any other way.Even when the images were idealized and less than accurate t hey provided a glamorous escape from the reality of poverty. When the woolgather palaces typified by the Odeon cinemas built by Birmingham Businessman Oscar Deutsch began to replace these small local cinemas they simply added to the glamour of the occasion by providing atmosphere from the moment a person entered the building. conduct survival of the fittest was a similarly crucial exponent of the reasons people went to the pictures. The most popular films were in general the American imports.The industry there had expanded exponentially, the studio system created by the major studio give birthers and the huge office audiences allowed for the production of big budget high musical note films on a tremendous scale. The studios spent vast amounts of time and currency marketing not only their films but their stars. Creating a culture of stars, Hollywood royalty whos every action was big news, world wide and whose salaries could not be conceived of, by the poor working class aud iences in Britain who devoured their films.Cinema really came to pre eminence 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 cheering up the boys with displays of leg, or Noel Coward and stern mill around inspiring them with displays of stiff upper lip,6 the cinema make a significant contribution to the war effort. In effect, as well as entertaining the cinema now served a higher purpose. War was declare on third September 1939, and although war fare did not forthwith reach British shores the effects began to show quickly.Gas masks were issued, blackouts enforced, shelters built, rationing introduced and sand bags were stored everyplace space could be instal. On 7th September 1940 the Blitz began and London saw lxx six consecutive nights of bombing. Altogether sixty gram British civilians were killed and deuce out of every seven houses was damaged. The brunt of this devastat ion was born(p) by the working class, in such circumstances it is easy to h venerable why the need for escape was greatly increased. Add to this the social changes brought about by necessity during the war and the rise in cinema attending is easily understood.Conscription drained the country of young men, (in fact conscription was prolonged to single women between the ages of nineteen and twenty four,) at a time of greatest need. This drew women, particularly significantly married women into the general work force for the first time. This gave women economic and social freedoms as never before. This uniform lifting of traditional restrictions was extended to the young. Many young people had to be left over(p) to their own devices and the cinema provided a couple of hours of cheap baby sitting. Matinees were a staple for the young and dreaded by the cinema owners.The best sit down were only a shilling and at least half the audience paid less. Combined with this, the war year s saw an eighty percent rise in wages. An average weekly wage in 1938 was virtually fifty one-third shillings and three pence by 1945 this had risen to ninety three shillings. The cost of living in this identical period was only 30 one percent. 7 With married women working some households now had two incomes for the first time put simply there was much(prenominal) funds to be spent on leisure when there was limited choice of suitable leisure so the cinema was an excellent option.When we come to try out the evidence for the decline in cinema attendance it is blatantly manifest that television played a considerable part. The luck to watch events of internal significance such as V. E. Day parades and the marriage of Princess Elizabeth from the comfort of the home was a great advantage and gradually did draw an audience. When the Queen was crown in 1953 there was a concerted effort make to command that the whole nation could see the coverage on television if they so wished a nd twenty million did. later on this date the steep incline of the attendance figures graph can without much fear of contradiction be attributed to the upsurge in television purchases. However, by this stage the decline in audience meter had already been significant. Many of the reasons for the increase in popularity can also garter to explain its demise. An examination of the cinema building themselves shows several points. Firstly the change from the small local cinema had brought about a change in the experience which actually reduced the social aspect of the experience.By moving the situation from town centres people no longer met their friends and neighbours, the new cinemas discouraged strident and licentious behaviour so the experience became less of an interactive, social occasion. The purposes the old cinema building were put to adds another dimension to the debate. Many were converted to dance or bingo halls, the former for the young the later for their parents. The c onformation of activities which had become acceptable during the war had increased, when people particularly the young went out they wanted to interact with the opposite sex as well as their friends.Youth as a separate group with expendable cash were now demanding other forms of entertainment as well as the cinema. In addition to this many of the big cinemas were no longer that new and provided a much less glamorous milieu at an ever increasing cost. In his study of the geography of cinema going in Great 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 complexes 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 access to cinemas. 8 Another factor in the decline in cinema attendance can be found in the film industry it self. The B ritish film industry at this time was experiencing a golden age its films were well received and more critically successful then ever before. However the picture was something of a mirage. During the late twenties the financial situation for British production companies was so dire that production was all but at a stand even.In an attack to bolster the industry The Cinematographers Trade Bill was introduced in 1927, in subject matter it was a quota system whereby owners were forced to show at first basketball team 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 infrastructure to produce sufficient good quality films. They made terrible film which in turn gave the American studios the excuse and the opportunity to buy up or into British companies. videos could then be made in Britain using British talent using American money which could be shown wi thin the quota system as British. This did have the short experimental condition 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 material this meant ever increasing production be.At the same time the studios lost their other main source of revenue, ownership of the dispersion and theatre chains. This monopolistic practice was curtailed when they were forced by the American governing to divest themselves of their theatre empires in 1949. 10 American scud simply cost more and there were less of them available. Perhaps the greatest little terror to the British cinema came from the British Government whos interference in the industry had devastating consequences at this time. An audience once lost is o nerous to regain.In 1947 Dr Hugh Dalton was Chancellor of the Exchequer and in an attempt to curtail the flow 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 lifted and the only tangible action taken was to bone the price of admission thus 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 deoxycytidine monophosphate White and the seven Dwarfs was made in 1937. This is because cinema attendance in that decade were ten times 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 in effect(p) Housekeeping, Magazine of 1942 there is an hold entitled Budgeting for Victory. In it the housewife 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 minimal one. The decline in popularity was more complex than it seems at first with many factors playing a small part not least access. However it cannot be disputed that television with its public toilet and it aid to status put the final nail in the coffin.It has been estimated that more people possess a television in 1960 than owned a refrigerator. 12 Showing it to be of significance in its own right as a symbol of the growing affluence of British society. By the late fifties early sixties entertainment a nd the need to be seen to be doing well was of more importance than any convenience which might be gained from the purchase of an item that could not be displayed. So the cheap medium of the entertainment of the masses to the occasional, one option out of many, in under a decade. ReferencesChris Wrigley, Blackwell consort to British History, A Companion to Early Twentieth blow Britain, (Blackwell Publishers ltd, 2003) Alan G. 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