Visual material

During the course of this project, the children will enjoy collecting their own materials about film and cinema-going and older people involved may also be able to bring in some of their own scrapbooks of film stars or old film, magazines. However, to get you started, included here are some examples of film magazines, diaries kept by regular filmgoers, newspaper listings of films, etc.

Magazines

Picturegoer magazine (1918 - 1960) was one of the most popular film magazines. It contained celebrity portraits, details of forthcoming films, special supplements about particular stars or films, and, of course, plenty of gossip and adverts. Other magazines included: Film Weekly (1928 - 1939 then incorporated into Picturegoer), Film Pictorial (1932 -1939) and Picture Show (1919 - 1962) - all featured articles on the top stars and directors of the period alongside stories about the making of films and celebrity gossip.

Sight and Sound magazine was first published 1932 by the BFI. It continues to be published on a monthly basis providing details of new releases, film reviews, interviews with directors, and indepth analysis of films and the history of film.

Picturegoer Salon encouraged readers to collect postcard sized portraits of their favourite stars. Readers chose from a list of almost 500 names, and for 6d (approx 2p) received a glossy studio portrait for their scrapbooks.

This image from Picturegoer dated 18 August 1951 advertises this service and also contains various adverts from the period for toothpaste and skin creams. It is obviously aimed at women.

Filmstar albums

The Schoolgirls' Album of Famous Film Stars of 1929 was issued as an insert in Schoolgirls' Weekly (November 1929). This was a 12 card set of photos of the most popular film stars of the period that were glued into an album containing information on the stars. The comic came out every Wednesday, price 2d and was 'famous for its stories of School, Circus, Gipsy, Home Life'. Each issue contained serials as well as a complete story.

Clara Bow (1905 - 1965)

One of the many actors who did not make the transition into the 'talkies'. Bow's characters were generally working class girls who want more from their life and the youth of the 1920s adored her. She was quite possibly America's first sex symbol. Her highpoint was the film It (1927) but she retired from film aged only 26 years.

David Lee (1924 - )

A child star of the late 1920s, Lee appeared with Al Jolson in The Singing Fool (1928).

John Player & Sons Album of Film Stars

The John Player & Sons Album of Film Stars was issued in 1938, the third in a series of cards of popular film stars. The album cost one penny and contained information on the lives and films of 50 film stars. The cards were given away free in cigarette packs.

(l-r) Cover of An Album of Film Stars (1938), aAn Album of Film Stars (1938) showing Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland and Deanna Durbin, an Album of Film Stars (1938) showing Nelson Eddy, Gracie Fields and Errol Flynn.

Newspapers

As today, local newspapers contained listings of all the films showing in the area. The four images below, taken from the South London Press (Friday 30 June 1950), combine to make one page from a broadsheet. The paper was first published in 1865 and covers local news for the London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth. The page includes cinema showing times, the number of cinemas in the area, information on some of the films and some other general news.

Programme cover and film details for the Prince of Wales Picture Playhouse, Lewisham, London for September 1932 showing the style and glamour of the cinema along with prices, bus and tram routes.

A cinema programme usually included two films (main feature and support), cartoons, newsreel and a musical interlude. The big cinemas, like the Prince of Wales Picture Playhouse, Lewisham, South London often had a resident orchestra or an organ (Wurlitzer or Compton) that came up out of the ground. The audience might sing along to the well-known tunes played by the musicians.

Occasionally cinemas held talent nights when local people would take the place of the musical interlude and entertain the audience.

Programmes

Oswald Stoll was a music hall magnate who set up and run a number of music halls across the country at the turn of the century. One of these was The Ardwick Green Empire which opened on the 18th July 1904 with a seating capacity of 3,000. Topping the bill was Fred Karno's famous company of 'speechless comedians' with a sketch called 'Saturday to Monday'. (In 1906, aged 17 years, Chaplin joined one of Karno's troupes.) Prices ranged from three-pence to 2 shillings. During the 1930's The Empire began to show some of the new 'Talkies'.

The two pages are from a cinema programme dated 13 April 1931. The full 8 page leaflet gives details of forthcoming films, details of the stars and films, and a quiz. The magazine plays up the fact that you can 'hear' the films as this was the beginning of the 'talkies'.

(l-r) Programme cover for Empire, Ardwick Green, Manchester, April 1931, Programme and admission prices for Empire, Ardwick Green, Manchester, for week of 12 April 1931

Diaries

The following images are taken from the 1938 diary of Harold John Lawrence. For Christmas 1937 Harold Lawrence was given a diary in which he decided to keep only the most memorable events of the year. This was his first film diary at the age of 15 years. A keen filmgoer, he continued to keep a film diary every year until his death in 2003, giving a comment and a rating to each film he saw.

A loose sheet in one of the diaries noted: "From Jan 1st 1937 to Dec 31st 1989, I saw 8,832 feature films in CINEMAS and always ALONE so nobody would talk to me and distract my attention."

Cinema music

A cinema programme included two films (main feature and support), cartoons, newsreel and a musical interlude. The big cinemas, like Prince of Wales Picture Playhouse in Lewisham, South London had an orchestra or an organ (Wurlitzer or Compton) that came up out of the ground. Occasionally cinemas held talent nights when local people would take the place of the musical interlude and entertain the audience.

Frank Westerfield and his Orchestra, at Prioce of Wales Picture Playhouse, 1929.

Poems

The two poems included here were written to celebrate people's memories of going to the cinema and recall in different ways the excitement of going to the cinema. Sine Ma recalls childhood memories of going to the Saturday Morning Picture Show in the 1960s whilst Oh the Blessed One and Nines reveals the joys of queueing and past pleasures of cinema-going in the 1930s.

Download worksheet

Poem: The ABC Minors Song (PDF)