Vélez-Serna, María Antonia (2012) Film distribution in Scotland before 1918. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3605/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] FILM DISTRIBUTION IN SCOTLAND BEFORE 1918 María Antonia Vélez-Serna Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Glasgow College of Arts School of Culture and Creative Arts July 2012 Maria A. Velez-Serna July 2012 ii Para mi papá en su cumpleaños iii Abstract This thesis proposes an empirical approach to the history of film distribution and exhibition in Scotland before 1918. It deploys geo-database tools as a way to collect and analyse data from a range of archival and print sources, and to engage with historiographical questions about the emergence of cinema as an institution in a non-metropolitan context. The first part introduces the theoretical and methodological premises that underpin the project, situating it in relation to growing academic interest in early distribution and local film practices. A research method is outlined, involving the construction of a relational database documenting the places of film exhibition and the geographical variation in programming practices. This database, working alongside more detailed archival case studies, constitutes the foundation for broader discussions about the commercial, social and ideological roles of film and cinema. The analytical framework incorporates notions such as the commodity nature of film and the tension between different conceptions of the social role and position of cinema within Scottish communities. The emergence of institutional practices and structures in Scotland is thus described as occurring in a complex field of forces where two main polarities appear as prominent: Firstly, a tension between decentralised, local practices and the increasingly globalised operations of the film industry; and secondly, a shifting balance between regularisation and distinction, or the ordinary and the extraordinary. It is in terms of this fluid equilibrium that two iv overlapping moments in the history of the early Scottish film trade are described in the second and third parts of the thesis. Part II follows the creation and expansion of the Scottish market and popular demand for moving pictures, showing how different forms of film supply enabled the coexistence of various types of itinerant exhibition, and then of a gradual transition to fixed-site shows. It starts by exploring the continuities between film exhibition and existing cultural forms such as lantern lecturing and the music hall. It highlights the significant level of agency exercised by local exhibitors and renters within an open-market model that allowed the outright sale of films, and which also established a commercial interdependency between city-centre and peripheral exhibition. Part III argues that, once the market reached a relatively stable state with the regularisation of supply and the growing standardisation of the film product, the increasing concentration of capital and power in larger companies (both in the regional and the global scale) marked a shift in the balance of forces, away from unrestricted circulation and towards exclusivity. This is seen as a reformulation of the commodity status of film, associated with the emergence of feature programming. The consequences of the new textual and industrial trends for the Scottish distributors and exhibitors are considered, revealing geographical variation in their adoption, as well as incipient forms of resistance to the emerging institutional practices. v Acknowledgments My tuition and maintenance for the past three years were mostly covered by an Overseas Research Award and a College of Arts studentship. I will always be very grateful for the extraordinary opportunity I was given, most poignantly now that the ORSAS scheme has been scrapped as it is deemed ‘not a strategic priority’. Thanks to the staff at the School, College and International offices for putting up with the inconvenience of my nationality in a system that seems to grow ever more Kafkaesque. Thanks also to the librarians and archivists that continue to do their splendid, self-effacing work as if prestige and profit were not the only measures of worth. My supervisors, Prof John Caughie and Dr Ian Goode, have been enthusiastic interlocutors and patient critics. I thank them for their semi-legible writing on the margins of my drafts, their constant encouragement, openness to my ideas, and generosity with theirs. I was privileged to have access to the unique expertise of Prof Jon Burrows, who, as my external examiner, was the most insightful, meticulous and engaged reader one could wish for. Karen Lury, David Archibald and Melanie Selfe helped me navigate the strange waters of academia. Trevor Griffiths, Paul Maloney, Peter Walsh and Gordon Barr provided me with essential pieces of information and unpublished material. Parts of Chapter 3 were published as a journal paper in Post-Script (30:3); I am indebted to the editors and reviewers for their helpful comments. Other aspects of this thesis were presented at vi various conferences, resulting in stimulating conversations with many people I do not have space to name but would like to thank. I am lucky to have had a great group of peers and friends in the postgraduate community of Theatre, Film and TV studies at Glasgow, and feel privileged to have shared this time with the likes of Nessa, Kat, Helen, Anthony and Graeme. I also, astonishingly, have friends outside academia who have been involved in the writing of this thesis in various ways, so thanks to Caro Negret, Colin, Ali, Katja, Mick, Alice Fleabite, and Mike Carvell. Thanks most of all to Alvaro, a proper scientist, for leading us both to this amazing city and into these years of living experimentally. I’m loving every day, even when it’s grey outside and in. And there’s always Adventure Time! This thesis is for my favourite non-dogmatic Marxist sociologists, my parents, who equipped me with curiosity and are still paying the consequences. I admire your integrity as much as your intelligence, and can only aspire to keep learning from you. vii Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. v Contents ............................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ........................................................................................................ xi List of Figures....................................................................................................... xii PART I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 From moving pictures to cinema ............................................................................. 1 1.1. Distribution and institutionalisation .......................................................... 2 1.2. Scottish cinema historiography ............................................................... 12 1.3. The local: Some role models ................................................................... 20 1.4. Conclusion.............................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2 Film distribution as a spatial phenomenon: Methods and approaches .................... 27 2.1. Studying cinema spatially and regionally .................................................... 28 2.2. The GIS approach: Mapping ...................................................................... 32 2.3. The GIS approach: Databases ..................................................................... 38 2.4. Sources and the ‘problem of the empirical’ ................................................. 45 2.5. Conclusion: The strategic advantages of researching location ..................... 49 PART II A GEOGRAPHY OF THE EARLY FILM TRADE IN SCOTLAND ............. 53 Chapter 3 Film trade in Scotland before permanent cinemas ................................................. 54 viii 3.1. Fairground exhibition ................................................................................. 57 3.1.1. Buying film ......................................................................................... 65 3.1.2. The transformation of the fairground ................................................... 70 3.2. Public hall shows ....................................................................................... 73 3.2.1. Lantern lecturing ................................................................................. 78 3.2.2. Concert parties .................................................................................... 84 3.2.3. Stand-alone exhibition in urban halls