Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom Decades of Decline, 1945–65
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Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom Decades of Decline, 1945–65 SAM MANNING Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom Decades of Decline, 1945–65 New Historical Perspectives is a book series for early career scholars within the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Books in the series are overseen by an expert editorial board to ensure the highest standards of peer-reviewed scholarship. Commissioning and editing is undertaken by the Royal Historical Society, and the series is published under the imprint of the Institute of Historical Research by the University of London Press. The series is supported by the Economic History Society and the Past and Present Society. Series co-editors: Heather Shore (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Jane Winters (School of Advanced Study, University of London) Founding co-editors: Simon Newman (University of Glasgow) and Penny Summerfield (University of Manchester) New Historical Perspectives Editorial Board Charlotte Alston, Northumbria University David Andress, University of Portsmouth Philip Carter, Institute of Historical Research, University of London Ian Forrest, University of Oxford Leigh Gardner, London School of Economics Tim Harper, University of Cambridge Guy Rowlands, University of St Andrews Alec Ryrie, Durham University Richard Toye, University of Exeter Natalie Zacek, University of Manchester Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom Decades of Decline, 1945–65 Sam Manning LONDON ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS Published by UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU © Sam Manning 2020 The author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/. Copyright and permissions for the reuse of many of the images included in this publication differ from the above. Copyright and permissions information is provided alongside each image. Available to download free or to purchase the hard copy edition at https://www.sas.ac.uk/publications. ISBNs 978-1-912702-34-3 (hardback edition) 978-1-912702-35-0 (paperback edition) 978-1-912702-36-7 (PDF edition) 978-1-912702-38-1 (ePub edition) 978-1-912702-37-4 (.mobi edition) DOI 10.14296/320.9781912702367 Cover image: Interior of Odeon, Sheffield, July 1956 (Picture Sheffield, Sheffield City Council Archives and Local Studies Service). Contents List of illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix List of abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1. Cinema-going experiences 17 2. The decline of cinema-going 51 3. Cinema-going and the built environment 91 4. Cinema exhibition, programming and audience preferences in Belfast 129 5. Film exhibition in post-war Sheffield 163 Conclusion 193 Appendices 201 Bibliography 209 Index 225 List of illustrations Figure 1.1 Children in Botanic Gardens, Belfast, 1950s. 26 2.1 Ritz stage show, Belfast, June 1953. 57 2.2 Recorded admissions in Northern Ireland cinemas, 1948–57. 62 3.1 Lido, Shore Road, Belfast, 1955. 97 3.2 Rathcoole, 1936 and 1960–1 (Alpha circled). 99 3.3 Interior of Odeon, Sheffield, July 1956. 113 5.1 Rex Cinema (centre) and surrounding area, Intake, Sheffield, 1951. 165 5.2 Rex Cinema, Sheffield, c.1943–5. 165 5.3 Gross revenue of ancillary items at the Rex Cinema, Sheffield, 1945–65. 169 5.4 Cartoon Cinema, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, c.1959–60. 180 5.5 Classic Cinema, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, 1963. 181 5.6 Percentage of total admissions sold by day of week at the Cartoon Cinema, April 1961–January 1962 and the Classic Cinema, January 1962–November 1964. 181 5.7 Annual attendance of film screenings at the Library Theatre, Sheffield. 187 5.8 Film screening at the Library Theatre, Sheffield, November 1950. 187 Table 2.1 Introduction of UK television services. 53 2.2 Belfast cinema admissions at six-monthly intervals, March 1952–September 1954. 60 2.3 Number of cinema licences granted in Belfast and Sheffield, 1945–64. 61 2.4 Percentage of families owning television licences, 1957–65. 63 vii Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom 4.1 Entertainments Duty receipts in Northern Ireland, 1949–60. 130 4.2 Revenue, taxation and admissions in selected Belfast cinemas, 1948–61. 133 4.3 Ten highest-grossing films at the Ritz, 7 April 1952 to 28 March 1953. 144 4.4 Exhibition of The Quiet Man in Belfast. 146 4.5 Dutiable admissions at Belfast cinemas, 1952–3 and 1956–7. 152 4.6 Dutiable admissions at the Broadway and the Regent, 1952–61. 154 5.1 Selected revenue and expenditure at the Rex Cinema, Sheffield, 1945–64. 167 5.2 Ten highest-grossing main features at the Rex Cinema, August 1945–July 1960. 175 5.3 Most successful programmes at the Rex Cinema by year (August to July), 1945–6 to 1959–60. 175 5.4 Gross box-office revenue and admissions at the Sheffield Cartoon/Classic Cinema, 1961–4. 183 5.5 Ten highest weekly attendances, Classic Cinema, January 1962–November 1964. 184 viii Acknowledgements This book has been a long time in the making and many people helped to make it possible. My interest in cinema history began as an undergraduate student at the University of Sheffield and was then developed during an MA at Queen’s University Belfast. I then furthered this interest in the doctoral thesis from which this book emerged. I am grateful to all the students and staff who encouraged (or at least tolerated) my enthusiasm for historical cinemas. I wish to thank the late Keith Jeffery for his help during my MA and for his encouragement in the PhD application process. My PhD supervisor Sean O’Connell has been very generous with his advice, guidance and support. Since completing my PhD, I have received support from many academic colleagues both at Queen’s University Belfast and on the European Cinema Audiences project. I have been extremely fortunate that many intelligent people have read part or all the manuscript. I would like to thank Kieran Connell, Ida Milne, Tim Somers, Conor Campbell, Stuart Irwin, Ryan Mallon and Jack Crangle for kindly reading parts of my PhD thesis. My examiners, Melvyn Stokes and Fearghal McGarry, offered positive feedback and encouraged me to convert the thesis into a monograph. One of the great benefits of publishing in the New Historical Perspectives series has been the guidance, mentoring and support of several talented historians. John Sedgwick, Penny Summerfield, Heather Shore and Robert James all read a draft of my monograph and offered suggestions for improvement. Their advice and editorial guidance has undoubtedly made this a far better book than it might have been. I am also indebted to everyone at the Royal Historical Society, the Institute of Historical Research and University of London Press who helped to create this book, particularly Jane Winters, Emily Morrell, Philip Carter and Kerry Whitston. The work was carried out in a number of archives and libraries. I would like to thank archivists and staff at Belfast Central Library, the Cinema Museum, the Cinema Theatre Association Archive, PRONI, Sheffield City Archives, Sheffield Local Studies Library and Sheffield University. I am particularly grateful to my former colleagues at McClay Library Special Collections, who accommodated my employment alongside doctoral research. My extended research trips to Sheffield could not have happened ix Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom without the kind hospitality of Chris Wood and the Dobson family. Thank you for tolerating me during two enjoyable summers. I am privileged to have spent so much of my research speaking to people about their memories and experiences of cinema-going. Thank you to everyone I interviewed as part of this project and to the many people who helped organize these interviews. I would like to thank all my friends and family members who offered support and guidance throughout this process. I am especially grateful to my two nieces, Daisy and Tilly, who always put a smile on my face when times are tough. My greatest debt is to Lauren Rose Browne, without whose love and support this book would never have seen the light of day. I dedicate this book to her. x List of abbreviations ABC Associated British Cinemas BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BBFC British Board of Film Censors CEA Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association FIDO Film Industry Defence Organisation ITV Independent Television NATKE National Association of Theatrical and Kinema Employees PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland UTV Ulster Television xi Introduction Cinema-going was the most popular commercial leisure activity in the first half of the twentieth century. UK cinema attendance grew significantly in the Second World War and peaked in 1946 with 1.6 billion recorded admissions. Though ‘going to the pictures’ remained a popular pastime for the remainder of the 1940s, the transition from war to peacetime altered citizens’ leisure habits. During the 1950s, a range of factors including increased affluence, the growth of television ownership, population shifts and the diversification of leisure activities led to rapid declines in attendance. By 1965, admissions had plummeted to 327 million and the cinema held a far more marginal existence in the nation’s leisure habits. Many cinemas closed their doors and those that remained open increasingly competed with a range of venues including bingo halls, dance halls, bowling alleys, cafés and people’s homes. Cinema attendances fell in all regions, but the speed, nature and extent of this decline varied widely across the United Kingdom. By linking broad national developments to regional case studies of two similarly-sized industrial cities, Belfast and Sheffield, this book adds nuance and detail to our understanding of regional variations in film exhibition, audience habits and cinema-going experiences during a period of profound social and cultural change.