ELSE-WHERE AND ELSE-WHEN: THE FORMATION OF NEWSREEL MEMORY AS A DISTINCTIVE TYPE OF POPULAR CULTURAL MEMORY LOUISE ANDERSON THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE QUALIFICATION OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY SEPTEMBER 2010 i ABSTRACT ELSE-WHERE AND ELSE-WHEN: THE FORMATION OF NEWSREEL MEMORY AS A DISTINCTIVE TYPE OF POPULAR CULTURAL MEMORY This thesis explores the formation of a distinctive type of popular cultural memory I have chosen to call newsreel memory, through a close analysis of oral testimonies provided by older residents of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its districts. Focusing on the 1940s, this study demonstrates that although newsreel memories are anchored within the autobiographical, the interpretation of individual recollections can only be fully realised within wider cultural frames of meaning, significantly the familial, the generational, and the national. This thesis makes it clear that newsreels produced a unique viewing experience and one in which the pleasures associated with the spectacle of ‘actuality and knowledge’ were paramount. In addition, the gathered recollections themselves illustrate that in an important imaginative sense newsreel viewing brought historic news events, particularly during the Second World War, into existence and newsreel audiences into an imagined communion. Given the clustering of individual newsreel memories around an ultra-familiar canon of historic events, this study reveals the formative relationship between the historic events recorded by the newsreels and the personal expression of a particular popular wartime memory. Further, this thesis argues that one of the unique features of newsreel memory is its ‘entangledness’, that is, the way in which newsreel memories have been re-imagined and re-framed by the subsequent use of newsreel material in other cultural contexts. Finally, this study shows that, although the newsreel image derives its cultural authority from its perceived iconic status, what is in fact evoked is an imaginary witnessing of the pre- discursive news event. As a result, what is recalled in newsreel memory is an event that took place else-where and else-when. Thus, it is the role of newsreel viewing as an important form of secondary witnessing that is explored here: a complex process, which confirms newsreel memory as a unique expression of both popular cultural memory and history. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my supervisor Dr. Sarah Leahy for her tireless support and encouragement without which I would certainly not have completed. I would also like to thank Dr. Kathryn Robson who’s all too brief involvement was invaluable. My thanks go to the Tyneside Cinema staff, especially Mark Dobson, Holli McGuire, Mike Tait and Jonny Tull. Thanks too to former staff members Katherine Anderson, Ben Greener and Julie Ballands. Other individuals I must thank are: Emma Smart and Sean Delaney from the British Film Institute Library; Julie Home at Age Concern, Newcastle; Linda Kaye at the British Universities Film and Video Council; Professor Martin Barker from Aberystwyth University; Professor Nicholas Pronay from the University of Leeds; Dr. Ailsa Hollinshead from Edinburgh Napier University; and Jean Worth from Newcastle University’s Student Support Services. Other organisations I am indebted to: The Arts and Humanities Research Council and Tyneside Cinema for funding the project; The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex for the use of the material used in this thesis; and The Northern Region Film and Television Archive. I could not have completed this thesis without the support of my family and friends. In particular I would like to thank: my daughter Zoë for being the ‘grown-up’ and for becoming a beautiful young woman; my partner Lol for all his love and support and for being a brilliant cinematographer; my Mum and Dad for having faith in me; my sister Jane who was always there for me to talk to; and Elaine Crawley for giving me brilliant advice and having unerring belief in my ability to see the project through. Thanks go to my PhD buddies and good friends, Erin for never failing to be there and listen, and Becky for the chats in the John Lewis café. My greatest debt, however, is to all the remarkable men and women who agreed to give their time and memories for this project. Without them there would have been nothing to say. I leave the final words to Dixon Scott who said ‘you can do anything you want as long as you want it enough’. I wanted it enough. iii CONTENTS VOLUME ONE Title page………………………………………………………………... i Abstract…………………………………………………………………. ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………….. iii Table of contents………………………………………………………... iv List of Illustrations……………………………………………………… vii PART ONE – OUTLINING THE APPROACH CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ………………………………………... 2 1.1. The Myth of the Second World War…………………………….. 7 1.2 Memories of Historic Events…………………………………….. 9 1.3. Scholarship’s Neglect of the Newsreels …………………………. 10 1.4 Newsreel Audiences ……………………………………………... 13 1.5. Newsreels and Historians………………………………………… 15 1.6. The Narratives of Memory……………………………………….. 17 1.7 Newsreel Memory Talk…………………………………………... 20 1.8. The Structure of the Thesis ………………………………………. 22 CHAPTER 2 – FROM PRACTICE TO THEORY………………………… 27 2.1. Stage One – Focus Groups (January 2007)………………………. 34 2.2. Popular Memory…………………………………………………. 37 2.3. The Interviewer/Interviewee Relationship……………………….. 39 2.4. Analysis…………………………………………………………... 41 2.5. Stage Two – Oral History (September 2007) ……………………. 43 2.6. Stage Three – Reviewing Progress (September 2007 – July 2008) 47 2.7. Stage Four – Turning to Theories of Memory (July 2008)………. 49 2.8. A Dynamic Approach to Memory………………………………... 51 2.9. Generational Consciousness………………………………………. 53 2.10. Stage Five – Back to the Real World (September 2008)…………. 57 2.11. Stage Six – Moving Ahead to the Data Chapters (November 2008) 59 iv PART TWO –THE HISTORICAL DISCURSIVE SURROUND CHAPTER 3 – NEWS AND SPECIALISED THEATRES………………….. 65 3.1. The Space of the News Theatre………………………………….. 66 3.2. News Theatres in Newcastle……………………………………... 72 3.3. News Theatre Audiences ……………………… 77 3.4. The Everyday Realities of the News Theatres…………………… 81 3.5. The News Theatre Programme………………………………….... 87 CHAPTER 4 – WARTIME NEWSREELS: PROPAGANDA AND MEMORY 98 4.1. Newsreel Propaganda and Audience Morale…………………… 100 4.2. Picturegoer Magazine (1940) ..……………………………….... 104 4.3. Mass Observation (1940) ………………………………………... 106 4.4. Wartime Newsreel Memories ..…………………………………. 113 4.5. Plato’s Noble Lie: Newsreel Propaganda Memory and Vernacular Theorising...……………………………………………………... 117 4.6. The Pleasures of Wartime Newsreels...…………………………. 126 PART THREE - ANALYSING THE GATHERED MEMORIES CHAPTER 5 – MNEMONIC COMMUNITIES: FAMILY, NATION, GENERATION 133 5.1. The Family and the Beginnings of Newsreel Memory..………… 134 5.2. The Influence of Generation and Nation on Newsreel Memory… 145 5.3. A Northern Sensibility…………………………………………… 153 CHAPTER 6 – NEWSREEL MEMORIES AND POST-WAR EVENTS…… 166 6.1. POST-WAR NEWSREEL EVENT MEMORY CLUSTERS………… 173 6.1.1. Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945……………………………... 173 6.1.2. The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, April 1945…………………… 174 6.1.3. Newcastle United Return to Tyneside with the FA Cup, 1951, 1952, 1955…………………………………………………………….... 183 6.1.4. The Coronation of Elizabeth II, 2 June 1953…………………….. 185 v CHAPTER 7 – NEWSREEL ACTUALITY AND THE ARCHIVE…………. 195 7.1. The Newsreels’ Aura in Memory..………………………………. 200 7.2. The Impact of the Visual on Cultural Memory…………………… 206 7.3. The Elsewhere and Else-when of Newsreel Memory…………… . 208 7.4. Over-exposure of the Newsreel Image…………………………… 211 7.5. Re-Imagining the Past……………………………………………. 214 7.6. The Newsreel Image as Ephemeral Monument and Virtual Memorial 217 CHAPTER 8 – CONCLUSION…………………………………………... 224 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1. Arts and Humanities Research Council Proposal ………… 234 APPENDIX 2. Interview Consent Form ………………………………… 238 APPENDIX 3. Details of All Research Participants……………………. 239 APPENDIX 4. Interviewee Details ……………………………………. 241 APPENDIX 5. Interview Questions …………………………………… 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………. 247 CD ROM – TRANSCRIPTIONS OF INTERVIEWS vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: The restored Tyneside Cinema building on the site of the former News Theatre (2008) from an original photograph in the Tyneside Cinema Archive. Page 36 Figure 2: The Tatler, Newcastle (1938) from an original photograph in the Tyneside Cinema Archive. Page 73 Figure 3: The News Theatre, Newcastle (c. 1938) from an original photograph in the Tyneside Cinema Archive. Page 74 Figure 4: News Theatre Usherettes c. 1938 used with permission from Molly Aexander. Page 87 Figure 5: A News Theatre Programme (December 1938) from the original in Tyneside Cinema Archive. Page 93 Figure 6: Bathing Costumes (Issue title: ‘Very Tasteful, Very Neat’). 06/06/1940. Film I.D. 1290.11. Image number 60. British Pathé http://britishpathe.com/ [downloaded with permission on 12.09.10] Page 100 Figure 7: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Tyneside. Still from ‘Royal Visit to North East’ 15/04/1943. Film ID. 1081.15. Image number 20. http://britishpathe.com/ [downloaded with permission on 27.08.10]. Page 158 Figure 8: A survivor from the Bergen-Belsen camp. Still from ‘German Atrocities’ 30/04/1945. Film ID. 1153.17. Image number 195. British Pathé http://britishpathe.com/ [downloaded with permission on 26.08.10]. Page 181 Figure 9: Newcastle United captain