The Cinema and Cinema-Going in Scotland, 1896-1950

by Trevor Griffiths

Overview

This monograph will be the first to deal with the growth of cinema-going in Scotland in an extended scholarly manner, integrating the study of cinema into wider debates in social and economic history. The author draws extensively on archival resources concerning the cinema as a business, on documentation kept by cinema managers, and on the diaries and recollections of cinema-goers. He considers patterns of cinema-going and attendance levels, as well as changes in audience preferences for different genres, stars or national origins of films. The thematic chapters broaden out the discussion of cinema-going to consider the wider social and cultural impact of this early form of mass leisure. The book will make a significant contribution to a growing body of work on the exhibition and reception of films across Britain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748638284
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	07/23/2012
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Trevor Griffiths is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements iv

Introduction 1

1 From Variety Hall to Picture House: The Emergence of Scottish Cinema to 1914 16

2 Regulating Scottish Cinema: Censorship and the Child Audience 55

3 Through War and Peace: The Changing Fortunes of Scottish Silent Cinema, 1914-29 97

4 A Seven-day Wonder? Cinema and the Scottish Sabbath 138

5 An Essential Social Habit: Cinema-going in the Early Sound Era, c.1927-39 177

6 Beyond the Dream Palace: The Role of Non-commercial Cinema in Scotland 218

7 To the Summit and Beyond: Cinema-going in the 1940s 252

8 A Flickering Image: Scottish Film Production 279

Conclusion 315

Appendices 321

Bibliography 325

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

This densely researched book meets a number of pressing needs in the field of Scottish and British film studies, but it is also likely to prove a significant resource for a range of other disciplines, not least in its contribution to our understandings of Scottish popular culture in the first half of the twentieth century.

Journal of Scottish Historical Studies - Joe Kember

‘A major contribution to the history of popular culture in Scotland.’

Review of Scottish Culture - John Burnett

A fascinating book.

The Scotsman - RICK INSTRELL

'A major contribution to the history of popular culture in Scotland.' — John Burnett, Review of Scottish Culture

From the Publisher

Cinema and Cinema-Going in Scotland is a hugely impressive, detailed piece of scholarship. It should be recommended not only to Scottish historians but also to cinema historians everywhere, to social and cultural historians, and to those interested in national identity in twentieth century Scotland, and Britain.

International Review of Scottish Studies - James J. Nott

This is an excellent book. It provides fascinating evidence of the peculiarities of national cinema, while revealing how cinema managers and their audiences could exert considerable agency in the leisure process. Most of all, it reveals how fruitful the localised study of cinema can be for historians.

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television - Robert James

Trevor Griffiths has produced an exceptional monograph...it should be essential reading for academics, researchers, and students of popular culture and film studies, but the value of this book is greater than this. Historians of business, economics, and the inter-war period will find this an extremely useful text that is accessible, very well researched, and set within the political, economic, and socio-cultural context of the years 1896 to 1950.

The Economic History Review Vol 67 Issue 2 - Annmarie Hughes

The Cinema and Cinema-Going in Scotland not only takes Scottish film studies into important new territory, it also offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the broader historical development of cinema exhibition in Britain.

Journal of British Cinema and Television, Volume 11, Issue 2-3 - Duncan Petrie