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It was common practice for cinema managers in the first few decades of the twentieth century to commission films of local events and the crowds attending them, and screen them in the cinema for people to see themselves immortalised on film. The Scottish Screen Archive holds a large collection of such films, the earliest dating from around 1912. 'Paisley Children's Happy Hunting Ground' was one such film made in 1929 for the New Alex Cinema in Paisley, and was commissioned by the cinema manager to promote the arrival of the first ‘talkie’. The film maker captured images of the huge cue of children jostling to look and wave at the camera and to get into the cinema. The film would have been shown in the New Alex Cinema for the crowds to see themselves on the screen and a caption on the film reads ‘see if you can spot your child’. The film is especially poignant as one month after the film was made, a fire in the neighbouring Glen Cinema lead to the deaths of many of the children pictured in the film. The archive holds a variety of films from that era depicting cinemas in their heyday and illustrating the history of cinema going. Many of these films show scenes such as cinema goers queuing, the official opening of local picture palaces, visits by film stars of the time, cinema construction and demolitions. To accompany this rich history of cinema and the cinema experience, the archive also has written documents, press cuttings, photographs of opening days and special screening events along with oral history recordings on the days of cinema and showmanship. See also: 'Children's Matinee' (1914), a similar local topical film of children outside a cinema, from the East Anglian Film Archive |
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