News cinema

{{Short description|Cinema specialising in short films, shown in a continuous manner}} {{For|the filmed product|newsreel}} [[File:London , Kodachrome by Chalmers Butterfield edit.jpg|thumb|A view from Piccadilly Circus in 1949: on the left ''Eros News Theatre''. On the right the ''London Pavilion'' has a "continuous performance".]] A '''news cinema''' or '''newsreel theatre''' is a cinema specialising in short films, shown in a continuous manner. However, despite its name, a news cinema does not necessarily show only cinematographical news.<ref name="rowntree">{{cite book|last=Rowntree|first=Seebohm|author2=Lavers, G. R. |title=English Life and Leisure|year=1951|publisher=Read Books |isbn=9781406702156|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSqhkiLewo4C&q=%22news+cinema%22&pg=RA1-PA251}}</ref>

== History == The first official news cinema, ''The Daily Bioscope'',<ref name="londonfilm/DailyBioscope">{{cite web |title=Daily Bioscope |url=http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk/view/venue/?id=99 |website=The London Project |publisher=Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for British Film and Television Studies |access-date=22 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125014514/http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk/view/venue/?id=99 |archive-date=25 November 2010}}</ref> opened in London on 23 May 1909.<ref name="Popple">{{cite book|last=Popple|first=Simon|author2=Kember, Joe |title=Early cinema: from factory gate to dream factory|publisher=Wallflower Press|location=London|year=2004|isbn=9781903364581|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeJD9tzWwCEC&q=%22news+cinema%22&pg=PA56}}</ref>

<blockquote>"...at the corner of Bishopsgate and New Street (opposite the side entrance to Liverpool Street Railway Station). The Daily Bioscope was opened in a converted shop on 23rd May 1906 with Lubin Manufacturing Company{{'}}s “The San Francisco Disaster”,<ref name="LoC/00694433">{{cite web |author1=Lubin Manufacturing Company |title=The San Francisco disaster |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/00694433/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=22 October 2024 |location=Washington, D.C. |date=1906-04-09 |quote=Copyright: S. Lubin; 9May1906; H77058.}}</ref><ref name="Encyclopedia/nickelodeon-1905">{{cite web |title=Production as the Nickelodeon Era Begins: 1905–1907 |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/production-nickelodeon-era-begins-1905-1907 |website=www.encyclopedia.com {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |quote=...Siegmund Lubin...Lubin Manufacturing Company |access-date=22 October 2024}}</ref> Pathé Frères' “The Olympic Games at Athens” (''Jeux Olympiques d'Athènes'')<ref name="earlycinemaDE/10751">{{cite web |title='Olympische Spiele in Athen' 1906 |url=https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/10751 |website=The German Early Cinema Database 1895-1920 |publisher=Data Center for the Humanities, University of Cologne |access-date=22 October 2024}}</ref> and two short comedies. It had 100-seats and was operated by G.F. Silas on behalf of the Gaumont Company."<ref name="cinematreasures/Bioscope">{{cite web |title=(The Daily Bioscope) Bishopsgate Picture Palace in London, GB |url=https://www.cinematreasures.org/theaters/71039 |website=www.cinematreasures.org - Cinema Treasures |access-date=22 October 2024}}</ref></blockquote>

In 1929, the United States first dedicated news cinema was the Embassy Theatre on Broadway, New York City, which opened in 1925 as a first-run theater, before Loew's Inc. converted it into a news theater on 2 November 1929.<ref name="Fischer">{{cite book|title=American cinema of the 1920s: themes and variations|editor=Fischer, Lucy| editor-link=Lucy Fischer |publisher=Rutgers|year=2009|isbn=9780813544854|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ldy074fjkygC&q=%22news+cinema%22&pg=PR15}}</ref> However, because of competition with television news, it reverted into a first-run theater in 1949.<ref>{{cite web|title=Embassy Theater - New York City|url=http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/EmbassyTh.html|website=www.nycago.org}}</ref><ref name="Fischer" />

In 1933, Jack Diamond's ''Capitol and Provincial News Theatres'' (later renamed as ''Classic Cinemas'') opened a ''News Theatre'' in London Victoria Station then, a ''News Theatre'' in London Waterloo station, in 1934, showing a continuous programme for travellers.<ref name="Cinema Manager">{{cite book |last1=Scudamore |first1=Nick |title=Reel Life Behind the Screen: A Cinema Manager Remembers: A memoir |date=28 November 2022 |publisher=Troubador Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-80313-364-5 |page=143 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIedEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Capitol+and+Provincial+News+Theatres%22&pg=PT143 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Rent Boys">{{cite book |last1=Reed |first1=Jeremy |title=Dilly: A History of Piccadilly Rent Boys |date=29 June 2016 |publisher=Peter Owen Publishers |isbn=978-0-7206-1598-2 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NefSDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Capitol+and+Provincial+News+Theatres%22&pg=PT71 |access-date=4 July 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Waterloo Station ''News Theatre'' was later a cartoon cinema, as ''Cartoon Cinema'', later screening double bills of old "classic" films, as ''Classic Cinema Waterloo''.<ref name="blackcablondon-waterloo-station-7">{{cite web |last1=Lordan |first1=Robert |title=Waterloo Station: Part 7 |url=https://blackcablondon.net/2014/06/14/waterloo-trivia-waterloo-station-part-7/ |website=black cab london .net |access-date=4 July 2024 |language=en |date=14 June 2014}}</ref><ref name="cinematreasures/13093">{{cite web |title=Classic Waterloo in London, GB |url=https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/13093 |website=Cinema Treasures |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref> Victoria Station ''News Theatre'' was later a cartoon cinema, as ''Cartoon Cinema''.<ref name="cinematreasures/1248">{{cite web |title=Victoria Station Cartoon Cinema in London, GB |url=https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1248/ |website=Cinema Treasures |access-date=3 July 2024}}</ref> ''Victoria Station News Theatre'', ''Waterloo Station News Theatre'',<ref>{{cite web |title=News Theatre. Waterloo Station London |url=https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/buildings/news-theatre-waterloo-station-london |website=Architects of Greater Manchester |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref> and ''Cameo News Theatre Victoria''<ref name="cinematreasures/1245">{{cite web |title=Classic Victoria in London, GB |url=https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1245 |website=Cinema Treasures |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=(Cameo) News Theatre 152 Victoria Street London SW1 |url=https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/buildings/cameo-news-theatre-152-victoria-street-london-sw1 |website=Architects of Greater Manchester |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref> were designed by Alister MacDonald, son of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.<ref name="manchestervictorianarchitects">{{cite web |title=Alister Gladstone MacDonald |url=https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/architects/alister-gladstone-macdonald |website=Architects of Greater Manchester |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref> ''Victoria Station News Theatre'' was in operation from 1933 until being demolished in 1981.<ref>{{cite web |title=Newsreel Theatre. Victoria Station London |url=https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/buildings/newsreel-theatre-victoria-station-london |website=Architects of Greater Manchester |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref>

In England in 1951, however, when Seebohm Rowntree published his study on ''English Life and Leisure'', he counted "approximately 20 news cinemas in London", and "very few [...] in the provinces, probably not more than a dozen in all". According to Rowntree, a population of at least 300,000 was needed in a town for a news cinema to be sustainable.<ref name="rowntree" />

== Shows == The original programmes of news cinemas featured mainly of newsreels, possibly with a short subject or travelogue. Afterward, newsreels came to occupy a shorter length of the programme, replaced by other, more entertaining elements. Programs typically lasted one hour, and were shown continuously, without any interval between performances.<ref name="rowntree" /><ref name="Ebert" />

Actor Peter O'Toole, who grew up in Leeds in the 1930s, reported in an interview with Roger Ebert that his father often took him to a nearby news cinema. When he was six, in 1938, he saw in that news cinema a program including the Three Stooges, Donald Duck, the Ritz Brothers, and news footage, including footage of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.<ref name="Ebert">{{cite book|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2004|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|orig-year=1999|year=2000|isbn=9780740738340|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPH7osbwOEMC&q=%22news+cinema%22&pg=PA742}}</ref>

Seebohm Rowntree, in 1951, similarly reports that "the news films occupy only a comparatively small part of the programme, largely because public interest in news films has declined". According to him, they have been replaced with cartoons, travelogues, or films on such general subjects as sports, fashion, or domestic economy.<ref name="rowntree" />

==See also== *Short subject *Grindhouse

== Notes and references == {{reflist|2}}

==External links== * [https://time.com/archive/6743632/newsreel-theatre/{{Dead link|date=March 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} ''Newsreel Theatre''] November 18, 1929 time.com

Category:Cinemas and movie theaters Category:Newsreels