Eyewitness accounts of viewing pictures
Source: Tony Pfoser, ‘Kino-Theater’, undated Austrian postcard, c.1910s, serial no. B.K.W.I. 819-6, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Tony Pfoser was an Austrian (or possibly German) caricaturist. The postcard, which was printed in Austria, shows a cinema audience from the screen’s point of view.
Source: ‘At the Cinema’, undated and unsent British postcard, c.1910s, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Romantic confusion or subterfuge among audience members was a common subject for comic postcards of the early cinema period, as was the correlation between romantic behaviour on the screen and among those watching (or not watching) it.
Source: ‘You may make mistakes even at the picture palace’, postcard, c.1910, unsent, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: There were a number of postcards from this period which exploited the idea of the mistakes that could be made while in the dark (this is not immediately clear from the image itself, but the man embracing his male neighbour rather a female partner is meant to have occurred because of the implied darkness). This example is also typical of photographic postcards from this period which make little attempt to depict the inside of a cinema realistically.
Source: ‘Do take me to the Pictures again’, ‘I always enjoy the Pictures’ and ‘Oh! you naughty boy’, three postcards (not sent), numbers RPH 4270/2, 4270/4, 4279/6, 1910s, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Three from a series of postcards showing the romantic possibilities of a visit to the cinema. Park benches were not to be found in cinemas, as a rule. Postcards with photographed performers rather than cartoons were common at this period.
Source: Donald McGill, ‘Come and See the Pictures’, postcard (not sent), 1910s, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Donald McGill (1875-1962) was a British postcard artist who became famous (and at times notorious) for his ‘saucy’ seaside postcards. Postcards in the 1910s often portrayed the cinema as a place suggestive of sex, though not usually involving cinema staff.
Source: Unidentified artist, ‘At the Cinema: When Love is Crowned’, unsent postcard c.1914, from the Luke McKernan collection
Comments: This peculiar postcard is one of a series in which the same children dressed as adults react to different kinds of film in the cinema. Another in the series is ‘The Tragic Film‘.
Source: Unidentified artist, ‘At the Cinema: The Tragic Film’, postcard sent from Britain to Amay, Belgium, March 1914, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: This peculiar postcard is one of a series in which the same children dressed as adults react to different kinds of film in the cinema. Another in the series is ‘When Love is Crowned‘.
Source: Donald McGill, ‘Come and see the pictures’, postcard posted from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 1910s, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Donald McGill (1875-1962) was a British postcard artist who became famous (and at times notorious) for his ‘saucy’ seaside postcards. Postcards in the 1910s commonly depicted the cinema as a place of sexual licence, where romantic scenes on the screen were reflected in the thoughts of those in the audience.
Source: ‘Continuous Performance’ postcard by unidentified artist, posted 13 June 1916, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: ‘Continuous Performance’ or ‘Continuous Show’ refers to the practice of showing films continuously, with audiences able to enter the cinema at any time, and leave at any time. The policy of the continuous show played an important part in cinema’s early popularity in the UK. The text on the reverse of this postcard refers to cinemagoing.
Source: Fred Spurgin, ‘They that go in darkness’, ‘Cinema’ series no. 250, posted Devon, November 1915?, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Frederick Spurgin (1882-1968) was a prolific British postcard illustrator of the First World War period, who produced several cards with a cinema theme, usually with a mild sexual theme.