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Abstract
This article examines some aspects of the social history of cinema in wartime. Only limited attention has been paid thus far to the ways in which First World War soldiers experienced the ‘picture shows’. It focuses on reconstructing the cinema experiences of Australian soldiers during the First World War, considering some of their responses to, and interactions with, what they saw. It places this history within the broader story of entertainment and recreation for service personnel and seeks to elucidate the role of cinema in the lives and experiences of soldiers and veterans.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. See J.M. Winter, ‘Popular Culture in Wartime Britain’, in European Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment, and Propaganda, 1914–1918, ed. A. Roshwald and R. Stites (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 330–48. For a discussion of Australia’s experiences with modernity and popular culture through this period, see Jill Julius Matthews, Dance Halls and Picture Palaces: Sydney’s Romance with Modernity (Sydney: Currency Press, 2005).
2. Kapunda Herald, March 23, 1917, 1.
3. C.E.W. Bean, ‘Battlefield Christmas’, The Muswellbrook Chronicle, February 2, 1918, 5.
4. Bunyip, 20 June 1919, 2.
5. Orange Leader, April 23, 1919, 2.
6. The Boomerang, New Year Number, 1920, n.p.
7. Colac Herald, June 18, 1917, 4.
8. Warwick Examiner and Times, January 20, 1917, 7.
9. C. Hampton Thorp, ‘The Camouflaged Relief Job’, The Australian at Weymouth, October 10, 1918, 30–1.
10. Northern Territory Times and Gazette, March 15, 1919, 26.
11. The Harefield Park Boomerang 2, no. 9 (September 1918), 170.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., 2, no. 11 (December 1918), 201.
14. Barrier Miner, March 8, 1916, 2.
15. For a discussion of this, see A. Laugesen, Boredom is the Enemy: The Intellectual and Imaginative Lives of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), chap. 3.
16. Riverina Herald, November 18, 1916, 2.
17. Launceston Examiner, November 22, 1916, 2.
18. See the collections of the Australian War Memorial, for example AWM H01063, H01193, H01188 and B09115.
19. This was similar to many pre-war cinema shows. L. Grieveson and P. Kramer, ‘Introduction’, in The Silent Cinema Reader, ed. L. Grieveson and P. Kramer (London: Routledge, 2004), 187.
20. Barrier Miner, May 20, 1917, 2.
21. The Codford Wheeze (No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital, Codford), Christmas Day, 1918, 4.
22. The Harefield Park Boomerang, 2, no. 8 (August 1918), Back cover.
23. Bairnsdale Advertiser, August 30, 1916, 3.
24. The Warwick Examiner and Times, January 20, 1917, 7.
25. J.C. Fuller, Troop Morale and Popular Culture in the British and Dominion Armies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 111.
26. Ibid., 113.
27. Barrier Miner, March 8, 1916, 2.
28. Northern Territory Times and Gazette, March 8, 1919, 24.
29. E.L. Moore, Gallipoli to the Somme: The WWI Diaries of Sapper Edward L. Moore M.M. (Harkaway: Neville and Virginia Moore, 2010) Diary entry 28 January 1915, 17.
30. Ibid., Diary entry 19 February 1915, 24.
31. Ibid., Diary entry 28 January 1915, 17.
32. Ibid., Diary entry 29 January 1915, 17.
33. Ibid., Diary entry 13 March 1915, 25.
34. W.F. Fagelson, ‘Fighting Films: the Everyday Tactics of World War II Soldiers’, Cinema Journal 40, no. 3 (2001): 95.
35. The West Australian, August 30, 1916, 7.
36. AWM PR01199, Letters from the Great War 1914–1918, Private Henry (Harry) Cadwallader, No. 4160, 7th Battalion, Letter February 15, 1916, 29.
37. Second World War viewing is discussed in A. Laugesen, Boredom is the Enemy, 196–201.
38. M. Wilmington, ed., Alfred Robert Morison Stewart – Diaries of an Unsung Hero (Self-published, 1995), Diary entry 23 January 1917, 212.
39. M. Hammond, The Big Show: British Cinema Culture in the Great War, 1914–1918 (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2006), 125.
40. The Narracoorte Herald, March 8, 1918, 5.
41. The Blue Mountains Echo, May 17, 1918, 4.
42. Hamilton Spectator, November 20, 1917, 7.
43. D. McLean, Still Alive and Kicking: Yelarbon, the Great War and Letters Home (Self-published, 2002), Letter August 5, 1917, 108.
44. Papers of Lt A.E. Sheppeard, AWM 2DRL/0956, Diary entry 5 February 1919, 571.
45. J.C. Fuller, Troop Morale, 112.
46. I.L. McAndrew, ed., What did you do in the Great War, Dad? The Diary of Sapper Arthur Hadfield 25 October 1916–26 August 1919 (Glebe: Fast Books, 1996), Diary entry 6 July 1917, 80.
47. Kapunda Herald, March 23, 1917, 1.
48. The Harefield Park Boomerang 2, no. 8 (August 1918), back cover; 2, no. 9 (September 1918): 170.
49. Barrier Miner, March 8, 1916, 2.
50. The World’s News, January 4, 1919, 5.
51. The Kookaburra: Dinkum Oil Edition, Egypt, July 26, 1916, 7.
52. Internet Movie Database entry: imdb.com/title/tt0007832/?ref_=fn_al_tt_8; Internet Movie Database entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0007613/.
53. For discussions of this, see for example, G. Seal, Inventing Anzac: The Digger and National Mythology (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2004).
54. C.J. Malan, ‘A Star is Born: American Culture and the Dynamics of Charlie Chaplin’s Star Image, 1913–1916’, in The Silent Cinema Reader, ed. L. Grieveson and P. Kramer (London: Routledge, 2004), 207. It can be noted that Australian soldiers voted overwhelmingly against conscription, and the conscription referendums were divided largely along class lines, with the ‘antis’ usually consisting of the working-class. While many Australian officers were middle-class, many infantry soldiers were working-class men, a number of whom enlisted for economic reasons. It is impossible to definitively link class and audience responses, but the point is worth noting.
55. Port Pirie Recorder, April 7, 1916, 3.
56. Internet Movie Database entry: imdb.com/title/tt0005464/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.
57. Labeled as British soldier slang in the Adelaide Register, August 30, 1916, 8.
58. J. Brophy and E. Partridge, Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914–1918, 3rd ed. (London: Scholartis Press, 1931), 161.
59. Muswellbrook Chronicle, December 8, 1915, 4.
60. Maitland Daily Mercury, September 7, 1915, 7.
61. Preston Leader, January 8, 1916, 2.
62. Moore, Gallipoli to the Somme, Diary entry 7 August 1915, 75.
63. Parkes Western Champion, November 4, 1915, 15.
64. Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser, October 15, 1915, 2.
65. Burra Record, August 25, 1915, 5.
66. See L.M. DeBauche, Reel Patriotism: the Movies and World War I (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997). See also B. Dixon and L. Porter, ‘“How Shall We Look Again?” Revisiting the Archive in British Silent Film and the Great War?’ in British Silent Film and the Great War, ed. M. Hammond and M. Williams (Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 174.
67. Warracknabeal Herald, March 23, 1917, 4.
68. The Sydney Morning Herald, July 19, 1918, 7.
69. Port Fairy Gazette, December 3, 1917, 2.
70. The Yackandandah Times, May 10, 1917, 2.
71. The Farmer and Settler, June 22, 1917, 2.
72. For a discussion of Australian film productions during the war, see D. Reynaud, Celluloid Anzacs: The Great War through Australian Cinema (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2007). Although Reynaud’s main concern is with the content of the films and how they contributed to the emerging Anzac legend, he provides some interesting insights into the way war films declined rapidly in popularity in Australia in 1916, as people became aware of the terrible impact of the war.
73. Port Pirie Recorder, May 19, 1927, 1.
74. The Voice of the North, April 17, 1919, 7.
75. The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate, November 15, 1919, 4.
76. The Daily News, September 13, 1920, 1.
77. Ibid., November 20, 1920, 9.
78. Gippsland Times, June 20, 1927, 3.
79. For the debate, see for example, The Northern Herald, December 1, 1926, 6; The Brisbane Courier, November 29, 1927, 12.
80. The Mercury (Hobart), June 27, 1928, 5.
81. Reynaud, Celluloid Anzacs, 101.