‘Snapshots’: Local Cinema Cultures in the Great War

Abstract

The Great War broke out at the moment that the film industry at all levels, production, distribution and exhibition was becoming established. Here the attention is on the local cinema cultures of three spaces: Louvain in Belgium, Southampton in England, and Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in the United States. The areas share marked differences: Louvain suffered considerably, including direct damage to its buildings, reprisal executions of its citizens and German occupation for the four years of the war; Southampton witnessed the parade of war through its role as the main embarkation point for British troops, as well as suffering the loss in unprecedented number of casualties which the British people endured; and Stevens Point was different again in that the war directly touched the local community, with its considerable German and Polish immigrant population, as the politics of the nation shifted from isolation to engagement. These were all factors in the exhibition strategies of local cinema exhibitors who negotiated new audiences. The article draws out similarities and differences in these areas to argue that the war’s impact on particular local cultures was significant in the establishment of cinema’s social function within each community.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Kristin Thomson, Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market (London: BFI Publishing, 1985), 29.

2. Ibid. 38. I. Blom, Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2003), 133–86.

3. For an assessment of the events in Louvain, see Larry Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium. The Untold Story of World War I (New York: New York University Press, 2004), 30–7.

4. Guido Convents, ‘Bioscopen in Het Leuvense Stadsbeeld 1910–1914; De Eerste Wereldoorlog En Het Bioskoopwezen in Leuven 1914–1918’, in Film En Fiets Rond 1900: Moderne Uitvindingen in De Leuvense Samenleving (Arca Lovaniensis Artes Atque Historiae Reserans Documenta), ed. Leo Van Buyten (Leuven: Vrienden Stedelijke Musea, 1981), 381–83.

5. There are no reliable statistics regarding the number of cinemas and the number of tickets sold before the Second World War. A relevant publication for the 1910s is Emile Beco, La Croisade Entreprise Contre Les Mauvais Cinémas Pendant La Guerre (Turnhout: Brepols, 1919). The number cited above is quoted from, cited in Daniël Biltereyst, 'De Disciplinering Van Een Medium. Filmvertoningen Tijdens Het Interbellum', in De Verlichte Stad. Een Geschiedenis Van Bioscopen, Filmvertoningen En Filmcultuur in Vlaanderen, ed. Daniël Biltereyst and Philippe Meers (Leuven: Lannoo Campus, 2007), 47.

6. Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Alhambra (ancien Bériot), nr. 11255; Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Cinéma Casino, nr. 11250; Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Moderne, nr. 11258; Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Cinéma Palace, nr. 11251; Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, La Bergère, nr. 11254; Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Louvain Palace/Forum, nr. 11256; Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Casino d’Allemagne, nr. 11252.

7. ‘Alhambra announces it will reopen on 5 September 1914’, Journal des Petites Affiches, June 28, 1914; Patria announces it plans to reopen in the course of September, Journal des Petites Affiches, July 26, 1914.

8. Convents, ‘Bioscopen in Het Leuvense Stadsbeeld 1910–1914; De Eerste Wereldoorlog En Het Bioskoopwezen in Leuven 1914–1918’, 381–87.

9. Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Alhambra (ancien Bériot), nr. 11255.

10. Luc Vandeweyer, ‘De Duitsers Komen’, in Aan Onze Helden En Martelaren... Beelden Van De Brand Van Leuven (Augustus 1914), ed. Marika Ceunen and Piet Veldeman (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2004), 59.

11. Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Alhambra (ancien Bériot), nr. 11255; Convents; ‘Bioscopen in Het Leuvense Stadsbeeld 1910–1914; De Eerste Wereldoorlog En Het Bioskoopwezen in Leuven 1914–1918’.

12. The local authorities in Leuven, for example, complained that spectacles mainly attracted people living off public and private charity ‘[…] les spectacles attirent surtout un public dont les ressources s’alimentent presqu’exclusivement à la charité publique et privée; la bourgeoisie s’abstient de fréquenter ces salles de spectacles, mais c’est le peuple assisté et secouru’. […] spectacles mainly attract audiences living almost exclusively on public and private charity; the bourgeoisie abstain from visiting these theatres, […]. [translated by the author] Letter of 9 December 1915, Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques – Palace, n° 11251.

13. Ulrich Tiedau, ‘De Duitse Cultuurpolitiek in België Tijdens De Eerste Wereldoorlog’, Bijdragen tot de eigentijdse geschiedenis, no. 11 (2003): 33.

14. Cinema Moderne did probably not reopen after August 1914. Already before the war, this lower class cinema, owned by beer brewery La Vignette, experienced severe difficulties complying with the regulations concerning movie theatres. On several occasions, the local authorities had threatened to close it down. After August 1914, there was no trace of this theatre. It was not burned down, but it did not request permission to reopen either. (Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, Moderne, nr. 11258). Cinema Bergère did some modernisation works during the war but did not start its screenings again before October 1918. (Leuven City Archive (Modern Archive), Représentations cinématographiques, La Bergère, nr. 11254).

15. Beco, La Croisade Entreprise Contre Les Mauvais Cinémas Pendant La Guerre, 2, 43. The same number is cited in De Schaepdrijver, ‘Occupation, Propaganda and the Idea of Belgium’, 276–277.

16. André van der Velden and Judith Thissen, ‘Spectacles of Conspicuous Consumption: Picture Palaces, War Profiteers and the Social Dynamics of Moviegoing in the Netherlands, 1914–1922’, Film History: An International Journal, 22, no. 4 (2010).

17. Journal des Petites Affiches, May 7, 1916.

18. Le Secours Discret, ‘Le Secours Discret – Leuven/Louvain. Verslagen Voorgebracht Op De Algemeene Bijzonder Vergadering Van 10 Oogst 1916’, (Leuven 1916).

19. Not included here is Bergère, which started its screenings again in October 1918. In Louvain, the Journal des Petites Affiches was the only local newspaper that appeared throughout the war and regularly published film programmes. Nevertheless, there were several long periods in which no programmes were published. For instance, a few weeks after the opening of Louvain Palace, the Journal des Petites Affiches stops publishing the Alhambra programme because, on more than one occasion, the spectacles presented were of ‘doubtful morality’.

20. Even the films that are advertised as being ‘special’ or ‘exceptional’ predate the war (e.g. Juve contre Fantômas, 1913; La destruction de Carthage, 1914). The Fantômas series, for example, was screened in Alhambra in June 1914. Journal des Petites Affiches, 7 June 1914.

21. Decree of 13 October 1914 and Decree of 4 November 1914, in Jacques Pirenne and Maurice Vauthier, La Législation Et L'administration Allemandes En Belgique (Paris, 1925), 138–40.

22. Michael Amara and Hubert Roland, eds., Gouverner En Belgique Occupée: Oscar Von Der Lancken-Wakenitz – Rapports D’activité 1915–1918. Édition Critique (Brussels-Bern: P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 2004), 73.

23. Beco, La Croisade Entreprise Contre Les Mauvais Cinémas Pendant La Guerre, 72.

24. Amara and Roland, Gouverner En Belgique Occupée: Oscar Von Der Lancken-Wakenitz – Rapports D’activité 1915–1918. Édition Critique, 355.

25. Regarding the decline in production for the French industry leader Pathé, see Stéphanie Salmon, Pathé. À La Conquête Du Cinéma 1896–1929 (Paris: Tallandier, 2014), 327.

26. Additional research suggests that prestigious exhibitors in bigger Belgian cities, such as Antwerp and Brussels, were able to acquire fresh feature films (mostly German and Danish) as of mid-1917.

27. Ivo Blom, Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2003), 255.

28. Journal des Petites Affiches, December 30, 1917, idem., 6 January, 1918, idem., April 7, 1918. A longer review is published in Journal des petites affiches, April 14, 1918.

29. Amara and Roland, Gouverner En Belgique Occupée: Oscar Von Der Lancken-Wakenitz – Rapports D’activité 1915–1918. Édition Critique, 355–56.

30. Tiedau, ‘De Duitse Cultuurpolitiek in België Tijdens De Eerste Wereldoorlog’.

31. Amara and Roland, Gouverner En Belgique Occupée: Oscar Von Der Lancken-Wakenitz – Rapports D’activité 1915–1918. Édition Critique, 73.

32. For example, Paul Emile Janson, cited in Beco, La Croisade Entreprise Contre Les Mauvais Cinémas Pendant La Guerre, 5–6.

33. Amara and Roland, Gouverner En Belgique Occupée: Oscar Von Der Lancken-Wakenitz – Rapports D’activité 1915–1918. Édition Critique.

34. Isak Thorsen, ‘Nordisk Films Kompagni Will Now Become the Biggest in the World’, Film History, 22, no. 4 (2010).

35. In 1916–1917, names of French actors are occasionally mentioned in the advertisements in the press (e.g. Charles Krauss, Henry Krauss, Edmond Duquesne and Lucy Jousset). These are without exception lesser known actors, who could hardly have been known to Belgian audiences.

36. Amara and Roland, Gouverner En Belgique Occupée: Oscar Von Der Lancken-Wakenitz – Rapports D’activité 1915–1918. Édition Critique, 356.

37. ‘Practical patriotism’ is a term that Leslie Midkiff DeBauche identifies as the concept of combining ‘allegiance to country and business’. See DeBauche, Reel Patriotism: The Movies and World War I (Madison: University Of Wisconsin Press, 1997), xvi.

38. Bernard Knowles, Southampton: The English Gateway (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1951) 85–86.

39. Philip Hoare, Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital (London: Harper Collins, 2001), 227.

40. ‘A Retrospect of the Year’, Kinematograph Year Book, Film Diary and Directory, 1915 (London: Kinematograph Publications, 1918), 19–22.

41. ibid.

42. Michael Hammond, The Big Show: British Cinema Culture in the Great War, 1914–1918 (Exeter: Exeter University Press), 70.

43. Ben Singer, Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts (New York: Columbia University, 2001), 222–23.

44. ‘A Retrospect of Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen’, Kinematograph Year Book, Film Diary and Directory, (London: Kinematograph Publications, 1918), 25.

45. Advertisement for The Woolston Picture Theatre for the week of 5–10 June 1916 in What’s On in Southampton, week ending 10 June 1916, 2.

46. See Nicholas Reeves, ‘Cinema, Spectatorship and Propaganda: ‘The Battle of the Somme’ (1916) and its Contemporary Audience’, 17:1, 5–28, and Hammond, The Big Show: British Cinema Culture in The Great War 1914–1918, 98–128.

47. Southampton City Council Minutes 1918–1919, 179.

48. ‘Stevens Point A City that is not Standing Still, but Continually Advancing’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, July 29, 1893, 1.

49. ‘Firemen Are Boosters’, Stevens Point Gazette, July 12, 1916, section I, 2.

50. ‘Lowest Number in Years’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, July 9, 1915, 1.

51. Prior to Major Hackett, F.E. Bosworth and E.O Stumpf, J.A. Ennor, W.L. Bronson and A.W. Carle all managed the Grand Opera House. Carle had also opened the Ideal Theatre on Main Street in 1901 and ran both theatres between 1911 and 1913. ‘Summons to Appear before Judge Park’, Stevens Point Gazette, April 28, 1915, 6.

52. ‘Opera House Closed’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, February 6, 1915, 1.

53. ‘Talk of a New Hotel’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, March 11, 1916, 1.

54. ‘Gregory Gives City Beautiful Playhouse’, Exhibitor’s Herald, December 4, 1920, np. The Grand Opera House, from 1920 The Majestic, was acquired by the John Adler’s small circuit of theatres, all located in Central Wisconsin, in 1925. In the late 1920s, it was taken over by The Fox, renamed The Fox, and converted to sound. Descendants of G.F. Andrae continued to own the building until 2013 when they donated it to Arts Alliance of Portage County, which is seeking to restore it and reopen the building as a multi-use institution.

55. ‘McKinlay Plans to Add Vaudeville’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, June 17, 1916, 1.

56. Advertisement for Lyric Opening, Stevens Point Daily Journal, June 26, 1916, 3.

57. ‘New Theatre Opened’, Stevens Point Gazette, July 5, 1916, 1; ‘Opening of the Lyric Theater’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, July 1, 1916, 1. McKinlay ran the Lyric until 1920 when it was taken over by Myron Clifford, a First World War veteran and son of the man who owned the land under the building. McKinlay would go on to manage theatres in Minnesota in the 1920s; Clifford sold out to the Adler circuit headquartered in the nearby city of Marshfield, 20 August 1923, Stevens Point Daily Journal, 1.

58. Most often, advertising for the movie theatres explicitly named the films that made up the programme. I believe that if newsreels made up part of a nightly programme that would have been noted, especially after the start of the war when this sort of added visual information about the hostilities might have served as an additional selling point with potential ticket buyers.

59. ‘Four Minute Men Will Start Here’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, August 11, 1917, 4.

60. ‘Amusements in War Time’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, August 20, 1917, 2.

61. Ibid.

62. ‘War Tax High Upon Theaters’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, October 23, 1917, 3.

63. Strand advertisement, Stevens Point Daily Journal, October 22, 1917, 2; Lyric advertisement, Stevens Point Daily Journal, October 22, 1917, 2.

64. ‘Ban on Disloyal Joke’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, June 16, 1917, 1. Advertisement for the Gem, Benefit for Stevens Point Cavalry Troop, 5 May 1917, 2; advertisement for the Strand, Benefit for the Red Cross, Stevens Point Daily Journal, December 25, 1917, 7; ‘Thousands Cheer Departing Boys’, Stevens Point Daily Journal, September 21, 1917, 1 and 4.

65. ‘Letter from Capt. Burns, Stevens Point Young Man Writes of Things and Conditions in Far Off France’, The Gazette, January 23, 1918, 10.