Sound arrives at the Tudor, 1927–1931: programming, attendance and the business of cinema exhibition

ABSTRACT

The Tudor Cinema was situated in Leicester’s West End, a thriving working-class district less than a mile from the city centre. It was built in 1914 with 975 seats, expanded to 1,250 in the 1920s. The Tudor faced competition from newly opening super cinemas in and around the city centre during the 1920s and 1930s, but like most neighbourhood cinemas in Britain during this time, its audience was both local and loyal. The cinema’s ledgers have already been the subject of some considerable study. This article uses a digital, computational analysis to further enrich understanding of the economic realities of the cinema as a business, as well as the cinemagoing habits of its audience during the transition to sound. It takes the Tudor as a case study whose financial records provide an important and revealing window into audience behaviour and programming during the final years of silent cinema and the first years of sound. It also argues that concomitant factors – such as the shifts in rental arrangements and Entertainments Tax – were as impactful, and in some cases more so, than the arrival of sound on the fortunes of cinemas like the Tudor during the period.

KEYWORDS:

• Sound cinema
• cinema history
• transition to sound
• British cinema
• new cinema history

Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been possible without the support of Lawrence Napper and the British Silent Film Festival Symposium team. Thanks are also due to the author’s PhD supervisor Laraine Porter and fellow researchers on the AHRC-funded research project British Silent Cinema and the Transition to Sound.

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I am reporting that I have no relevant interests to disclose.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Humanities Commons repository at http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/jpy5-bt68. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain:

‘Leicester Pictures Ltd. [Tudor Cinema, Vaughan Street], Record Book’. 1932. DE1412/1–2. Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1927). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1928). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1929). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1930). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1931). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1932). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Kinematograph Year Book, (1933). London: Kinematograph Publications.

Filmography

Annie Laurie. Directed by John S. Robertson. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1927.

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Directed by Fred Niblo. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1925.

Bulldog Drummond. Directed by F. Richard Jones. USA: Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1929.

Flight. Directed by Frank Capra. USA: Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1929.

Footlights and Fools. Directed by William A. Seiter. USA: Warner Bros. 1929.

Hindle Wakes. Directed by Maurice Elvey. UK: Gaumont,1927.

Johnny Get Your Hair Cut. Directed by B. Reeves Eason and Archie Mayo. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-tpdel Mayer (MGM), 1927

Kitty. Directed by Victor Saville. UK: British International Pictures (BIP), 1929.

Mademoiselles from Armentieres. Directed by Maurice Elvey. UK: Gaumont. 1927

Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang. Germany: Universum Film (UFA), 1927.

No, No, Nanette. Directed by Clarence G. Badger. USA: First National Pictures, 1930.

Paris. Directed by Clarence G. Badger. USA: First National Pictures, 1929.

Sailor’s Holiday. Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. USA: Pathé Exchange, 1929.

Sally. Directed by John Francis Dillon. USA: First National Pictures, 1929.

Smiling Irish Eyes. Directed by William A. Seiter. USA: Warner Bros., 1929.

Sunnyside Up. Directed by David Butler. USA: Fox Film Corporation, 1929.

The Better ‘Ole. Directed by Charles Reisner. USA: Warner Bros., 1926.

The Big Parade. Directed by King Vidor. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1925.

The Circus. Directed by Charles Chaplin. USA: United Artists, 1928.

The Singing Fool. Directed by Lloyd Bacon. USA: Warner Bros., 1928.

The Son of the Sheik. Directed by George Fitzmaurice. USA: United Artists, 1926.

What Price Glory. Directed by Raoul Walsh. USA: Fox Film Corporation, 1926.

When Fleet Meets Fleet. Directed by Manfred Noa. Germany: Lothar Stark-Film, 1926.

Notes

1. A discussion of sound apparatus available to cinemas during the very first years of the transition to sound cinema in Britain can be found in Sibanda (2018a, 222–41)

2. A rented film’s guaranteed minimum payment – often referred to as the ‘minimum guarantee’, or simply the ‘guarantee’ – was the minimum amount specified in the rental contract that a cinema would pay the renter for exhibiting the film. For example, if a film rented with a guarantee of £25 at a percentage rate of 50%, the cinema would either pay the renter 50% of the gross box office takings for that film or – if 50% of the takings was a value less than £25 – pay the renter the minimum guarantee of £25. This meant that renters were certain to receive a predictable minimum return for their films, but that they could also benefit from extraordinary box office successes.

3. This was a cause of great consternation for cinema owners throughout the country. Film distributors, and their perceived predatory rental practices, would be the subject of sustained – albeit ineffective – action by exhibitors’ trade organisations, particularly the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association. See Sibanda (2018b).

4. Throughout the period covered by the ledgers, these were virtually the only tickets sold during weekday matinee screenings. Occasionally 7d. tickets were purchased, but these were sporadic, and in very small numbers. After the increase to 7½d., no weekday matinee tickets were sold at this price for the rest of 1932.

5. Each quarter is three months long, beginning in January.

6. Data taken from Dickinson and Street (1985, 42).

7. Chibnall (2007) and Napper (2001) both discuss the central place of British supporting features within the Quota compliance strategy for many renters and exhibitors during the 1930s, which makes the Tudor data all the more interesting. It is possible that these figures, especially those of 1930, represent the low output of British films in this period relative to America. It is more likely, however, that due to the Tudor’s high proportion of British main features, neither were compelled to use supporting films to bolster their Quota.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under Grant AH/L013800/1

Notes on contributors

Nyasha Sibanda

Nyasha Sibanda is a cinema historian. He received his PhD in Cinema History from De Montfort University in 2018. His research has focused on the coming of sound to British Cinemas. He currently lives and works in Japan, teaching English and writing. His most recent publication is an article titled “The Silent Film Shortage”, found in the December 2018 issue of Music, Sound and the Moving Image.