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The History of Cinema Exhibition in Exeter 1895 - 1918

Alex Rankin

Prologue

In August 1895 the play A London Mystery was performed at the Exeter Theatre. Whilst dramatic performances were a regular occurrence in the city at the time, this particular play received extra note in the local reviews through its use of a lantern to disclose key information not only to the characters on the stage, but also to the audience. Whilst lanterns were obviously widely used as an entertainment form already, this juxtaposition of visual image and fictional story was something of a step in a new direction. Indeed, this “adaptation of scientific and mechanical ingenuity to heighten the effect of [a] story”(1) seems to somewhat pave the way for the films that would soon follow, those combinations of scientific and mechanical ingenuity that would tell a story.

Introduction

Local history studies have become something of a vogue in recent years. Whilst this work will undoubtedly be a part of this trend, there will also be significant differences both in the subject matter, and the approach taken, between this dissertation and many of those that have gone before. For many local studies fail to acknowledge the academic research already in existence and the piece becomes something that gives facts but no explanations. Robert Allen and Douglas Gomery note that this approach should not qualify for inclusion into the film history canon since “[to ‘do’] history requires judgement, not merely the transmission of facts”.(2) Equally, many localised studies that do conform to the ideals of Allen and Gomery concentrate on the ‘big city’ environment. Thus whilst London, Chicago, New York and the like have been comprehensively commented on, the provincial city has received far less attention. What this dissertation will attempt to achieve, then, is the documentation of the factual history of cinema exhibition in Exeter within a framework of the national and, at times, international picture.

In the process of documenting the factual history, the main basis for research has been local newspapers from the time period studied. For that reason, and in absence of any comprehensive memoirs, local opinion has had to be based significantly on the views and implications gleaned from this source. The principal paper used has been the weekly Flying Post and its daily (Monday to Friday) counterpart, the Evening Post. This selection was made not so much as a conscious decision, but rather because the collection of these papers is virtually intact and is easily obtainable in the local libraries. Other papers have been consulted as frequently as their availability has allowed. The heavy reliance on one main source does open up a number of problems, the chief one perhaps being the danger that some showmen and cinemas might not have advertised with that particular paper and therefore are not recorded in the dissertation. Given that this study aims for an extensive, but not complete, history, this in itself should not prove to be a significant problem. That the entertainments section of the Flying Post seems to have been particularly good (certainly, when other newspapers have been used, they have not provided any additional programmes) is also a benefit.

The city of Exeter itself during the period covered by the study underwent relatively few major changes, Robert Newton suggesting that the city of 1914 was much the same as that of 1837.(3) The basis for this stability seems to have been the fact that the middle classes were key to the city’s structure. Indeed, whilst the principal employer within the city was the building trade, the high general income and the countryside location – as opposed to the industrial location of the majority of the British cities – suggests that “Exeter was a city of the middle classes”.(4) The result was a comfortable way of life for many that was to allow for more allowance for leisure activities:

Economic stagnation was arrested and reversed. Standards of living were improved. The city became adequately progressive and reasonably prosperous, cleaner, better educated, better housed, larger in area, more humane in its habits and with far wider facilities for recreation than ever before.(5)

Whilst the theatres and entertainment halls in the city were a significant part of these recreation facilities, the moving image would soon also make an appearance. Indeed, with money to spend on these amusements, and an interest in photographic technology (the founding of the Exeter Photographic Society in 1890 and its immediate and continuing success proving this), Exeter was seemingly waiting for the development of cinema to provide it with new entertainment capabilities.

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