Cine-variety
File:Theatre Royal - Jewry Street - geograph.org.uk - 1530414 (cropped).jpg
Cine-variety is a form of entertainment with a mix of variety acts performing in between the showing of films all for the price of one admission fee. It was popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 1900 and the 1930s.{{cite web|url=https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-theatre-royal-a-palace-of-cine-variety/|publisher= History Publications Ltd|title=The Theatre Royal— a palace of cine-variety|date= 19 March 2013| access-date=29 January 2018}} Cine-variety was used to keep stage comedians in work during the early days of silent films and talking films.{{cite web|url=http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/cine-variety.html|publisher=Dictionary Central|title=Cine-Variety|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130014136/http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/cine-variety.html|archive-date=30 January 2018|url-status=dead}}
History
From 1900 many of the first purpose-built cinemas had pianos, organs, and occasionally a small orchestra to accompany films.{{cite web|url=https://mikelangcinevariety.wordpress.com/cine-variety-memories-of-a-forgotten-era/|publisher=Mike Lang |title=Cine-Variety: Memories of a Forgotten Era |date=6 May 2011 | access-date=29 January 2018}} They also employed live acts on stage, along with the silent film. The types of acts that would be employed included comedy routines, acrobats, singers, entertainers and magicians.{{cite web|url=http://d1010382.cp.irishdomains.com/122/_3.2%20Cine-Variety%202008-05.pdf|publisher=Film Ireland|title=The History of Irish Cinemas – Part 2: Cine-Variety in Dublin| access-date=1 February 2018}} By the 1930s the cinema showing would usually include a feature film, a B movie, a trailer for the following week's show, a newsreel, a cartoon plus a full live stage show. Those in the show were often stars of film, radio, or variety theatre. Most of the cinema chains in the UK and Ireland employed stars for their cine-variety as part of the show. This included stars such as Cicely Courtneidge, Teddy Brown and Tommy Handley from the film Elstree Calling and Clapham and Dwyer, Claude Dampier, Ronald Frankau and Stanelli from the film Radio Parade of 1935.{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b3d1c35|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005104438/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b3d1c35|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 5, 2016|publisher=British Film Institute |title=Radio Parade of 1935 (1935)| access-date=29 January 2018}}
Legacy
Although cine-variety's heyday was in the 1930s, it continued through the 1950s with the shows at The Empire, Leicester Square, London.{{cite web|url=http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/EmpireLeicesterSquare/CVProg.htm
|publisher=www.arthurlloyd.co.uk |title=A Cine-Variety Programme for the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, March 1950| access-date=29 January 2018}}
The Theatre Royal in Winchester is believed to be England's last surviving cine-variety theatre,{{cite book|author=David Kemp|title=The Pleasures and Treasures of Britain: A Discerning Traveller's Companion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jYdEyVnQn4C&pg=PA129|date=1992-01-12|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-1-77070-070-3|pages=129}} and it also describes itself as "the only surviving cine-variety theatre in the country",{{cite web|url=https://www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk/about-us/|publisher=Theatre Royal Winchester |title=About us| access-date=29 January 2018}} it opened as a cine-variety theatre in 1914.{{cite web|url=https://www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk/about-us/history/|publisher=Theatre Royal Winchester |title=History| access-date=29 January 2018}}
See also
References
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Further reading
- {{Cite book| publisher = Wick Book Publishers| isbn = 978-09-53-39939-0| last = Inkster| first = Donald| title = Union Cinemas Ritz: A Story of Theatre Organs and Cine-Variety| date = 1999}}