What was it like to go to the movies in 1913 when The Cinema House first opened its doors? How have the composition, behaviour and experiences of audiences changed over the following century?
These articles will examine St Andrews movie audiences at particular historical junctures – the coming of sound, war – and ask what we can learn about social history through these studies.
Tis the Season for Cinema: Going to the Movies on Christmas Day, 1950
The Citizen, 9 December 1950, 4.The Citizen, 23 December 1950, 4. The Citizen, 23 December 1950, 4. Christmas day in St Andrews in 1950 differed from previous years. While recent years had been unseasonably warm, on this morning the townspeople were greeted by a glistening blanket of frost. The overnight temperature had slumped to fifteen degrees below freezing. The children met this cold weather with delight as they tried out their new ice skates, and games of curling were played on the skating pond (St Andrews Citizen, 30 December...
read moreLive Shows and the Cinema: The Gypsy Baron Premieres in the New Picture House
The Gypsy Baron is an operetta by Johann Strauss II first produced in 1885. It envisions a landowner’s marriage to a gypsy girl, daughter of a Turkish bashaw, at the height of Ottoman rule in Europe. The operetta created a sensation upon release and as a result, it was continuously adapted onto the stage across the world and adapted into film more than five times in the first half of the twentieth century. The operetta enjoyed a different kind of rendition when put on by the St Andrews Amateur Operatic Society for the first time in St...
read moreMonarch News: Long Live the Cinema!
1943: The allies capture Tripoli from the Nazis; Television Broadcasting continues to be suspended; George Harrison is born; and two St. Andrews students begin their film magazine, Monarch News! The ambitious Monarch – a hand-made magazine – was produced from 1943-1944. Manufactured against the backdrop of war, it provides a valuable glimpse into the period from the perspective of students, prospective film critics and members of the armed forces – all rolled into one. Founded by two St Andrews Students, Rollo Mitchell and...
read moreThe Proper Place: Cinema going in the 1920s
Two boys visit the cinema on a trip to St Andrews in the 1926 Anna Buchan novel The Proper Place.
read moreThe Opening of The St Andrews Minors Club
On 5 December 1964, the St Andrews Minors Club opened at the New Picture House.
read moreMovie Going Memories
In an effort to learn more about the history of cinema in St Andrews – and in particular about audiences and moviegoing within the town – Cinema St Andrews has produced a questionnaire, which is available both online and through the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum. We thought we would highlight here some of the recollections that we have collected so far, which illuminate aspects of St Andrews’ rich cinematic heritage. Many of the responses recall first experiences at the cinema, primal scenes that have left an indelible mark on the...
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