The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Castleford Advert 3
No attempt to sell an idyllic lifestyle here in these two cinema ads for local shops, just a simple warning on the irreplaceability of eyesight.
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Overview
A glimpse into the pre-war days when local advertisements were a mainstay of cinemas throughout the country, and especially so here in Castleford in 1939, the year the war began. No sophisticated techniques of persuasion are required in these local ads for a jeweller and an optician which appeal only to the needs of the cinema audience.
When war was declared on 3 September ,1939 cinemas were closed because they were seen, as were theatres, as easy bombing targets; but were back open within a week. In 1939 cinema attendance was over 990 million, compared to 172 million for 2012; and there were far more cinemas, with 3 new cinemas being opened each week. Four cinemas opened in the single year of 1912 in Castleford, and by 1939 it had three: New Albion Cinema (formerly the Albion Picture House in Albion Street), the New Star (formerly the Star Picture Palace in Aire Street), and the Queens Cinema (formerly the Queens Theatre). Yet the town had no cinema at all between 1987 and 2003.
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