A Brief History of Cinema on the Fairground
The invention known as living pictures first made its appearance in February 1896. The appearance and exploitation of this new industry by travelling showmen also occurred in this year, and from 1897 onwards they played a significant part in this business, playing to largely provincial audiences whose chances of seeing this new display were limited. For fifteen or more years, these enterprising showmen travelled around the country, adapting and building portable booths in which to exhibit the films. Prominent showmen of the day soon incorporated living pictures into the fairground shows. One of the first was Randall Williams, who is acknowledged by most writers as the first showman to introduce moving pictures on to the English fairgrounds in 1897, when he opened at the King's Lynn Mart. By 1898 the early cinematography shows dominated the fairground landscape, using names such as:
- Biddall's Royal Bioscope
- Ball's Living Pictures
- William Taylor Colliseum
- Green's Cinematograph
- Arnold Bros Picturedrome
The earliest form of booth or show for the exhibiting of moving pictures was the ground booth show. These ghost shows, which were adapted by showmen like Randall Williams, became lavish early forerunners of the walk up bioscopes of the early 20th century. However the showmen soon concentrated on the bioscope shows and either adapted, improved or ordered purpose built shows in which to show the early films. From 1902 onwards these shows were transported by traction engine, allowing for greater loads to be carried, and making it possible to transport a complete cinematograph show with six or seven loads at one time. The portable electric Savage dynamo was replaced by a large dynamo fixed onto the smoke box of the traction engine, allowing finer illumination, with William Taylor's show reputed to have had over 4,000 electric lights, on different circuits, which changed colour in sequence with the action of the organ. These elaborate walk up shows reached their zenith between 1906 to 1912 with the shows becoming bigger, more intricate and holding a greater capacity.
By the end of 1914, the fairground cinematograph shows gradually started to disappear. A combination of factors for their decline is apparent, the main reason perhaps being the growth in popularity of the cinema. This eventually resulted in permanent locations being built all over the country and the travelling exhibitions gradually vanished by 1915. However, showmen such as George Green of Glasgow, Pat Collins and the Holland family, had anticipated this move and went on to open or build permanent cinemas with George Green and his sons achieving even greater success as cinema exhibitors with the construction of the Playhouse cinemas at Glasgow and Dundee.
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