Interwar London After Dark In British Popular Culture

This book explores the representation of London’s nightlife in popular films and newspapers of the interwar period. Through a series of case-studies, it analyses how British popular media in the 1920s and 1930s displayed the capital after dark. It argues that newspapers and films were part of a common culture, which capitalized on the transgressive possibilities of the night. At the same time both media ensured that those in authority, such as the police, were always shown to ultimately be in control of the night. The first chapter of the book provides an overview of the British film and newspaper industries in the interwar period. Subsequent chapters each explore a specific aspect of London’s nightlife. In turn, these chapters consider how films and newspapers of the interwar period depicted women navigating the street at night; the Metropolitan Police’s involvement in nightlife; and the capital’s newly built and expanded suburbs and public transport network. Finally, the book considers how newspapers and films depicted themselves and one another.

This book investigates a Jewish orientation to film culture in interwar Britain. It explores how pleasure, politics and communal solidarity intermingled in the cinemas of Jewish neighbourhoods, and how film was seen as a vessel through which Jewish communal concerns might be carried to a wider public. Addressing an array of related topics, this volume examines the lived expressive cultures of cinemas in Jewish areas and the ethnically specific films consumed within these sites; the reception of film stars as representations of a Jewish social body; and how an antisemitic canard that understood the cinema as a Jewish monopoly complicated its use as a base for anti-fascist activity. In shedding light on an unexplored aspect of British film reception and exhibition, Toffell provides a unique insight into the making of the modern city by migrant communities. The title will be of use to anyone interested in Britain’s interwar leisure landscape, the Jewish presence in modernity, and a cinema studies sensitised to the everyday experience of audiences.

How, as historians, should we 'read' a film? Histories on Screen answers this and other questions in a crucial volume for any history student keen to master source use. The book begins with a theoretical 'Thinking about Film' section that explores the ways in which films can be analyzed and interrogated as either primary sources, secondary sources or indeed as both. The much larger 'Using Film' segment of the book then offers engaging case studies which put this theory into practice. Topics including gender, class, race, war, propaganda, national identity and memory all receive good coverage in what is an eclectic multi-contributor volume. Documentaries, films and television from Britain and the United States are examined and there is a jargon-free emphasis on the skills and methods needed to analyze films in historical study featuring prominently throughout the text. Histories on Screen is a vital resource for all history students as it enables them to understand film as a source and empowers them with the analytical tools needed to use that knowledge in their own work.

"Tea has been one of the most popular commodities in the world. Over centuries, profits from its growth and sales funded wars and fueled colonization, and its cultivation brought about massive changes--in land use, labor systems, market practices, and social hierarchies--the effects of which are with us even today. A Thirst for Empire takes a vast and in-depth historical look at how men and women--through the tea industry in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa--transformed global tastes and habits and in the process created our modern consumer society. As Erika Rappaport shows, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries the boundaries of the tea industry and the British Empire overlapped but were never identical, and she highlights the economic, political, and cultural forces that enabled the British Empire to dominate--but never entirely control--the worldwide production, trade, and consumption of tea. Rappaport delves into how Europeans adopted, appropriated, and altered Chinese tea culture to build a widespread demand for tea in Britain and other global markets and a plantation-based economy in South Asia and Africa. Tea was among the earliest colonial industries in which merchants, planters, promoters, and retailers used imperial resources to pay for global advertising and political lobbying. The commercial model that tea inspired still exists and is vital for understanding how politics and publicity influence the international economy ..."--Jacket.

The Routledge Companion to British Media History provides a comprehensive exploration of how different media have evolved within social, regional and national contexts. The 50 chapters in this volume, written by an outstanding team of internationally respected scholars, bring together current debates and issues within media history in this era of rapid change, and also provide students and researchers with an essential collection of comparable media histories. The Routledge Companion to British Media History provides an essential guide to key ideas, issues, concepts and debates in the field. Chapter 40 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315756202.ch40

A radically urgent intervention, An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre: 1900 - 1950 uncovers the hidden Black history of this most influential of artforms. Drawing on lost archive material and digitised newspapers from the turn of the century onwards, this exciting story has been re-traced and restored to its rightful place. A vital and significant part of British cultural history between 1900 and 1950, Black performance practice was fundamental to resisting and challenging racism in the UK. Join Mayes (a Broadway- and Toronto-based Music Director) and Whitfield (a musical theatre historian and researcher) as they take readers on a journey through a historically-inconvenient and brilliant reality that has long been overlooked. Get to know the Black theatre community in London's Roaring 20s, and hear about the secret Florence Mills memorial concert they held in 1928. Acquaint yourself with Buddy Bradley, Black tap and ballet choreographer, who reshaped dance in British musicals - often to be found at Noël Coward's apartment for late-night rehearsals, such was Bradley's importance. Meet Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion, who toured Britain's theatres during World War 1 and brought the sounds of Chicago to places like war-weary Dundee. Discover the most prolific Black theatre practitioner you've never heard of, William Garland, who worked for 40 years across multiple continents and championed Black British performers. Marvel at performers like cabaret star Mabel Mercer, born in Stafford in 1900, who sang and conducted theatre orchestras across the UK, as well as Black Birmingham comedian Eddie Emerson, who was Garland's partner for decades. Many of their names and works have never been included in histories of the British musical - until now.

Radio still remains an important form of media, with millions listening to it daily. It has been reborn for the digital era, and is an area where there is great interest in its development, role and form. Attempting to fill the gap in research on British radio criticism, this volume explores the development and role of radio criticism in the discourse around radio in Britain from its birth in the 1920s up to present day. Using a historical approach to explore how, as radio emerged, the press provided coverage which helped shape and reflect radio’s position in popular culture, Paul Rixon delivers an interesting and engaging exploration that provides a cultural perspective on radio, with a specific focus on newspaper criticism. Radio Critics and Popular Culture is an innovative and original addition to existing research and will be invaluable for those interested in the way that British radio has evolved.

What did our Scottish grandparents and great grandparents see at the cinema? What thrilled them on the silver screen?. This is the first scholarly work to document the cinema habits of early twentieth-century Scots, exploring the growth of early cinema-going and integrating the study of cinema into wider debates in social and economic history. The author draws extensively on archival resources concerning the cinema as a business, on documentation kept by cinema managers, and on the diaries and recollections of cinema-goers. He considers patterns of cinema-going and attendance levels, as well as changes in audience preferences for different genres, stars or national origins of films. The thematic chapters broaden out the discussion of cinema-going to consider the wider social and cultural impact of this early form of mass leisure. Trevor GriffithsOCO book is a major contribution to the growing body of work on the history and significance of British film. Key Features: First major study of early Scottish film; New archives and research; Fascinating diary entries; Early cinema as business; Important addition to Scottish film studies. Key words: cinema, Scotland, history, cinema-going, society, films, Scottish