Cinema on SundaysLegalising British Cinema Exhibition

Recounts the emergence of legal Sunday cinema culture in Great Britain

• The first to argue that the legalisation of Sunday cinema was a much longer process that went beyond the 1932 Sunday Entertainments Act
• Draws on newly released sources from the National Archives to reveal the integral position of the Home Office behind the civic and bureaucratic mechanisms toward legalising Sunday cinema
• The chapters on World War II illuminate the little-known history of Emergence Order 42B, that allowed military officers to order local cinemas to open on Sunday for the benefit of the war effort
• Argues for a reconsideration of the cultural and social meanings behind exactly when and where cinemagoing could be enjoyed at a time when streaming technology has disrupted traditional notions of cinemagoing
• Combines social, cultural, political and legal history

Often referred to as the first day of the week, Sunday was the last frontier for cinemagoing access in Britain and represented complex perspectives on the cultural turbulence of the period. This book examines the efforts of the countless people who coalesced around the Sunday cinema movement. These cinematic communities began to see the social necessity of film and challenged the institution of the British Sunday to make room for this new cultural practice.

Cinema on Sundays recounts the emergence of legal Sunday cinema culture in Britain between the 1920s to the 1950s. By utilising newly uncovered sources, this book uncovers the larger social, political and legal history into a topic often seen as a small historical curiosity. Sunday cinemagoers forever altered the one day a week most people were free from work.