Mobile Cinema - History

History

During the Russian Civil War between Communists and counter-revolutionaries, the early cinema pioneer Dziga Vertov helped establish and run a film-car on Mikhail Kalinin's agit-train. He had equipment to shoot, develop, edit, and project film. The trains went to battlefronts on agitation-propaganda missions intended primarily to bolster the morale of the troops; they were also intended to stir up revolutionary fervor of the masses.

In the late 1960s, Tony Benn, working under Harold Wilson's Labour government, commissioned seven custom built mobile cinema units for the Ministry of Technology campaign to 'raise standards' and promote British industry. The project was short lived and the units were sold off at government auction in 1974, most are thought to have been long since decommissioned and disappeared. However, one has survived via purchase by Sir William McAlpine to tour with the Flying Scotsman locomotive he rescued from America, and consequently donated to the Transport Trust in 1975 where it was in preservation for 15 years. It has since been through several private owners and following a full restoration is now in operation as Vintage Mobile Cinema, based in the South West of England.

Mobile cinema was very popular during the colonial periods in Africa when Landrovers were used as movie vans to transport a white linen screen, usually mounted on the Landrover, a portable generator, a 16mm projector and mounted loudspeakers. In this way rural areas received propaganda and educational films, usually shown in the evenings during dark hours. In the UK a mobile Solar powered cinema was launched in 2010. The Sol Cinema uses an LED projector showing short films in cinematic surroundings. They use lithium batteries to store the energy from the Sun to power the cinema all day and night. Their 3 photovoltaic panels harness the sunlight, even as the films are being shown so they never run out of power.

In Ireland, mobile cinemas operated from the 1920s to the mid 1960s, a portable wooden structure was erected, with seating for up to 250 people. The building had wooden sides and a canvas roof, approximately 40 ft by 24 ft. The 35mm projector was housed in a caravan at one end of the building. There were up to 20 families touring Ireland, mainly in isolated areas where the nearest permanent cinema was miles away. These mobile cinemas stayed up to 3 weeks in a village before moving to another area. The families lived in caravans had their own generators and a stock of films with them. During the war transport became difficult as fuel for the motor vehicles was in short supply so some cinemas settled down for the duration of the war, whilst others reverted to horses to move their equipment from village to village and saved their fuel to run the generators even then they had to buy extra fuel on the black market. The children of the showmen went to the local national schools for the duration of their stay, some went to 16 - 18 schools a year. The arrival of TV ended these mobile cinemas however they will be remembered for bringing cinema to the people in isolated areas. The names of some of these families are well remembered:- The Lyons family, The Mullens, Cullens, McCormacs, Courtneys, Lynns, McFaddens, Barrets, Corvinos, Roses and Lynns In 1949 one of these families {Lyons} was featured in the Times Pictorial in a full front pageof imiges of their show and also an large article on other pages The photos were all taken in Rosscarbery west cork anc contained some shots of locals sitting in the cinema .