In the early 1990s Annette Kuhn embarked on a small research project that involved reading all the film fan magazines that were published in Britain during the 1930s. This morphed into Cinema Culture in 1930s Britain (CCINTB), a broader inquiry into popular cinemagoing between the wars. The CCINTB collection contains correspondence with several hundred men and women from all over the British Isles who contacted the project with letters, inquiries, and offers of information. Some of the correspondents were later interviewed, while others took part in postal questionnaire surveys.

This correspondence includes written communications varying in length and detail, ranging from simple notes expressing interest in taking part in the project to letters setting out, over several pages, writers’ cinemagoing memories. Many of those who took part in questionnaire surveys enclosed along with their completed forms lists, compiled from memory, of films and stars of the 1930s. Others sent clippings of local press articles about the heyday of cinemagoing where they lived; as well as essays and other writings, some evidently produced in local history, reminiscence group or creative writing settings, informed and inspired by their youthful cinemagoing

Close to five hundred of these documents have been scanned and more than half of those have been transcribed. Many key items have so far been included in the CMDA database, with more being added as they become available. If you would like to explore these and learn more about the people who sent them, please visit the ‘Search the Archive‘ page.