Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive

Early in 1995, Cinema Culture in 1930s Britain contacted Heathlands, a retirement home in Prestwich, Greater Manchester catering mainly for Jewish residents, seeking potential participants in the project. Heathlands residents took part in two interviews: on 27 April 1995 a group of six residents was interviewed, and on 29 May 1996 one member of the group, Tessa Amelan, was interviewed on her own. Both interviews took place at Heathlands.

Group interview participants were: Gabrielle Adam (born in Russia in 1907), Tessa Amelan (born in Manchester in 1918; her father worked in the raincoat trade and her mother was a milliner before marriage; she left school at fourteen and took up work in the clothing trade, never marrying and eventually becoming housekeeper to her brother and carer for her ageing parents), Samuel Flamholtz (born in 1922 in Poland, grew up in Manchester; worked in a bakery after leaving school at fourteen), Nat Frieling (born in 1909 in Romania; moved to Manchester at the age of two, was orphaned before he was six and adopted by relatives; left school at thirteen and as an adult studied economics at a Trade Union college), Rachel Tarsky (born in Manchester in 1906; parents had migrated from Russia early in the 20th century; her father was a shoemaker and her mother had a grocery business, where Mrs Tarsky worked after leaving school at fourteen), and another male resident whose name and details are not recorded.

Throughout the interview, speakers check and correct each other's recollections, and in parts of the conversation members of the group speak over each other. Subjects covered include names of stars and films, many of the films--including comedies, serials, and animal stars--made in the 1920s. Saturday matinees are mentioned, along with the cost of tickets for the humbler types of cinema ('bug huts') with their very basic seating (benches). The conversation moves on to the 1930s, as participants pore over photos of stars of the period and exchange comments and opinions. Topics of lengthier debate include Charlie Chaplin and his films, the 1937 version of Lost Horizon, the scandal surrounding Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale, and the films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Discussion of films and cinema detours into collective consideration of the lack of availability of post-elementary education for members of their generation, before turning to recollections of the cinemas of central and suburban Manchester, assertions of the importance of the contributions of film producers and directors, and references to animated films of the 1930s (Snow White is mentioned) and foreign films (the Cosmo in Glasgow is referred to).

On the project's second visit to Heathlands, Tessa Amelan was interviewed on her own. Leafing through a 1938 film annual, she names some of her favourite stars, including Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Shirley Temple, and Anna Neagle. She insists she was not very interested in their private lives, which she regarded as totally unrelated to her own. She recounts her earliest cinemagoing memory--of being terrified by a vividly remembered scene in a film. She talks about the types of films she liked, about watching films on television, and about her hobbies and the group activities on offer at Heathlands. While she sometimes went to the cinema with her sister, she preferred going on her own, enjoying the solitary sensation of being in "another world".

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