Ideal Cinemagazine

Dates

1926 - 1931

Category

Cinemagazine - Entertainment

History

Ideal Cinemagazine was first trade shown on 15 January 1926, at the New Gallery Kinema, Regent Street. Thirteen issues were advertised at first and the series was originally limited to twenty-six single reels, to be released fortnightly. The series was launched as part of Ideals Laughter Festival, and immediately established a motto, ‘Learn a Little, Laugh a Lot.' Ideal was the only company to publicly define ‘cinemagazine,' stating ‘It’s an arresting series of one-reel pictures devoted to everyday things, viewed from strange and unconventional angles.' This wide variety of subjects were arranged around a title, frequently a pun, such as NEW VAMPS FOR OLD (no. 2) which often surprised the critics by its unusual nature. Despite this unconventional beginning, by January 1927, the content of Ideal Cinemagazine was much more recognizable as cinemagazine fare. The programme then provided sport, through bought-in Grantland Rice Sportlights footage; music, in the guise of Ideal’s own ‘Singsong’ series from no. 14 onwards (Kinematograph Weekly, 6 January 1927, p. 76), travel from’Hodge Podge series; and, of course, a cartoon.

In common with Eve’s Film Review and Gaumont Mirror, Ideal Cinemagazine also attempted to attract a female audience, in their case, through the inclusion of an illustrated household hint. It was at this point, 1927, that Ideal Cinemagazine began to be advertised as ‘The Champagne of Shorts,' though Ideal was careful to maintain that it contained ‘something to attract, amuse and enchant every class of patron’ (Kinematograph Weekly, 24 February 1927). By May 1927, Ideal Cinemagazine was released twice a week, though still only one reel in length.

Full history

http://media.bufvc.ac.uk/newsonscreen2/newsreel/histories/idealcinemaghistory.pdf

Provenance

This database is an attempt to reconstruct the output of Ideal Cinemagazine from details published in contemporary trade journals, particularly the Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly and the Bioscope.

Other Information

See also Ideal Sound Cinemagazine

Films in this series can be obtained from:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries: nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk For commercial/footage reuse enquiries: footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)