In 1941 the musical film 'Nice Girl' was released. It was American made at a time before America had entered the Second World War- but the war still cast a shadow over its script. In the US version of the film, the final scene concludes with the song 'Thank You America'. But for the British release (which New Zealand also saw) the song 'There Will Always Be An England' was added, performed under the Stars and Stripes as well as the Union Jack.

Britain was under the terror of bombing raids and the threat of a Nazi invasion. While America was not fighting alongside Britain at the time, they were about to start supplying ships and arms to the war effort under the 'lend-lease' scheme. 

When the slide was screened during intermission in New Zealand, the war was both terrifying but also far away. The attack on Pearl Harbor gave the British Empire an ally in the form of the USA- but it also brought the war to the Pacific. By the end of 1942, Japanese submarines were sighted in New Zealand waters. Films like this did a lot for morale!

Released on the 20th of October, 1933 'The Way To Love' is a Hollywood movie starring Ann Dvorak and Maurice Chevalier. It's plot revolves around carefree drifter who has to save a beautiful performer who is threatened by her partner in a knife throwing act.

This film is one of the last of the 'pre-Code' Hollywood films. These were made between the introduction of the sound 'talkies' in 1927 and the enforcement of the moralistic 'Hays Code' in 1934. With the expanded possibilities of adding dialogue to films (and the need to keep audiences paying during the Great Depression) Hollywood gravitated towards sensationalistic plots with sex appeal, violence and drama.

In response to these films many US states threatened to make their own individual censorship laws meaning that multiple 'cuts' of a single film would have to be made. In response, Hollywood adopted their own, internally enforced moral code which headed off this threat.  The Hays Code would be enforced until the 1960s. 

This film was screened in Foxton on the 4th of August 1934. The 'Manawatu Times' had the following write up on it...

MAURICE CHEVALIER'S “THE WAY TO LOVE”

Bringing new songs and new smiles as a handsome guide of a Parisian tourist agency, Maurice Chevalier Is playing at the Foxton Town Hall to-night in his newest starring Paramount picture, "The Way to Love.” With him are Ann Dvorak and Edward Everett Horton. Maurice takes us on a tour through Paris where he knows all the beauties both scenic and human. His adventures supply all with a delightful hour's entertainment. The new songs he introduces are "It’s Oh, It’s Ah!”, "I’m a Lover of Paree,” “In a One Room Flat” and “The Way to Love.” A selected list of short subjects includes the Mickey Mouse cartoon “Mickey’s Orphans.” 

The theatre was the 'Coronation Hall' and it still stands in Foxton today as the home of the MAVtech Museum. It is still a working cinemas as well! This slide would have been screened during  other films to advertise 'The Way To Love'. Soon to be released features were known as 'coming attractions'. The projectionist has written the day the film was to play in removable ink at the bottom of the slide. 

The slide mount was made by 'Consolidated Film Industries' which was a company specialising in making projection grade copies of films as well as advertising slides- so they probably made this slide too! 

This slide advertised  'Frosty Jack' ice cream- a Wellington brand which was sold from 1924 to 1967. Like many local companies it had a limited distribution- 'Frosty Jack' didn't even get to the South Island until the 1960s. However, this effort may have caused the company to lose money and they sold to a larger firm who then stopped making ice cream a few years later.

As early as the 1930s 'Frosty Jack' trays were being used in cinemas during the weekend matinee screenings which were popular with children.  This slide asks the patrons to 'call the boy'- with carrying the ice-cream tray a popular first job for many schoolchildren.

Many of these cinemas would have been independent ones- Kerridge-Odeon ended up owning its own ice cream brand for its theatres.

Take a look at the boy on the slide- it looks as though the ice cream is giving him some brain freeze! 

MAVtech has a 'Frosty Jack' ice cream tray in its collection and you can see it on Kete. Just search for 'Frosty Jack'.

This slide would have been shown by cinema management whenever there was an important announcement to make. Sometimes this might be news of new treats at the food stand. Other times it may have been more serious- like a call for assistance from any doctors in the audience. The projectionist would write on the yellow bar of the slide with removable ink and would rub out the writing after the screening.

There might not seem like much space- but the slide didn't have a lot of time to get the message across. The heat from early carbon- arc projectors would crack the slide in a few seconds so it was displayed and then withdrawn quickly! 

Some cinemas had basic, picture - less 'blank' slides for these announcements, but the cinema who used this one went really fancy!

This is not the slide you would want to see projected on the screen before your film started! The sound track of analogue films ran beside the images (asides from a few very early, very seldom used systems) so if the sound track was damaged there was little which could be done. Luckily it only impacted a few minutes of footage in this case!

In some cinemas this was more likely to happen. In very early New Zealand cinemas a reel of  short films would move from one operator to the next and if you were the last cinema on the line the images would be worn from all the previous screenings. Some First World War newsreels were played into oblivion and no longer survive (although these did not have sound...)

In the United States of America some theatres host 'second run' screenings of films which have already been used by regular cinemas. These 'discount cinemas' often have films with slight imperfections due to their age (Titanic was screening in these budget theatres six months after its release date!)

Long before the many-screened multiplexes, people saw films in a 'Picture Palace'. These venues were ornate cinemas with one big screen and usually with multi-level seating. The advent of television and the need to show more films more often saw the end of these wonderful venues. Foxton's MAVtech Museum (located in Coronation Hall) is a picture palace and it still has its 'dress circle' seating.

What could be more palatial than having a medieval herald make an announcement? This slide was shown right before the slides (or short reels) advertising upcoming films (known back then as 'coming attractions')

These boxes were sent to the managers of local theatres decades (in one case even around a century) ago! In them were slides promoting upcoming films which were projected onscreen during the intermission.

From the 1910s big cinema chains began appearing in New Zealand and they competed for the rights to show overseas releases. At a time when a town Foxton's size had two cinemas this differentiation was important for business. 

Some of these boxes bear the names of Aotearoa's big cinema names like 'Kerridge'. The 'Pacer-Kerridge' alliance was founded in 1987 making the upper left box the newest of the assortment seen here. By contrast, the Paramount logo seen here was phased out in 1967! 

A new magazine with a trendy new movie- given that it is showcasing 'Saturday Night Fever' it is a good guess that this issue came out in 1977. But this magazine is doing more than just showing new features- it's introducing new words as well.

'Movies' is a recent term for New Zealand and it only became popular here in the 1980s. Before then a night out with the 'big screen' was known as going to the 'cinema' (or 'The Flicks') to see a 'film' or a 'picture'. 'Movies' was an American term and magazines like this helped bring it to the fore. All the American television programmes and films certainly had an impact too!

Whatever you wanted to call them they were still a popular night out, with Kiwis seeing at least five films on average a year. 

This slide was shown during intermission in local cinemas (or should that be 'movie theatre'?)