In the early days of cinema films for children would often be of American origin and sometimes just be adult films which had been edited until British films especially made for the child audience came along.

Concerns about the effects that the popularity of film was having on children had been raised by educationalists, the church and the press. Several reports and research surveys had looked into this area, one of the most notable being the Wheare Report in 1950.

J Arthur Rank who was a devout member of the methodist church and was also a Sunday School teacher, he found showing the students religious films would get messages across just as well as lecturing, this practice was extended to other Sunday schools and led to the formation of The Religious Film Society. His father was a millionaire flour mill owner and he had been brought up with strict moral codes.

His intrests led him into film production and he helped to form British National Film with the first commercial film in 1935 called ‘Tom’s Ride’. Rank wanted films to tell a moral story as well as be entertaining for the children and families. He found wide distribution of the film to be difficult due to ties with British distributors and Hollywood. As a solution bought and controlled some of the means of film production, distribution and exhibition.

He became head of the Gaumont and Odeon cinema chains and had interests in both Lime Grove and Pinewood Film Studios and wanted British made films and serials for the children’s cinema matinee programs.

He continued making films in this vein under Ranks’s Gaumont British Instructional Division, heralding the start of British made films especially for a children’s cinema matinee audience. They continued making films for Rank cinemas and became known as the Children’s Film Department and from 1947 became The CEF – Children’s Entertainment Films.

Film making is a costly business and when the Rank Organisation could not sustain funding the CEF and following publication of the Wheare report in 1950, which looked at the effect of juvinile cinem going and the influence of films, a collaboration within the British Film Industry was formed and supported by the Rank organisation – The Children’s Film Foundation -{CFF} was formed. The CFF had a remit to create films especially for children’s cinema matinees and suitable for showing within schools.

The funding for this was supported by the Eady Levy, a tax put onto cinema tickets. This continued for over 50 years until 1985 when the levy was abolished.

In the 1960’s the decline of the Children’s Film Foundation mirrored what was happening in cinemas all over the country. The 60’s brought about changes in society and the way in which people in society viewed things. Increased choice in places for entertainment and activities, changes in attitudes and the increase in ownership of televisions as well as increased choice oF television programmes, were factors which contributed to a decline in cinema admissions. Many cinemas had already closed by this point and the decrease in venues and sales continued. Children didn’t have to “Come Along” to the cinema on a Saturday morning for their entertainment, instead they had Saturday Morning Television.

Due to funding restraints and the decrease in Children’s cinema matinees in 1982 the CFF became the CFTF {Children’s Film & Television Foundation} and by 1987 the CFTF ended film making and went onto serve as an advisory body for children’s film and television. In 2012 the CFTF once again changed its name to The Children’s Media Foundation with its tag line being
“Ensuring that UK children have the widest choice of quality media”

In the 1950’s the average weekly attendance to children’s cinema matinees was over 1,016,000 with 1735 cinemas holding cinema matinees for children. {Source: media statistics website taken from report from Wheare Committee http://terramedia.co.uk}

Society at the time was more restrained in some ways than it is today, children were confined at home and school and the cinema on a Saturday was a place to be free and exercise their spirit. It was a place where gangs of kids could meet or come along together in a safe environment that provided a chance for parents to have some free time in the knowledge that their children were in a safe, warm and social
environment each week.

Cinema Clubs
The format of the Children’s Cinema Matinee varied slightly between Picture Houses. Some would be held on a Saturday morning others would be a Saturday afternoon. Some lucky children would attend two children’s film shows in a day at the local cinemas, providing them with a full mornings and afternoons entertainment.

Several cinemas especially ones who were part of the larger circuits such as the Odeon and The Gaumont Cinemas would have a club type atmosphere within their cinema matinees. The children would receive a badge and come up onto the stage when it was their birthday to receive a free ice cream or tickets to next week’s matinee. The notion of film clubs helped to develop the habit of going to the pictures from a young age which organisations like Rank and Odeon hoped would continue to turn young cinema goers into lifelong film fans.

Before the days of films made especially for children , what was shown within the children’s cinema matinees would often be an adult film which had either a ‘U’ rating or one which had been edited for the children’s matinee. Many of these films were said to “have a certain harmful morale and psychological influence on children ” { Frank Tyrer document Children and the Cinema 1948} There would often be adult themes shown, with very few child actors having a main or starring role until the development of Children’s Entertainment film in the 1940’s later The Children’s Film Foundation. This began as a trend in the market and resulted in a profitable business in producing films specifically for a young audience.