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”

After the Second World War, the church and educationalists raised concerns regarding what was being shown within the children’s cinema matinees, and in the cinemas in general, highlighting Hollywood’s glamorization of immoral behavior and crime.

In 1948 a committee on Children in the Cinema was set up to examine the effect of cinema and films on young people. A document written by a local Waterloo Senior Science Master was put forward as evidence for the committee, the archive copy resides in Sefton Records Office named ‘Frank Tyrer – Children and the Cinema’ This committee and its findings help set in place the Wheare report.

The Wheare Report was published in 1950 and looked at juvenile cinema going. The report made suggestions regarding censorship of film and brought in the X certificate to replace the broader H certificate of film classification. From 1951 no children under the age of 16 were supposed to be able to see an X certificate film, but of course many of them did, as the film posters and trailers would highlight the X rating which would make the film more appealing and a challenge to the younger audience to be able to see them. The report also placed a levy of voluntary tax on each cinema ticket the “Eady Levy” which would go towards setting the Children’s Film Foundation.

The Parents View Parents of young cinema goers saw the children’s cinema matinees as a safe place where their children could go to be entertained for a few hours whilst they could get on with their chores and shopping. A lot of what was shown in the matinees was often unknown and unseen to the parents so when films especially made for children were introduced, together with tighter controls on film censorship parents could send their children to the pictures without fear of what they were watching causing delinquency as many of the moralist at the time had tried to claim.

Another common theme and something which wouldn’t happen in modern society was the practice of asking adults {often strangers} to take you into the cinema if you wanted to see an ‘A’ or ‘H’ rated certificate film. Young people would stand outside the cinema money in hand and say
“Will you take us in Mr.”
“Can we walk in in with you Mrs”

Sometimes obliging adults would take the young film fans into the cinema but other times they would not.

Many of the films classified as an ‘A’ – Adult Certificate or ‘ H’ for Horror back then would now be a ‘U’- Universal or ‘PG’ Parental Guidance rating.

In 1932 The Sunday Entertainments Act regulated the use and opening times that cinemas were allowed to operate. The act also set up a Sunday Cinematograph fund for ‘encouraging the use and development of the cinematograph as a means for entertainment and instruction’ This fund gave rise to the British Film Institute.

In 1947 a vote on Sunday Cinema was held in Liverpool and an astounding number of patrons turned out to use their vote and raise their opinions.

The images below show the inside of a leaflet which was distributed to show the reasons against Sunday Cinema.

This article below was photographed at Liverpool Records Office, it shows the staggering number of people who turned out to vote on whether cinemas should be allowed to open on a Sunday.

From the early days of cinema and film production right through to today, concerns have always been raised about how what people see on the screen can affect attitudes and behaviors. Moralists and educationalist have put forward many concerns about cinema, the films and their effects.

Many of the moral issues raised came from the glamorization of Hollywood and how its actors and actresses were portrayed both on and off the screen.

The British Board of Film Censors was set up in 1913 as a form of self regulation for the industry and as a way for films to be assessed and given a censorship or category rating.

After a series of scandals in 1930’s Hollywood, coupled with the church and educationalists views on the perils of cinema on society, helped bring about several new codes of conduct for film makers to follow – The Hayes Code was introduced in 1930’s America . The introduction of this and subsequent forms of censorship of film over the years have given way in some cases for a less sensational view of the effects of the cinema.

Film classifications can be seen as an historical and cultural basis for what is going on in society a given point in time. Many films which would have carried an ‘A’ ‘X’ or ‘H’ rating during the 1930′s to the 60′s are often classified as a PG or even U rating today and would be seen as quite tame in content compared to todays films.