Rural cinema audiences in South Australia in the 1930s

Abstract

Very few South Australian local histories give any account of the ritual screening of films in local community halls and regional picture theatres. Given that the 1930s was a turbulent era for the exhibition industry, the survival of the rural picture show beyond the decade suggests that it played a significant role in local history. This article will discuss the distribution and exhibition of films in rural South Australia during the early 1930s and the impact of legislation on the small operators. It goes on to examine the cinema-going preferences of the mid-north town of Snowtown during two years from July 1933 to June 1935 and considers the factors other than taste that determined the popularity of a screening.