Making a living at the cinema: Scottish cinema staff in the silent era

In this chapter, Trevor Griffiths focuses on the people who ran and staffed cinemas and who shaped the experience of going to the cinema. These were not simply the entrepreneurs who owned the cinema or the distribution companies but also the more publicly visible employees of the cinema such as the manager, the ushers and usherettes, the musicians and the projectionists who were central to the experience of going to a show. The chapter charts, through reference to the trade press and trade union records, developments in the employment experience of cinema staffs, and in particular traces the impact of growing levels of unionization and labour militancy from the First World War onwards.