Wartime, Militarism, and Soldiers: A March to the Capitol Theatre, June 1940
Soldiers from the Peterborough Garrison arrive for an evening at the Capitol Theatre, June 1940. Peterborough Museum and Archives (PMA), VR 4574-1.
Examiner, Sept. 11, 1939, p.1. A double whammy: Canada declares war
On Monday, Sept. 11, 1939 — just coincidentally the day after a “freak cyclone” devastated Peterborough — Canada entered the Second World War. Very soon, with conflict on everyone’s mind and the Depression of the 1930s abating, the local theatres pitched in by contributing to special fund-raising efforts to support various war causes, including the likes of selling war savings stamps and a “Smash Hitler Night” held at all of the city’s three theatres on Nov. 20, 1940 — and countless other examples over the war years from beginning to end. The Canadian Moving Picture Digest editor, Ray Lewis, remarked on how movie exhibitors both big and small served as a “steadying influence” on society.
One of countless examples of the theatres’ wartime efforts. Examiner, Oct. 30, 1944, p.13.
Examiner, Nov. 28, 1939, p.9. Special showings for school children were arranged for the afternoons.
Reels and reels of propaganda — aimed at stirring up a suitable “war spirit” — and daily doses of militarism quite understandably came to the fore early on. (And this was just a little before Canada’s National Film Board, founded in 1939 under newly appointed Brit John Grierson, began to weigh in.)
For two evenings in succession in late November 1939 the Capitol Theatre invited members of army units stationed in town to see a new British picture, The Lion Has Wings (released Nov. 3, 1939). On Monday, Nov. 27, members of the 4th Field Battery were guests of the theatre. On Tuesday it was the Prince of Wales Rangers, who assembled at the Armouries and marched to the theatre. The Examiner reported:
“Behind their band the regiment swung in full strength down George Street to the theatre, where they learned about their sister arm of the service and found the infantry is going to have a job on its hands to keep up to the air force in World War II.”
We don’t exactly know whether the men in these groups liked what they saw — but most likely they did, and found it suitably inspiring. The movie is said to be “one of the first of its kind in propaganda films of the war.” It was also undoubtedly one of the first of a new breed, a “docu-drama” — a mix of newsreels and dramatic fiction. It had multiple directors, including Alexander Korda (its producer) and the brilliant Michael Powell, dramatizing Britain’s entry into the war. On the acting end it included heavyweights Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, and Flora Robson.
The Examiner editorial writer (perhaps A.R. Kennedy) thought it was pretty darn good: “a pointed answer to the question of what we are fighting for.” Examiner, Nov. 25, 1939, p.4.
According to the British Documentary News Letter of September 1940, though, “complaints were registered in Canada about The Lion, to the effect that it was too obvious propaganda, meaning that only Germans were killed and were made gratuitously to look wickeder young men than their British counterparts.” William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, saw it at a press screening and declared it “very bad, supercilious and silly.” Nevertheless, copies were immediately shipped to sixty countries, and it apparently found a ready and appreciative audience in those early days of the war.
In June 1940, still less than a year into the war, it was the turn of members of the Peterborough Garrison. On Wednesday the 12th they became guests of the Capitol Theatre for a screening of the British film For Freedom. A Roy Studio photographer caught them on camera.
Examiner, June 11, 1940, p.7.
Examiner, June 13, 1940, p.7.
Announced the Examiner: “Great Sea Battle Shown in Picture.”
For Freedom, another British film (released May 4, 1940) — and another blending of fiction and documentary made largely for propaganda purposes — was produced, with the co-operation of the British Admiralty, at Shepherd’s Bush Studio in London by Gainsborough Studios. It covered a few early events of the war, including the Battle of the River Plate and “the thrilling rescue of the British seamen from the Altmark,” from the point of view of a British newsreel production company. A London commentator thought it contained “an odd mixture of newsreel, personal drama and documentary” — and would not do well in America because of its “unabashed flag-wagging and . . . strictly nationalistic note.”
The troop arrived in formation for the 7:00 p.m. show.
Examiner, June 13, 1940, p.11.
The original photo, PMA, VR 4574-6.
PMA, VR 4574-3. Above the Capitol Grill, across the street, a family looks down at the parade from an open window. (That building is no longer there.) On the southwest corner of Charlotte and George is the Canadian Department Stores building, later to be known as Eaton’s. Across the road is the old building demolished and replaced by the new Woolworth’s in the early 1950s.
PMA, VR 4574-2.
PMA, VR 4574-4.
Presumably, after the soldiers went in, a short lineup (with some youth cadets) remained, waiting to go in. Other than the soldiers, the photos do not indicate a very large crowd that evening. Down the street you get a partial glimpse of the abandoned Grand Opera House, soon to be demolished, just north of the J.J. Turner Building. Note also the Thursday evening “Revival Series,” which had been in place since the early 1930s: the theatre would screen older movies (in this case, Love Affair [1939], with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer). PMA, VR 4574-5.
Examiner, April 7, 1942, p.9. Soldiers march down George Street near the Centre Theatre.
In autumn 1940, with a draft introduced, a military camp for young trainees was established in Exhibition Park – and, not surprisingly, movies were screened there regularly. More than 27,000 men from across the country had a stay in the camp, making a contribution to the coffers of local merchants, including theatre owners – and, it seems, to the lives of single girls in the city. The soldiers in training spent “practically all” of their $1.20 a day pay in Peterborough stores, hotels, dance halls, and theatres. The camp also had a staff of 150 to 180 men who remained in the city more permanently. It had a Red Shield Active Service Canteen, known as the “Sally Ann,” located first at 368 ½ George St., under leadership of Kiwanis Club, with the Women’s Auxiliary Corps and the Salvation Army taking up responsibility as well (it was transferred in September 1944 to the old Empire Theatre building on Charlotte Street.)
Examiner, Nov. 7, 1941, p.9. Regent Theatre usher Babe Mowry goes off to war.
Over those years the canteen’s program included fifty-two motion picture shows. It had a library, juke box, ping pong table games, cards, darts, a piano, and record player, and countless coffees were served. It offered overnight accommodation for men on leave. Many romances developed in the canteen, they say. Enough hats were left behind in the lost and found department “to re-issue the whole Canadian army.”
As an Examiner editorial pointed out in 1942, “While they can find numerous other recreations, every man likes seeing a show.” Price was apparently a problem, as the writer pointed out:
“The charge of 42 cents makes a big hole in the day’s pay of $1.30, it is claimed. Peterborough’s theatres have been noted for their generosity to every community scheme and we feel sure that they will give the soldier, the airmen or the sailor all the breaks possible.”
In those days the movie theatres were clearly a closely knit part of the larger community.
Ticket prices or not — and sometimes the soldiers were “guests” not having to worry about the cost — military parades, though not exactly an everyday occurrence, continued to take place every now and again during the war years. On a Friday evening, April 17, 1941, for instance, members of the B Company of the Prince of Wales Rangers met in uniform at Market Square, lined up, and once again formed a parade to the Capitol. Sometimes the soldiers just marched down the street, moviegoing or not. Sometimes they simply strolled with their comrades to the theatre and bought a ticket. The war was on, and it would not be over until 1945, and for the duration it included many a motion picture moment.
Sources
Peterborough Museum and Archives
Trent Valley Archives
Peterborough Examiner
For Ray Lewis quote: Robert M. Seiler and Tamara P. Seiler, Reel Time: Movie Exhibitors and Movie Audiences in Prairie Canada, 1896 to 1986 (Edmonton, Alta.: AU Press, 2013), p.216.
BFI screenonline website, Films, “Lion Has Wings.”
“London Review,” Motion Picture Daily, May 8, 1940, p.6. May 8 p6 Mtn Pic Daily For Freedom
“For Freedom,” Motion Picture Herald, May 11, 1940, p.62.