A reader of the Palestine Post would like to have something done about the movies, he tells the editor in a letter to the newspaper, but he hasn’t the same thing in mind as the Legion of Decency supporters in the United States.
The correspondent, who signs himself as “Picturegoer,” complains that the screen entertainment furnished in the Jerusalem theatres is insufficient. He also takes a poke at the inconveniences of the local houses.
“Why only one decent picture in a show?” he demands. “Every really up-to-date cinema of this age gives a program consisting of a news review, a Mickey Mouse or similar item, a four or five reeler ordinary picture and then the feature picture, and for two shillings six pence (about fifty cents at par) one sits in a really comfortable upholstered stall with plenty of leg room.
“Here, for the same money, one has a hard chair, a draught in winter, insufferable heat and closeness in summer, a quantity of purely commercial advertising matter, an old newsreel, sometimes a Mickey Mouse and one feature picture with a devil of a lot cut out of it.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.