Boy's Cinema

[Jeff Crouse]

Dear Nitratevillers,

I've recently come across a little magazine published in the late 1920s from the United Kingdom titled Boy's Cinema. By the looks of it, this movie publication was clearly aimed at boys and perhaps teenagers. Does anyone know anything else about it? For example, what years did this journal exist, how popular was it, etc.? I don't know of any magazine of its kind in existence in the US, so this is quite interesting.

Jeff

[bobfells]

Jeff,

I came across a few issues of Boy's Cinema and have one for the Rin Tin Tin film, THE MILLION DOLLAR COLLAR, from about 1929. The film itself is lost making this magazine account valuable:

[Jeff Crouse]

Dear Bob,

I, too, have an edition of this weekly popular British film magazine. Mine is dated July 20, 1929 and the featured cover story is also what looks to be a "lost" film, Homesick starring Sammy Cohen and Harry Sweet. It also has a story on an early Frankie Darro movie, The Circus Kid which might also no longer be around. I purchased the issue because it possessed a full page picture of "an up and coming western star" Rex Bell.

It seems that Boy's Cinema was also distributed in most major countries of the Commonwealth, including South Africa, Canada, and Australia. It would be interested to hear from folks in those countries for what they might have to say about this specialty film mag of yesteryear.

Thanks, Bob!

[barry byrne]

The British Library holds copies of Boy's Cinema running from 1919 to 1939, when the title changed to Boy's Cinema & Modern Boy. They have copies of this title up to some time in 1940, when it may have expired due to paper shortages, or other reasons.

There was also a magazine called "Girl's Cinema" in the 1920's with a very similar cover appearance.

Whether by the same proprietors, or if there was any overlap in content, I know not, but the design looks very similar.

[Jeff Crouse]

Thank you, Barry for this useful information. I'd tried to find some material on the magazine from searches on the Internet, but had come up dry. The 1940 cut-off date sounds suggestive: one wonders if the war played a major part in the magazine's demise as Hollywood products had a more difficult time making it to the European market -- even perhaps the British one. It's just an educated guess.

[Ray Faiola]

I have quite a few of these from the 30's. Great graphics and novelizations of both big and little pictures.

[bobfells]

I've come across copies of a similar British mag from the same era called SCREEN STORIES. I've collected several George Arliss novelizations and they seem to be adapted from the shooting script instead of the finished film:



When I came across a still from A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935) indicating a scene that clearly had not occurred in the film, I found a SCREEN STORIES novelization and the deleted scene was there. Wisdom must have prevailed in cutting the scene for the film but this mag didn't get the word in time!

[Brooksie]

My film-mad great uncle bequeathed me a lovely bound copy of the full 1934 run of Boys Cinema, which he had collected himself at the age of 13. The individual magazines turn up very frequently in Australia, as do Girl's Cinema and Picture Show, which I think were all produced by the same company (my examples are sitting in a box on the other side of the world, unfortunately, so I can't check).

All three magazines put out illustrated annuals which are particularly worthwhile - really nice illustrated covers, and usually a few full-colour plates too. I believe these were published by Dean & Son, but I'm not sure about the magazine itself.

There was a fourth magazine, Schoolgirls Weekly, which was similar in format, and though it wasn't a screen magazine per se, it gave away some nice film-related premiums such as collector's cards, albums, and booklets.

[barry byrne]

And here, for the sake of gender equality is the cover of Girl's Cinema from July 1926.

[barry byrne]

And another cover of Girl's Cinema, rather a nice one.

[Jeff Crouse]

Thanks everyone for supplying such valuable information, including the covers for Girl's Cinema. It's fascinating to me that Britain and the Commonwealth countries possessed such weekly film magazines dedicated to children's culture. Was there anything like them circulating in the US?

[Henry Nicolella]

I've been reading some of the Boy's Cinema issues on the Media History site.
They covered serials pretty regularly. Does anyone know if they ever did a feature on "House Without a Key" (1926) or
"The Man Who Stole the Moon" (aka "The Sky Ranger", 1921).
Henry Nicolella