Comments on: CinĂ©ma de Vanves http://www.millerwalks.com/content/cinema-de-vanves Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:07:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Michael Jones Seven Sisters London http://www.millerwalks.com/content/cinema-de-vanves#comment-140 Michael Jones Seven Sisters London Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.millerwalks.com/content/cinema-de-vanves#comment-140 After reading about Henry being locked up with inflammable material, I can well imagine how he couldn't sleep properly. And looking at the photographs of the venue and the height of the windows, the bars that he mentions (that is if there weren't also windows on the sides in 1930) must only have served as a symbolic reminder that once the doors were shut he was literally a prisoner. Though in reading about his worries, it brought to mind a piece that I read recently about a British cinema entrepreneur. Apart from chronicling his early life and detailing his various successes, it also gave an account of the hazards that can come from handling such content. In the early part of the twentieth century he had cinemas all over London, and having a large stock of film in the basement of his flagship cinema The Tatler on London's Charring Cross Road, he was more than able to supply another film company with it. The entrepreneur and the man who was to pack the film knew all about the hazards involved, and when the packer came around from nearby Soho all the right precautions were made. This though was to be highly dangerous because the cases in which the film were to be loaded were to be sealed with zinc, which meant flares had to be used. What happened next was the whole basement went up in flames with the technician killed, and another assistant injured. So if there had been accidents like this in the 1920s or 1930s, or indeed if just heat could cause combustion, we can see why Henry's nights were so fraught with strange dreams. As an aside, in 1930 the The Tatler was still showing films and as he mentions Charring Cross in Letters to Emil, there is no doubt that he would have had to pass this cinema to get to Leicester Square. After reading about Henry being locked up with inflammable material, I can well imagine how he couldn’t sleep properly. And looking at the photographs of the venue and the height of the windows, the bars that he mentions (that is if there weren’t also windows on the sides in 1930) must only have served as a symbolic reminder that once the doors were shut he was literally a prisoner. Though in reading about his worries, it brought to mind a piece that I read recently about a British cinema entrepreneur. Apart from chronicling his early life and detailing his various successes, it also gave an account of the hazards that can come from handling such content. In the early part of the twentieth century he had cinemas all over London, and having a large stock of film in the basement of his flagship cinema The Tatler on London’s Charring Cross Road, he was more than able to supply another film company with it. The entrepreneur and the man who was to pack the film knew all about the hazards involved, and when the packer came around from nearby Soho all the right precautions were made. This though was to be highly dangerous because the cases in which the film were to be loaded were to be sealed with zinc, which meant flares had to be used.

What happened next was the whole basement went up in flames with the technician killed, and another assistant injured. So if there had been accidents like this in the 1920s or 1930s, or indeed if just heat could cause combustion, we can see why Henry’s nights were so fraught with strange dreams. As an aside, in 1930 the The Tatler was still showing films and as he mentions Charring Cross in Letters to Emil, there is no doubt that he would have had to pass this cinema to get to Leicester Square.

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