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The Dawn Issue
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The Dawn Issue
Daisy Chetham, proprietor of the Bedford Picturedrome, attended the Bedfordshire County Council’s Stage Plays and Cinematograph Licensing Committee on 5th May 1928 to apply for permission to exhibit the film Dawn an account of the WW1 work and execution by the Germans of Nurse Edith Cavell.
Granting permission for the screening proved as contentious a local issue as it had nationally. There were anxieties about the film showing the Germans in a bad light and the Sub-Committee was split on the matter. Because the film was so controversial, by a majority vote, it was decided to refer the matter for a decision to the full Bedfordshire County Council.1. On 25th May, 1928 the Council considered the report relating to Dawn and it was decided, ‘that the Council does not consent to the exhibition in any of the premises licensed by this Council of the cinematograph film known as Dawn.’
The story does not end there. The proprietors of the Oriel Cinema in Leighton Buzzard, again raised the issue about the County Council’s refusal to allow Dawn to be screened. They pointed out that the Grand Cinema in Linslade, only three or four minutes walk from the Oriel and just over the County boundary, had received permission. Their plea was considered at a County Council meeting on 27th July 1928. However the response was that the vote had been ‘overwhelmingly against’, that ‘the geographical position of a cinema is no concern of ours’ and that Standing Order 9 precluded the rescinding of a decision passed within the last six months. No advertisements for a screening of Dawn appeared in the Bedfordshire Times and Independent for 1928 or 1929 and no other appeals to the council are recorded.
1.BARS (Bedfordshire Archives andRecords Service) Ref. CCP23 March-November 1928.
Information from Catherine Moorhouse 2013
Sources
- Local newspapers at Bedford Library
- BARS Ref. CCP23 March-November 1928
Page last updated: 25th February 2014