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AP Picture Houses v Wednesbury: Difference between revisions
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This seems arbitrary nowadays but the 1909 ''Cinematograph Act'' allowed cinemas to operate between Mondays and Saturdays but ''not at all'' on Sundays. Only the local neighbourhood commanding officer of military forces (this we must assume would have been a gentleman like Captain Mainwaring) could apply to the licensing authority to open a cinema on Sunday. | This seems arbitrary nowadays but the 1909 ''Cinematograph Act'' allowed cinemas to operate between Mondays and Saturdays but ''not at all'' on Sundays. Only the local neighbourhood commanding officer of military forces (this we must assume would have been a gentleman like Captain Mainwaring) could apply to the licensing authority to open a cinema on Sunday. | ||
This was 1909. But 1932, the world of cinematic entertainment had undergone profound change, and in that year — some 15 years before the material facts in the case — the ''Sunday Entertainments Act 1932'' permitted local authorities to licence Sunday opening for cinemas “subject to such conditions as the authority may think fit to impose”. | This was 1909. But 1932, the world of cinematic entertainment had undergone profound change, and in that year — some 15 years before the material facts in the case — the ''Sunday Entertainments Act 1932'' permitted local authorities to licence Sunday opening for cinemas “subject to such conditions as the authority may think fit to impose”, and without so much as a by-your-leave from anyone in the home guard. | ||
Associated Provincial Picture Houses sought a declaration that Wednesbury’s condition was unacceptable and outside the power of the Corporation to impose. | Associated Provincial Picture Houses sought a declaration that Wednesbury’s condition was unacceptable and outside the power of the Corporation to impose. | ||