The First Teenagers by David Fowler

Author:David Fowler [Fowler, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9780713040180
Google: 3HlxQgAACAAJ
Publisher: Woburn Press
Published: 1995-01-15T03:36:54+00:00

4 p.m.

Left school with girl friend, talked about school and film stars…

6.10 p.m.

Girl friend called for me. Walked to pictures.

6.30 p.m.

Saw ‘It’s in the Air’.

9 p.m.

Left pictures, talked about picture, met two girl friends on the way home.

9.15 p.m.

Stood talking at corner with two girls about clothes, holidays and boys…

10 p.m.

Arrived home, had supper, listened to dance music, talked to family about pictures…50

This girl was not exceptional. In Hulme, girls spent between a third and a half of their free time each weekday evening (excluding Saturdays) inside a cinema, from the age of 12 to the age of 21;51 so, too, did the boys of the district.52

There were some differences according to status. The ‘working boys’ and ‘working girls’ of Hulme, for example, visited cinemas as frequently as other adolescents, but also found time to visit dance halls on weekday evenings. For both sexes, weekday visits to dance halls began at the relatively young age of 15. Young wage-earners, of both sexes, continued to attend dances on weekday evenings until at least the age of 21.53 None of the schoolboys or schoolgirls of the district visited dance halls during the week; presumably because they could not afford to on a disposable income that must have been extremely limited.54 Those still at school visited cinemas regularly, however, since admission prices could be as low as Id during the 1930s and the average price of a ticket in Manchester was only 6d.55 Thus, although wage-earners alone had access to dance halls, schoolboys and schoolgirls spent some money on cheaper forms of commercialised entertainment, notably cinema visits. Young wage-earners were, however, a more lucrative market for entertainment entrepreneurs and manufacturers than schoolchildren and such people, as will become clear, were beginning to aim their products and services at young wage-earners by the 1930s.

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