This week we have added 164,154 new pages to The Archive, and now we have over 28 million pages available to search.

We have added pages to fourteen of our existing titles, covering the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Updated titles include the West Middlesex Herald, the Gloucestershire Chronicle and the Scottish Referee.

We are very excited to welcome one new title to The Archive this week – The Bioscope. The Bioscope is dedicated to all things cinema and contains gorgeous colour images of all the latest films. Added pages so far span the years 1925 to 1932, covering the end of the silent era and the start of the talkies. With updates planned to cover the years 1908 to 1924, the addition of this publication offers an exciting and unique opportunity to delve into the early history of film.

The Bioscope | 16 July 1925

The Bioscope captures the fascinating transition between silent films and talkie films. One of the earliest British talkies was Blackmail, adapted from the 1928 stage play and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Blackmail was part talkie with a synchronized score and sound effects, and was released in 1929 and considered to be the best British film of that year.

The Bioscope | 22 May 1929

The film starred Anny Ondra, whose character is a London woman who is blackmailed after she kills a man who tried to rape her. Anny Ondra, a silent movie staple, grew up in Prague. When the decision was made for Blackmail to be produced as a talkie, her thick accent became something of an issue, and later had to be dubbed. The talkie era thus ushered in the end of Anny Ondra’s film career.

The Bioscope captures talkie rage as it spreads across the country, detailing the cinemas where the necessary sound equipment had been installed. However, not everybody welcomed this new fashion. One small exhibitor lamented in 1930 how there has been ‘a falling off in the public interest in silent films,’ adding ‘silent films to-day do not draw as much money to the pay-box as they did twelve months ago.’

This exhibitor was unwilling to invest in talkie mania, worrying about the associated costs: ‘if talkie apparatus could be obtained at Woolworth’s, but the cheapest sets cost several hundreds of pounds.’ He anticipated a time when ‘inevitably the novelty of the talkie has worn off.’ However, of course, the novelty of the talkie did not wear off, and thus the 1930s saw a whole new golden age of cinema, ending with the introduction of technicolour.

The Bioscope | 23 September 1931

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated one of our recently added titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a FREE sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

Register now and explore the Archive

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.