CINEMAS FOR CHILDREN.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—An extraordinary omission upon the part of the pro- viders of public amusements has been forced upon my attention in course of recent endeavours to entertain a child in town. Days come when for very change both child and guardian seek for an indoors spectacle. Thoughts fly immediately to the cinema houses ; and then the astonishing truth is brought home that there is not one discoverable picture palace in all London with a programme arranged specially for children. Films arc certainly exhibited to which young children ought not to be taken ; and the objection is not that they are " improper " in the graver sense, but that they imbue young minds with false notions.
Cinema entertainments comparable, for instance, with the " Peter Pan " of the theatre may, indeed, exist, but why arc they not rendered steadily and regularly accessible ? Why is there not at least one hall in London to which one can resort in the afternoons, at any rate, in the certainty of finding a programme delightful to and suitable for children ? After all, there are a great many children in the world, and a fair number of parents and guardians eager to introduce them to the enjoyment of things beautiful and of good report. Adult tastes may be thought to be even too fully cared for. Can anybody say why children and child-lovers arc so strangely and conspicuously ignored by the caterers to the public eye ? I confess myself unable to imagine the reason.—I am, Sir, &c.,
MARY KEELING.
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