Cinema in Context



How To Do

When did the Dutch variety music hall and cabaret artist Louis Davids begin performing in cinemas? And when did he stop doing this?


It used to be quite ordinarya standard practice for cinemas to include performing artists to be included in cinema programmes the show besides films, giving presenting live performancesacts like of songs or acrobatics. Cinema Context can help you find everything a lot of information about this form of variety theatre in cinemas. Well-known artists would also perform there, like Louis Davids (1883-1939).

Method

  • Open Cinema Context in a new window
  • Click on Programmes at the top of the page
  • Do not click on People, as this collection contains only the names of people with permanent ties to cinemas or rental companies. Artists were not employed by cinemas; they merely performed there temporarily. This is why you should search for performing artists within the Programmes collection.
  • Enter ‘Louis Davids’ in the first search field and then select Live performance from the pull-down menu behind it.
  • Click on
  • The results will list the programmes in which Louis Davids performed. They are sorted by date, which will immediately show that his first cinema performance took place in 1917. By clicking on Next twice, you will find that Davids’ final cinema performance took place in 1938, at least as far as the data in Cinema Contxt will prove.

Discussion

  • The information on live performances is far from complete, so you should not base too many conclusions on this data.
  • You can find additional performances by Louis Davids by entering ‘Davids’ in the first search field, and ‘Louis’ in the next, while selecting Live performance from the pull-down menu behind it. Early in his career, Louis would often perform together with his sister Henriette (Heintje) Davids as a duo: Louis and Henriette Davids. By splitting up the name, you will find a first performance dating back to 1913. Entering merely ‘Davids’ as a search query will bring forth mostly performances by Heintje Davids without her brother.

Exercise

Answer the same question for comedy duo Mie and Ko

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