Head to the cinema over the weekend to see some Oscar-bait, only to have it ruined by the loudest chewer in town? While we often think that modern multiplex manners have disappeared, with every blinding smartscreen phone glowing like a rescue beacon in the dark, it turns out that going to see movies with other people has been the worst for more than a century.
The following screen cards date from 1910, when silent cinema was the cutting edge in entertainment, and could still be ruined by annoying people in the row in front. The vintage images, created by John D Scott and Edward Van Altena, have just been released by The Library of Congress.
In a time before 3D glasses and bags of popcorn larger than the Greeks’ debt, it’s a quaint reminder that cinema has been being ruined by cinemagoers for as long as it’s been on the silver screen.
Check out the images below:
