A Bioscope show was a

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

and

fairground Fairground most typically refers to a permanent space that hosts fairs. Fairground, Fairgrounds, Fair Ground or Fair Grounds may also refer to: Places Canada * Fairground, Ontario, a community United States * Fairground, St. Louis, a neighbo ...

attraction consisting of a travelling

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

. The heyday of the Bioscope was from the late 1890s until

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

History

Bioscope shows were fronted by the largest

fairground organ A fairground organ is a musical organ covering the wind and percussive sections of an orchestra. Originating in Paris, France, these organs were designed for use in commercial fairground settings to provide loud music to accompany rides and a ...

s, and these formed the entire public face of the show. A stage was usually in front of the organ, and dancing girls would entertain the crowds between film shows. Films shown in the Bioscope were primitive, and the earliest of these were made by the showmen themselves. Later, films were commercially produced. Bioscope shows were integrated, in Britain at least, into the Variety shows in the huge Music Halls which were built at the end of the nineteenth century. After the Music Hall Strike of 1907 in London, bioscope operators set up a trade union to represent them. There were about seventy operators in London at this point.

Modern use

In South Africa "Bioscope" or in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

"bioskoop" is an archaic word for the cinema and some people (especially older generations) still use it regularly. Bioscopes and biocafes which served food and drink as you watched the film, dating back to the 1940s and 1950s closed in the 1970s, mostly due to the arrival of

television in South Africa Television in South Africa was introduced in 1976. The country is notable for its late adoption of widespread television broadcasting. History Opposition to introduction Opposition leader K. Ueckermann was the first politician to propose a te ...

in 1976 which caused cinema attendances to severely drop. In modern-day Dutch, "bioscoop" is a widespread term, and the equivalent of the English "movie theater" or "cinema". In Serbian language, "bioskop" is a modern term for movie theater. In modern-day

Indonesian Language Indonesian (; ) is the official language, official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standard language, standardized variety (linguistics), variety of Malay language, Malay, an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that has ...

, "bioskop" is a modern term for movie theater adopted from the Dutch during the colonial era.

References

History of film Entertainment {{filming-stub