Katie Sharrocks
Guest
So was there really a cinema on board? According to this urban legand site where they prove or disprove urban legends its true. The film shown on the night of the sinking was apparently in 2nd class and was about a sinking ship.
Claim: When the Titanic hit an iceberg in the north Atlantic, the film The Poseidon Adventure was being screened aboard ship.
Origins:at the very moment the Titanic struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic late in the evening of 14 April 1912, the film The Poseidon Adventure -- a movie about the desperate efforts of a group of passengers to survive the sinking of an ocean liner -- was being screened aboard ship.
The film industry was still in its adolescence in 1912, but it was already taking rapid strides towards maturity. These films were short (generally no more than one reel in length), and of course they were both silent and black-and-white, but they had already captured the imagination of a population eager for new forms of entertainment. The White Star line, proudly dedicated to sparing no expense in ensuring that its new flagship Titanic provided every luxury their passengers could desire, did not overlook this still relatively novel one: the Titanic carried its own projector and a complement of movies rented from the British office of a U.S. film distributor. To avoid offending First Class passengers who considered the fad of motion pictures to be less than genteel, movies were screened only in the Second Class dining saloon (where First Class passengers willing to risk their reputations were still free to venture if they so desired). The films were also not run until after 11:00 P.M.
Claim: When the Titanic hit an iceberg in the north Atlantic, the film The Poseidon Adventure was being screened aboard ship.
Origins:at the very moment the Titanic struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic late in the evening of 14 April 1912, the film The Poseidon Adventure -- a movie about the desperate efforts of a group of passengers to survive the sinking of an ocean liner -- was being screened aboard ship.
The film industry was still in its adolescence in 1912, but it was already taking rapid strides towards maturity. These films were short (generally no more than one reel in length), and of course they were both silent and black-and-white, but they had already captured the imagination of a population eager for new forms of entertainment. The White Star line, proudly dedicated to sparing no expense in ensuring that its new flagship Titanic provided every luxury their passengers could desire, did not overlook this still relatively novel one: the Titanic carried its own projector and a complement of movies rented from the British office of a U.S. film distributor. To avoid offending First Class passengers who considered the fad of motion pictures to be less than genteel, movies were screened only in the Second Class dining saloon (where First Class passengers willing to risk their reputations were still free to venture if they so desired). The films were also not run until after 11:00 P.M.
