Difference between revisions of "Bioscope"

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[[Bioscope]] (pronounced "bi-scope" in South Africa)is a term that  derives from the name of an early motion picture projector, and was for long the most common South African term used to refer to "[[film]]", "[[cinema]]" or the "[[movies]]", both in the sense of the art form and more specifically as a name for the building in which films were shown.
  
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The “Bioscope” was the name of an early motion picture projector. In many parts of the world, certainly in throughout Great Britain’s Central and Southern African territories, it became synonymous with the terms “cinema” or "movie house".  See James Burns "The African Bioscope – Movie House Culture in British Colonial Africa", Afrique & histoire 1/2006 (vol. 5), p. 65-80.
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'''''For a full discussion of the term in the context of the form and its role in South Africa:''''',  
  
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'''See [[Film|FILM]]'''''
  
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== Bioscope show ==
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Return to [[The South African Context/General Terminology and Thematic Entries]]
  
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A Bioscope show was a fairground attraction consisting of a travelling cinema, using the  apparatus called a Bioscope. The heyday of the Bioscope was from the late 1890s until World War I.
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Bioscope shows were fronted by the largest fairground organs, 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.
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Films shown in the Bioscope were primitive, and the earliest of these were made by the showmen themselves. Later, films were commercially produced.
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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.
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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.
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See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioscope_show
 
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== Bioscope in South Africa ==
 
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Pronounced “bi-scope”, it was for long the most common South African term for “cinema”, both in the sense of the art form and more specifically as a name for the building. “Bioscope” was the name of an early motion picture projector, and became synonymous with “cinema” throughout Great Britain’s Central and Southern African territories. The Oxford English Dictionary narrowly defines it as “An earlier form of cinematograph retained in South Africa as the usual term for a cinema or a moving film”, though the term was widely used in Malawi, Zambia, Namibia, and ZimbabweIt derives from the Bioscope show described above, and appears to be related to the Dutch usage (Bioskoop), which was taken over in Afrikaans, although a formal and distinctive Afrikaans term “Rolprent” (=“rolling picture”) was introduced by the Academy for Language and Science in 195**???. The term was widely and uniquely used up till about the mid to late 1970’s. Since then replaced in popular parlance by “flic’s” and later by the American  “movies”. To “go to flic” [“fliek” in Afrikaans], or to “go flic” is still common though, also in Afrikaans. By the 1990’s movies had also taken hold – in English and Afrikaans, though in more formal writing “cinema” or “film” are still preferred today. (See Bioscope and  Film.)
 
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== Bioscope buildings in South Africa ==
 
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The first bioscope for “non-white” audiences opened in 1909 in Durban, South Africa (Thelma Gutsche 1972).
 
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Latest revision as of 07:08, 13 May 2022

Bioscope (pronounced "bi-scope" in South Africa)is a term that derives from the name of an early motion picture projector, and was for long the most common South African term used to refer to "film", "cinema" or the "movies", both in the sense of the art form and more specifically as a name for the building in which films were shown.

For a full discussion of the term in the context of the form and its role in South Africa:,

See FILM

Return to

Return to The South African Context/General Terminology and Thematic Entries

Return to South African Theatre/Terminology and Thematic Entries

Return to South African Film /Terminology and Thematic Entries

Return to South African Media/Terminology and Thematic Entries

Return to South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page

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