Welsh Journals

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men and women who gladly embraced the commercialized, anglicized cinema and in no way felt that their national identity or working-class political integrity was compromised. Important as cinema-going was, its regular enjoyment in no way precluded other commercial or non-commercial leisure activities. Rather did the cinema knit into the fabric of local communal life, becoming a variation in the pattern rather than the whole pattern itself. In south Wales, writers and social investi- gators repeatedly recorded how community life functioned around a wide variety of activities. Thus, contrary to widespread fears at the time, the cinema and cinema-going complemented and supplemented many established (and often voluntary, non-commercial) recreational forms, adding, at a time of economic dislocation and potential social fragmentation, an invaluable support to community life. The cinema was to give during these tumultuous years 'so much' and at 'so little cost', as many south Walians still living-and who can remember-would probably agree. STEPHEN RIDGWELL Wickford, Essex