Some weeks ago, I wrote about the trouble in the early years of the last century over whether libraries should open on Sundays. Well, back in the 1930s, there was a similar fuss about the cinemas.

In February 1933 (the year, incidentally, that saw the release of one of my favourite ever films – The Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup) the Mayor (Councillor J Evans) announced the Town Council had received an application for the Sunday opening of cinemas.

The request was a joint one from most of the local cinemas. Mr Arthur C Bartlets, manager of the Plaza Cinema, told the Watford Observer. “We are hoping the application will be successful.

There are large numbers of youths and girls who frequent the main streets on Sunday evenings who would be able to do something else if the cinemas were open,” he is quoted as saying, adding: “At present, large numbers of people go to London for their enjoyment and we consider we should be keeping in the town the money they now spend outside it. There are many towns where it has been the subject of a poll and I think the lowest majority in favour of Sunday opening is 2-1.”

So. It seemed an open and shut case. But it didn’t quite turn out that way.

The battle divided into two distinct camps. In the ‘yes’ corner we had the proprietors of the Plaza, New Coliseum, New Regal, Carlton and Empire cinemas. In the ‘no’ corner were the Watford and District Christian Endeavour Union, the Watford and District Free Church Council, the Watford Christian Social Council, the Men’s Own and the Watford Gospel Mission. In addition, the local branch of the Amalgamated Engineering Union was there to urge that if the application were granted, no employee should be allowed to work on more than six consecutive days or, if employed on Sunday, on consecutive Sundays.

The Town Clerk explained the position. Although it was the councty council, as the licensing authority, which decided whether to grant a licence, before that, it was up to the Town Council to decide whether they should be allowed to apply for permission or not. If they decided not, the matter was at an end. But if they decided to proceed, they would then advertise the matter and call a public meeting. At that meeting, a certain number of ratepayers would need to request a poll. If they did, and the poll proved positive, the county would be asked to grant permission.

The debate started with Councillor Coates suggesting turning the idea down not, he said, on religious grounds but because “there was a tendency today throughout the whole country and throughout the world, to feel one had got to be always doing something, and particularly being amused or interested by somebody else”.

He said: “In these six days one was able to spend all one could afford to spend on cinemas. Today, young people had some inducement to stay at home on a Sunday. They had not the attractions or distractions they had during the week.

“It was nice to go along a road like Whippendell Road on a Sunday night and see in house after house a light in the front room, where one knew there was a family gathering, with a little music, enjoying one evening in the week together in the family circle.”

After a brief claim that parents were not getting to know their children as they would like anyway, he adds that Sunday cinema opening marked “the beginning of the end of the English Sunday and the beginning of the development of the Continental Sunday such as obtained in Paris, Frankfurt, Cologne or New York.”

The Amalgamated Engineering Union representative then warned about the dangers of the longer working week, adding that as we had the wireless which “brought to anybody practically the programmes they desired” we didn’t need the cinema, adding “nobody enjoyed a cinema or dance more than he did.”

Another councillor then warned that “the application ... might be followed by applications for theatres, dance halls and Tote clubs” before Alderman Bridger said he didn’t feel the council was qualified to decide the application anyway. “A poll should be taken,” he said, “and the result accepted without bad feeling by both parties.”

The ‘pro’ lobby then came forward, with Councillor Palmer agreeing “the public should have an opportunity of judging these things for themselves”. He also claimed a minister in Croydon had secured some agreement with the cinemas there as to what type of films could be shown on Sundays.

Councillor Mrs Ward suggested they were too small a body to tell the people what they should do. Addressing the Mayor she said: “What business of yours is it to tell me where I should go on Sunday, or what business of mine is it to tell you?”

As Councillor Mosely put it, they had no right to decide for the 58,000 population of the borough any more than they could dictate to other nationalities how they should spend Sunday.

And so it went on. Councillor Smith contended that to come to a final decision now “would be going beyond the moral competence of the council” and also asked that the public be allowed to make up its mind one way or the other.

Councillor North said he would not go to a cinema on a Sunday himself but was in favour. “I would open the football ground in Vicarage Road on a Sunday,” he declared. “Let the working man have his sport if he wants to. If he does not want it, he won’t go. If he does not want to go to the cinema, he won’t go.”

Councillor Mrs Bridger, meanwhile, supported the idea, urging it would be a good thing for the sake of the hundreds of young men and women who walked up and down High Street on a Sunday night.

She said their parents would, in many cases, prefer to know they were in the cinemas and, as regards the religious argument: “If the churches had not sufficient hold upon the people of the country, then it was their blame and not the cinemas.”

That was an argument which held no favour with Alderman Clark.

“All that was best in this land came to us from the Sabbath,” he said, “and three-quarters of our troubles would finish very quickly if we got back to the things that mattered. It was a wise providence that gave us one day’s rest in seven.”

This opinion found some favour with others. Councillor Eldridge said he was against “violating” the Sabbath by opening cinemas.

However Councillor Bennell pointed out that during the war, the majority of the great battles were commenced on Sunday and no one objected. Councillor Wright opposed the amendment, saying it would not stop there. They would soon get the shops open on Sunday and everyone working seven days a week.

And so to the all-important vote – and the amendment to go further with the Sunday opening idea was defeated by 19 to 12. So, the cinemas would have to either apply again at a later date or give up. Clearly, as cinemas across the country can testify, they eventually got their way.

Sadly, as there are no longer any cinemas in Watford town centre, it’s all rather academic as far as this town’s concerned.

ONLINE TOMORROW: May the force be with you, Daddy... The Bushey actor who played R2-D2 in Star Wars goes to see the movie with his family in 1978

This story formed part of the Nostalgia column first published in the Watford Observer on February 28, 2014. The next Nostalgia column – with information about Watford's first wheelchair pancake race, first hospital and the strange wartime tale of the disappearing trees – can be found in tomorrow’s Watford Observer (dated March 7, 2014) or read online here from 4pm next Thursday.

If you have anything to add – or would like to tell us anything you think our readers may enjoy about Watford’s history – we are always pleased to hear from you. Contact Nostalgia, by clicking here watfordnostalgia@london.newsquest.co.uk