XXVIII
Horace Mun-Brown to Verena Raby
My Dear Aunt,—I am surprised to hear from Nesta Rossiter that my invention does not strike you more favourably. I felt sure that you would like to invest a little in it and at the same time encourage me. But at the moment I am so busy with a bigger and vastly more attractive project that I am not so disappointed as I might have been. This new project is the kind of thing which I am sure will interest you too, for it involves the pleasure of a vast number of people. Briefly, I want to open a Picture Palace in the heart of the City. As you probably know, the part of London which is called the City is given up exclusively to business and eating-houses. But there are thousands—almost millions—of men and youths and girls who would rather eat their lunch in a Picture Palace than in a restaurant, and see at the same time a drama which might entertain, instruct, amuse, or quicken their emotions. This means crowded houses from say 12.15 to 2.30, the audience constantly changing as their time was up. Then there are also the employers—the stock-brokers and merchants—who might like to break the monotony of routine by seeing the pictures for an hour at any time, and then there are also errand boys who ought to be elsewhere. And we can add to these the number of strangers calling in the City who have nothing to do when their business is done. I think you will agree with me that this is a really good scheme.
Land is of course expensive, but I am writing to three or four of the most suitably situated churches suggesting the possibility of acquiring their sites and rebuilding them where they are more needed. The proposal may sound very revolutionary to you, but my experience is that the more revolutionary a thing is the more likely it is to happen. Besides, it is not so revolutionary as it appears, for these churches are practically obsolete and I have no doubt whatever that the vicars would welcome a change.
I hope you are steadily improving. As a good name for the City Man’s Cinema will be an advantage, perhaps you would like to be thinking of one.—Yours sincerely,
Horace Mun-Brown