`Has it ever occurred to you or your friends," writes a correspondent, "that the film form of entertainment would be rendered very greatly more attractive to the public if a short interval in the course of each performance, like the `entr'acte' of an ordinary stage play, were allowed, with the lights turned up and an opportunity given for people not only to recognise, but to talk to, or salute, their friends?
"This period has often been a welcome relief and variety, besides giving a chance to find out `who's who' among the audience and to knit up an old acquaintance-ship, of which I have gladly availed myself on more than several occasions during the past sixty years.
"I am thinking especially of those many and attractive young ladies who would not only like to see and be seen, but could also show what taste they possess in the matter of dress and reciprocate with mutual admiration.
"Without such an interval I find that I have missed many opportunities of speaking to and enjoying the society of friends, and even relatives, seated just in front or behind me, but completely hidden in the continuous `black-in."
The Irish Times, December 6th, 1939.