This film is part of Free

Odeon Cinema Club

"Is everybody happy? YES!" Children were both seen and heard, loudly singing along to this jolly anthem at Odeon National Cinema Clubs across Britain

Advert 1943 1 mins

Overview

"Now we're all together we can have some fun! Oi!" The comradeship of the children's cinema club became even more important on the Home Front. The Odeon and other cinemas had run Mickey Mouse Clubs since the early 30s, but in 1943 J. Arthur Rank launched the rebranded Odeon National Cinema Club to reinvigorate the initiative. As the words in this singalong anthem suggest, along with the fun there was also an ambition to foster good morals and citizenship.

Interestingly, this particular copy of the film has been modified in an attempt to blank out the twice repeated lines: "We're a hundred thousand strong / So how can we all be wrong?" This would have involved inking over the letters on every frame in which they appear - 24 times for every second on screen. When and why this was done we can only speculate, but feel free to sing along in any case.