Reading Branch meeting 28th February 2019 Speaker: David Cliffe  David opened by recounting that he had first given his talk, now updated, to our branch in 2014 after encouragement from us and the History of Reading Society which resulted in the publication of his book “Reading Cinemas: Picture Palace to Penny Plunge”. He recalled drawing upon information from Leslie North’s 1958 book and Daphne Phillips’ book which mentioned some cinemas but was far from comprehensive. He set about researching as many picture houses with the help of the records in the Berkshire Record Office and from “Woodeson”. His biggest regret is that no account books have been found, which would give the readers an idea of how profitable these places of entertainment were. He was also disappointed at the lack of “internal” photographs available and has had to use mostly exterior shots in his book and talk. David outlined the historical development of cinematography, from 1896 Luminarie Brothers and its arrival in Reading…