Here in Bristol in the 1950s we had six shops who dabbled in cine.
Bristol Cine Service, Alma Vale Road.
M.W. Dunscombe, St. Augustines Parade (Agents for Ampro).
Radioscope Ltd, Broad Street (9.5mm film library).
H. Salanson & Co Ltd, Castle Mill Street (Film libraries in all gauges).
F.G. Warne, Saint Stephen Street. (Film producers).
Whitehall Cine Service, Whitehall Road (9.5mm film library).
My first film projector, a 9.5mm hand-turned Hunter, new at £7.17.6., for Christmas 1946, was bought from Salansons. But they would not let me join their library saying the Hunter (Bingoscope) had no sprockets. However, Whitehall Cine Service had no qualms about hiring films to me. A couple of years later a 16mm Kodak C (£19.10.0) was bought from Salansons and I now joined their 16mm library. It took a few years after the war for most projector manufacturers to get going again. But soon, Specto announced their new 9.5mm 100 watt model, in beautiful silver grey (pre-war models were black), quite expensive then at £37.10.0, but it was new and I could now join their 9.5mm library at last!
In 1955 my first 16mm sound projector came from Salansons. a pre-war American Bell & Howell 138 at £95. I used this for a time around the Mendip Hills as a weekly mobile operator. It was a bit of a loss making venture, 2/- for adults, 1/- for children, but it was great fun while it lasted. Soon television came to the area and the locals preferred to stay home at nights!
All those mentioned businesses are long gone, but until last year we did have a shop in the south of Bristol which mainly dealt with still photography, but as the students of cinema at the many universities in Bristol still had to have a knowledge of cine, the business was able to have a good turnover with cine items. But now, Bernard Hunter Bristol Cine Sales, North Street, Bedminster, has gone, the shop being demolished for future shops. I regularly visited, mainly for packets of tape splices and a general chat.
Fortunately, we still have a few cine dealers who operate a mail-order business, but for how long?