Rock ‘n’ roll music first featured prominently in British newspaper headlines in the late summer of 1956, when it was reported that juvenile ‘riots’ were occurring in London cinemas during screenings of Rock Around the Clock, a film- vehicle for American singer Bill Haley. According to one publication, in a cinema located in Paddington, ‘in- the- groove teenagers’ leapt out of their seats to dance to Haley's infectious rock ‘n’ roll music, while a youth allegedly assaulted the manager of the premises as he attempted to restore order. Meanwhile, in Dagenham, a ‘very large crowd […] creat[ed] a considerable disturbance’ in the streets following ejection from a screening of the film. As the surrounding crowd ‘rant[ed] and rav[ed]’, two young men defied police orders to leave the scene, and were eventually arrested, while, elsewhere in the capital, ‘about 120 youths’ began ‘shouting, whistling, and jumping over flower beds’ following their removal from another screening. The disturbances gradually spread beyond the Greater London area. At a cinema in Burnley, Lancashire, ‘[e] xcited young people did £150 worth of damage’, the Manchester Guardian reported; the manager tried, in vain, to restore order to his premises by temporarily halting the film screening. By the end of the evening, ‘[s]eats had been broken and torn, lamp bulbs had been […] smashed against the wall, and fire hoses turned on’. Troubles were reported in various locations, from Bootle to Welling; meanwhile, ‘youths and girls’ who jived in the aisles of the Davis Theatre, Croydon, during screenings of the film were summarily ‘ejected’ from the premises; ‘fighting’ subsequently began outside the cinema, and two youths were arrested. As the incidents became increasingly national phenomena, the press listed locations – including Blackburn, Preston, Brighton and Gateshead – in which local Watch Committees had pre- empted trouble by banning the film altogether. In South London, meanwhile, Sunday night screenings of the film were cancelled by the Gaumont cinema- chain, as ‘Sunday riots’ caused by ‘rhythm- crazy youths’ had erupted in the city during the previous week. The Rank organization similarly limited showings of the film in areas of the capital where, according to the Daily Telegraph, ‘ “the Teddy Boy” influence is strong’. Nevertheless, such measures did not eliminate reportage of further disturbances.