This photograph shows the camp cinema at the Seletar Airbase. There are several billboards at the entrance of the cinema advertising the movies that were playing, such as a Western one entitled ‘Follow the Fleet’ and featuring the popular American actor Fred Astaire. The airbase was conceived together with the plans of the British colonial administration for setting up a naval base in Singapore. It was commissioned as a RAF (Royal Air Force) Station in 1930. It also served as a civilian airport until another was opened in Kallang in 1937. The camp cinema was a popular meeting venue for many of the British military officers serving in Singapore, and thus many Western films and musicals were screened to cater to their preferences.
