ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the commercial basis and growth of the leisure industry in the 1920s and 1930s. If by commercialization one means entrepreneurial interest in financial return rather than non monetary gain and an increase in the scale of merchandise being exchanged, there can be little doubt that the leisure industry underwent commercial expansion. The popularity of sport was clearly related to a number of other trades, especially gambling. Horse races, as well as the new forms of the tote, greyhound races, ‘spot the ball’ and the football pools, spawned a huge industry, thought by some to be the second largest in the country. The supply side of the leisure industry also experienced considerable change and adaptation in the inter-war period. During the inter-war years there was a substantial increase in the number of people working in the leisure and related trades.
