From playing the violin alongside silent movies to owning a chain of cinemas as part of his entertainment empire, Sam King went on a remarkable journey.

His life of wealth and glamour as partner in Shipman and King cinemas was a far cry from his beginnings in an impoverished Jewish family escaping Russian pogroms to the East End of London. 50 years after his death granddaughter Jennifer King tells his extraordinary story in a book which David Puttnam said, “allowed me an understanding of the enormous debt every avid cinema-goer owes her family”.

An event from Jewish Book Week 2024