25.01.2020

Splendid Palace in Riga/Latvia


The postcard was published in 1989. At this time the cinema's name was Rīga. And it was renamed Splendid Palace in September 2011. It opened on 30 December 1923 with the film Under Two Flags (USA, 1922, Tod Browning).
It was the first free-standing building dedicated exclusively to cinema with 824 seats. The cinema project was designed by architect Friedrich Karlis Skujins (1890-1957). The decorations in the Great Hall were made by sculptors Rihards Maurs (1888 - 1966) and Jacob Legzdins (1894 - 1937).
The cinema's founders were Vasily Yemelyanov and Simonis Falstein. Yemaleyanov was also the owner of the cinemas Gloria Palace in Tallinn, Palladium and Forum in Riga
In 1969 the cinema Spartaks was built adjacent to cinema Riga, this is now the small hall.
Splendid Palace is constructed in the Neo-Baroque style with a Neo-Rococo interior. The most impressive part of the cinema is the large hall. Before entering, you will pass through a round lobby decorated with wall and ceiling murals and fitted out with comfortable chairs and sofas from beginning of last century.
At all, the Splendid Palace delighted its visitors with an excellent film program in a great building. And nobody is surprised, that the cinema is now a national architectural monument.

19.01.2020

Filmtheater in Wolmirstedt/Germany

Wolmirstedt is a town of now 11.000 inhabitants near Magdeburg on the river Elbe. The postcard from 1989 shows the August-Bebel-Street with the cinema on the left.
The cinema opened in 1934 with 300 seats in No. 10. On the postcard you can see the gate entrance, the hall was in the yard.  
The cinema closed in the early 1990s.

18.01.2020

Punane Täht in Narva/Estonia

Red Star is the name of this cinema, a place for entertainment from 1952 till 1996 in Narva.
That's all I know about it.

12.01.2020

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Don Quichotte" 1958

This postcard shows a model of later Kino International and Hotel Berolina. It was sent in January 1960. There is written on it: "Redesign of the city center of Berlin. Hotel Berlin Tourist with cinema and shop buildings." Read about the construction of the Karl-Marx-Allee on wikipedia.
The cinema was opened on 15 November 1963. The hotel was opened in 1964 and demolished in 1996. There had a 14-story high-rise built between 1996 and 1998. The new building is architecturally based on the former hotel and now the city hall Berlin-Mitte.
In the cinema building you can see many details of the later built one, e.g. the sculptural relief.
I find the film poster in the model remarkable. The poster is designed by Hans Adolf Baltzer, it is for the 1957 Soviet movie Don Quixote, directed by Grigori Kozintsev. It was the first feature film realized in widescreen of Soviet Lenfilm production. The poster thus indicates that 70mm films can be shown in the new cinema. I don't know if the movie Don Quixote was ever shown there.

11.01.2020

Lichtspiele in Allentsteig/Austria

Allensteig is famous for its proving ground, it has existed since 1938. In connection with this, this cinema was built in 1939 or 1940 to entertain the soldiers. 
In the second half of the 1980s to the 90s, international peace culture weeks were held in the Allentsteiger cinema and in Loschberg near Waldhausen with a rich program of music, dance, theater, cabaret, discussion, workshops. The initiator, Gerhard Burger, designed the vision of a world peace village on Hitler's shooting range, where peaceful people, holistic philosophers and futurologists should find a free space to work on an ethics of peace at this acupuncture point, which excites the whole organism of the human body.
Later there was the cultural initiative Avalon in the cinema building.
Now the cinema is closed, the proving ground is still in work ...

The Rex Theater in Galax/USA

The Rex Theater in Galax/Virginia was opened opened around 1940. It screened its last movie in the 1980’s. 
Now the Rex Theater hosts live performances of good old bluegrass music.
"Every Friday night in the City of Galax, Virginia WBRF 98.1 FM sends out 100,000 watts of live old-time and bluegrass music from the stage of the historic Rex Theater into five states and over the World Wide Web.  Listeners may be in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee or as far away as Egypt enjoying the traditional music show from the comfort of their own homes, or they may be sitting back in one of the 475 seats at the Rex.  The show is called Blue Ridge Back Roads and thanks to a faithful group of volunteers, it has become the cornerstone for the revitalization of this 70 year old theater." wrotes visitgalax.com  

Thank you, Nancy, for this interesting postcard! I got it via Postcrossing.

Licht- und Schauspielhaus in Krnov/Czech Republic


Another cinema designed by Leo Kammel. 
The official opening took place on 11 November 1928. The renowned pianist Poldi Mildner performed at the event accompanied by the Municipal Orchestra; after the concert, there was a screening of the film Der Meister von Nürnberg / The Master of Nuremberg (Germany, 1927).
The original name of the theatre was Lichtspiel und Stadttheater / Městské kino a divadlo v Krnově (The Municipal Cinema and Theatre in Krnov). After the communist putsch in February 1948, the theatre was renamed to Julius Fučik’s Theatre. This is why the bust of this member of the communist revolt promoted by the propaganda was installed in the theatre. After 1945, the cinema was named Narodni. In 1990, the name of the theatre was changed back to the Municipal Theatre Krnov and the bust of J. Fucik was removed.
This unique example of expressionist theatre architecture in Czech Republic is today the
Městské divadlo / Municipall Theatre in Krnov.

You can read more about this building on the Theatre Database.