Café Cinema du centre in Taourirt / Morocco

 

Taourirt is located on the eastern outskirts of Ouarzazate. Its biggest attractions: The Kasbah and the Cinema Museum. The Kasbah is one of the largest Kasbahs in Morocco, built by Pasha Glaoui in 19th century. The Cinema Museum is located opposite Taourirt Kasbah and has collected memories of the films that were shot here.
Did you know, the Ouarzazate area is a noted film-making location, with Morocco's biggest studios inviting many international companies to work here. Among them films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Living Daylights (1987), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Kundun (1997), Legionnaire (1998), Babel (2006) Hanna (2011), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)
It was also the location of an episode of the television series The Amazing Race 10, Game of Thrones (Season 3), Prison Break (Season 5).

But I couldn't know anything about this Café Cinema du Centre on the right. The postcard is maybe from the 1920s.

Der neue Primus-Palast in Eschweiler / Germany

Der neue Primus-Palast (The new Primus-Palace) in Eschweiler near Aachen is not the first cinema called Primus in Eschweiler. 

The first Primus-Palast opened on 4 September 1928 in Englerthstrasse. It had 1200 seats, and burned out in 1944.

An interim cinema was makeshiftly prepared in June 1947 in the Schützenhalle as Primus in der Schützenhalle. 

In 1953, a newly built Primus-Palast opened in Grabestrasse with the color film Maske in Blau / Mask in Blue (West Germany, 1953). A dignified place to stay. Tasteful fabric coverings, fine wood paneling and a strong, profiled stucco ceiling with indirect lighting give the auditorium a festive note. Particularly attractive: the large stage with a parade curtain illuminated from above. This is the cinema on the 1958 sent postcard. 

Just 10 years later, on 12 October 1963, the cinema closed and a supermarket was housed in the building. There is still a supermarket on this address, and probably still in the old cinema building.

Later the Primus-Palast moved with its name to the building of the Capitol- a 1957 opened cinema with 682 seats, later departed intwo halls. It existed as the last cinema in Eschweiler until autumn 2020. Look here a last sad shot from the Primus Palast Eschweiler.

At all - there were four cinemas called Primus in Eschweiler from 1928 till 2020.

Cinématophone Modern Theater in Lyon / France

 

Ken Roe writes on Cinema Treasures: "The Cinematophone Modern Theater was opened by Alexandre Rota in October 1906.  ... It was designed by architect J. Fanon of Lyon. The Cinematophone was an early record player which was used to provide background sound to silent films. It was used in the name of the theatre to promote the fact that the Modern Theater had it installed."

Cinématophone does not seem to have existed in any other French city at the time.

Alexandre Rota was born in Candelo, Lombardy in 1868, he appears as a “patron weaver” in the 1901 census in Lyon. He was as the director of the Bellecour cinema in Lyon in 1905. In October 1906, he opened another cinema hall - the Cinématophone-Modern-Theater. 

He wrote about his activities: "Development of cinematography in all its forms - Purchase, sale, rental of devices, new and second-hand films - Rental of films from 0 fr 01 per meter and per day - Home screenings, fixed price for one or more screenings - Treaties for the end of shows in casinos, music halls, concert halls, boarding schools, lounges and families - Photographs, light projections - Fixed price installation of cinematographic stations - Advertising by the cinematographer - Electricity - SGDG patent for cinematographic projection in broad daylight".

Alexandre Rota, an entertainment entrepreneur, also an engineer, patented for having apparently made it possible to organize open-air cinema sessions in the middle of the day. He had obtained a gold medal at the Congress of Inventors of Lyon in 1911. It is known that Alexandre Rota knew how to handle a camera. He thus manages to show in his cinema a film on the funeral of Cardinal Coullié, shot by him that very morning. [Source]

Philippe Célérier writes more about this cinema on his blog: 

"The original 400-seat hall (only 230 in 1961) looks a lot like a theater, with its two side galleries. 

The establishment often changed its name: Modern'Cinéma from 1936 to 1953, Duo from 1953 to 1979, Modern '39, then finally Petit Coucou from 1979 to 1985. Its programming will also experience a lot of upheavals: if in 1958, the Duo is the first art house in Lyon, the Petit Coucou will move towards another genre of cinema, even being classified X in 1979 and 1982, before closing its doors definitively in March 1985 ..."

A. Rota was also a good salesman, when he used the popular postcard as advertising. Maybe the man in the little picture is Alexandre Rota himself? Surely he doesn't stand there by chance.

Neues Filmtheater in Bad Schandau / Germany

 

The cinema Neues Filmtheater was opened in 1953, later called Filmtheater des Friedens (Movie Theater of Peace).

It was closed as a cinema in 1991 and used briefly as a games library. In October 2001 it was opened as the Saxon Switzerland National Park House. The building was gutted for this. The exterior of the building has been well preserved and adapted to the new task. 

The building is a historical monument.

The old analog projectors also got a second chance. They are now used in the Dresden cinema Museumskino Ernemann VII B. The museum cinema has been part of the Dresden Technical Collections since 2002. These are located in the former Ernemann factories (later Pentacon). Cinema projectors and cameras were manufactured here for almost 100 years until 1991.

Royal Cinema in Gabès / Tunisia

 

Gabès is a city on the Mediterranean coast of Tunisia. It has about 120,000 inhabitants and is the 6th largest Tunisian city.

It is not easy to find facts about cinemas in Gabès. In French Wikipedia there is written about Cinemas in the colonies.

In Gabès there was the  L'Atlantide Cinéma with 600 places, directed by Mr. Sauveur, Raphaël Scozzaro and Emile Saada. It opened in 1937.