The building could also serve as a huge theatre, opera house and above all as a hall for grandiose shows. It had three superimposed balconies (a rare case in the architecture of the genre) in a room that stood out above all for its sobriety. One of the major points of innovation in the monument was its indirect lighting. A discovery for the time which attested to the avant-garde character of the architect and of the city of Casablanca which already in the 1930s could boast of having one of the largest cinemas in the world. Another strong point of this monumental architecture: the ceiling which was retractable and which allowed, at the same time, in the absence of air conditioning at the time (another genius find) to enjoy the freshness of Casablanca summer evenings.
The cinema was closed in 1979 and demolished.
On the postcard, you can see advertisement for the movie Agent Special with Laurel & Hardy. It is a little riddle, because there isn't such a movie in the Laurel & Hardy-filmography. Maybe it is their 1942 movie A-Haunting We Will Go, also known in Germany under the titel Laurel & Hardy: Die Geheimagenten.
Casablanca is better known for the film Casablanca, which was shot exclusively in Hollywood. In the 1990s, I have worked sometimes as a projectionist in a very small cinema called Casablanca in Dresden. We used to show Casablanca on Saturday 10 p.m. in a very bad 35mm-copy. It were hard times for projectionists ...
I still love this movie. Even if I always wonder what beautiful clothes Ilsa Lund wears on her escape.
But there are also movies made in Casablanca. I saw the remarkable movie Adam (2019), directed by Maryam Touzani, about two powerful women with their untold secrets and tasty baked goods.
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