The large hall of the the 1550s timber-framed house "Ratswaage" (Council's Scale) was expanded into a modern cinema with 394 seats.
It closed in 1966 and converted into a discotheque. The former cinema hall was destroyed by fire in 1969, but the gable end remained.
The cinema is advertising the film Die größte Schau der Welt / The Greatest Show on Earth, a 1952 US-American Hollywood Circus film. The German premiere was on December 25, 1952.
The cinema was built in 1954. This was intended to bring culture to the countryside so that people stay in the village and work there. The building has used as a house for cinema and theater and named Kulturhaus (House of Culture) from 1974 till 2004. Then there was a restaurant.
It is planned to use the building again as a cultural center.
The postcard is from 1963.
For 25 years it was Berlin's cinema complex with the most seats - 3,434 seats in 19 halls.. The Cinemaxx was an important venue for the Berlin International Film Festival / Berlinale.
In 2023, electrically adjustable luxury leather chairs with tablets were installed in all halls. This reduced the total seating capacity of the house from 3,434 to 1,411 seats. At the same time, the lamination of all screens was attached to CinemaScope in 2023 and is no longer variable in any hall.
The outdoor area was also remodeled. The postcard with the photo taken by Jürgen Henkelmann is no longer current.
You can find all the facts about this cinema and meaningful pictures in the Kinokompendium.
"Le Palais de Justice - Cinéma: Le Paradis"
Douala was the capital of Cameroon until 1920.
The building is in the middle of the picture is the Palace of King Bell, known as La Pagode. It was constructed in 1905 by the Germans for King Auguste Manga Ndumbe (King Bell).
From around 1920 until recent times, the building served as a residence for various other representatives of the Bell royal dynasty, and other areas were rented out, for example to the Sangha Oubangui Company and later to the Western Naval Company. The rooms behind it housed Douala's first cinema, Le Paradis, before it was renovated in 1995 by the architect Danièle Diwouta-Kotto to create the doual'art art association on the initiative of Didier Schaub and Marilyn Douala Bell, another member of the Bell royal family.
I don't know much about this cinema. The postcard was sent in 1951. And itsn't easy to say where the cinema is on the picture...
Here you can read something about cinemas in Cameroon.
The house itself was built in 1582 It is a valuable Münden merchant houses from the late Renaissance.
The cinema was known as Schiller-Lichtspiele (according to the name of the operator). The cinema hall, which now has 272 seats, is located in the courtyard of the half-timbered house.
With the Covid 19 crisis, the cinema's economic difficulties worsened and it closed in autumn 2020. The team from Capitol in Witzenhausen took over the cinema in Hann. Münden in 2021. It was not easy, but there are still shown films now in the Capitol Hann. Münden.
It's not easy to say when the photo was taken. You can read cinema advertisements above the entrance: "Mary Lou - Lya Mara". It is the 1928 German film Mary Lou with Lya Mara. If the cinema opened in 1931, the film must have been released later than 1928 there.
The city of Györ on the Rába River was badly damaged in World War II. After 1945 many new apartments were built. And cultural institutions were also important. In 1958 it was decided to build a cinema with 800 seats. It opened in 1962 with 830 seats.
The cinema was designed by Kálmán Lakatos and János Harmati. Here you can read all about the building's architecture and history.
The cinema was closed in 2000, a modern multiplex opened in the city. The building was reopened to the public in 2001 as a concert hall for the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra. The building's name is now Richter Terem / Richter Hall. The name honors the city's musical son Hans Richter.
The postcard was sent in 1962. It shows the newly built cinema. I miss the illuminated Rába sign on the building, as you can see in some old pictures. I think it came to the building after opening.
Köszönöm Zoltánnak ezt a képeslapot!
This postcard is more of a photo than a postcard, but was intended (and probably sold) as a postcard. The place, person and time are noteworthy on the back - and this is how the cinema depicted can be identified.
Saalburg is not the little town in Thuringia on the river Saale, and not the Roman fort located on the main ridge of the Taunus, northwest of Bad Homburg in Hesse.
The German camp Saalburg was established during World War I near the occupied place of Autry, 50 km east of Reims. It is possible that the camp got its name after the Hessian fort of Saalburg. The camp and the place of Autry were destroyed by fighting in October 1918. Today there is forest and peace again.
Here I found an interesting article about the camp. Unfortunately, the cinema is not mentioned. Perhaps it was built in May 1918, as written on the postcard. I think the building was used as a cinema and theater.
The soldiers with the tools look like they have just finished the building. One of them is marked with a cross. The only one who doesn't look at the camera. Maybe it's the aforementioned Fritz Beck. I'm not sure what kind of "Führer" / leader Fritz Beck was. The head of cinema construction or the Vorführer / projectionist or the artistic director? I am sure that cinema-theater complied with all applicable German regulations.
Postcards in World War I are a very interesting topic. They show a desired self-expression. They are souvenirs for the army member themselves but also for their relatives and friends at home. When you look at the postcard, you think of a holiday camp for big boys rather than a war place.
At the same time, it is often not easy to locate postcards with front-line cinemas because they worked under exceptional conditions. There is little information about it - how many places there were, what was shown when, who performed, how was the film distribution. That's why this postcard with the comments is an important contemporary document.
The auditorium of Odeon Harrogate was divided in August 1972 with screen 1 forming the former circle and the front stalls with seating for 532 and screen 2 and 3 formed under the circle with 108 seats each. In 1989, the circle and front stalls were separated into 2 screens making 4 in total. Odeon Harrogate has since been modernised and has 5 screens today.
The building was awarded Grade-II listed status on 24 May 1988.
The postcard is a PHQ card (PHQ 178). PHQ (Postal Headquarters) cards are postcards issued by the British Post Office and represent the motifs of their commemorative stamps.
This Postcard (and stamp) were issued in 1996 in a series of 5 stamps on the topic 100 Years of Cinema.
The free-standing cinema building in Berlin-Tempelhof was built in 1951 for members of the US Air Force who were stationed at Tempelhof Airport. With its rounded, sweeping shapes and shiny materials in a 1950s design, the Columbia is a typical post-war cinema.
The cinemas Outpost in Berlin-Dahlem and L’Aiglon in Berlin-Wedding two more cinemas belonging to the former allies.
When the Allies withdrew from Berlin, the cinema was closed by the Americans and handed over to the Berliners and has been used as a club and event location for a variety of events since 1998. Now there is a theater - the Columbia Theater (since 2015).
The modern postcard shows a view of this theater. The photo was taken by Gunnar Klack.
Danke, Nadja, für die Karte!
In 1967, the city Qaraghandy / Karaganda received a new wide-format cinema with 840 seats. The opening was in the same year with the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution and hence the name Yubileiny - Anniversary.
The first premiere was the film Свадьба в Малиновке / Wedding in Malinovka - the first Soviet color, wide-screen film, directed by Andrei Tutyshkin in 1967. The musical comedy is about a Ukrainian village during the time of the Russian Civil War. With power alternating almost daily between Soviet and Ukrainian nationalist forces, the villagers of Malinovka are never sure who is in charge, so they modify their behaviour and dress accordingly.
In July 2013, in the village of Malinovka (Kharkov region) a monument to the hero of the film, Adjutant Popandopulo, was erected. I love film monuments (and postcards with this item).
In 1997, the Munira company bought the Yubileiny cinema. During the period of the crisis of film distribution, which coincided with the general economic crisis, when the city’s cinemas were sold and converted into nightclubs and casinos, the Yubileiny cinema not only did not stop working, but was one of the first in Kazakhstan to engage in the revival of cinema screening.
Crișana (Hungarian: Körösvidék, German: Kreischgebiet) is a geographical and historical region in north-western Romania, named after the Criș (Körös) River. And it also the name of a cinema in Oradea, one of most important Romanian cities in this area.
The cinema Crișana was built according to a project-type for cinema with 400 seats (architect: Mariana Bucur, engineer: Sergiu Cîrlan). It started playing in 1962 with 450 seats in one hall. It was demolished in 2017, after it had been unused for a long time.
Look here at last pictures outside and inside.
Here you can learn more about cinemas in Oradea.
Cinema Vörös Csillag ("Red Star") in Túrkeve opened its doors at July 9, 1964. It was a widescreen-cinema with 440 seats. Look here a short film about opening in 1964.
From September 17, 1989 the cinema has named Korda Sándor Filmszínházra.
Korda Sándor was born in Pusztaturpásztó, now a part of the town Túrkeve, on September 16, 1893. He became famous as Alexander Korda as a British film director, producer and screenwriter. One of his most famous film as a producer is The Thief of Bagdad (1940), one of those timeless classics for the whole family. (Look at the postcard with cinema Marmorhaus in Berlin!)
Alexander Korda died in 1956 in London. The Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year is given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. But the biggest award is a cinema with the own name ...
Alexander Korda had two younger brothers, Zoltán (1895-1961) and Vincent (1897-1979), who also had careers in the film industry, often working with Alexander. The writer and nephew Michael Korda published in 1972 the book Charmed Life about his family. When will the book come to the screen?
I think, the cinema closed around 2018.
If you want to know more about cinemas / mozik in Hungary look here.
Köszönöm Zoltán a képeslapokat és a tájékoztatást!
The Ufa-Palast was a part of the Deutschlandhaus in the middle of the picture. The eight-story building was built in steel frame construction between 1928 and 1929 based on designs by Fritz Block and Ernst Hochfeld.
The cinema was opened on December 21, 1929. First shown movie was Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Germany 1929, directed by Arnold Fanck and Georg Wilhelm Pabst). At that time it was the largest cinema in Europe with 2,665 seats. The Ufa Palace was used until 1944, when a fire caused by an aerial bomb destroyed the building.
From 1946 to 1949, the English occupying forces rebuilt the confiscated house and making structural changes. The destroyed cinema was not restored. The Deutschlandhaus was used as an office building in a modified form and was demolished in 2019.
This postcard is from 1953. Parchim is a small town in northern Germany. The cinema at the old market opened in 1929. At that time it was called U.T., later Capitol.
Even later it was given the name Theater der Freundschaft / Theater of Friendship.
Look at this photo:
Friendship in this context meant, above all, friendship with the USSR. Until the early 1990s, Parchim was the largest Soviet military airfield in the GDR.
What happened to the airport later can be seen in the documentary film Parchim International.
Today there is the Movie Star cinema in Parchim.
The building is still standing and now there is an Indian shop.
My grandparents lived in Parchim for a few years when I was little. I don't think we went to the cinema together.
I got this postcard with the view of the cinema Pathé Palace in Bruxelles from my sister. It is an old view on a new postcard.
The cinema Pathé Palace opened in 1913. The house was built as an auction house in 1881 by Albert Dumont (1853-1920). In 1913 the house was converted into a cinema in the trendy Italian style. The pioneer of Cinematography and now owner of the building, Pathé Frères, commissioned Paul Hamesse.
The result was the largest cinema in Brussels with a capacity of 2,500 seats and space for an orchestra. It is the oldest surviving cinema in Belgium. On the roof of the house you can see the well-known symbol of Pathé - the rooster.
In 1950, architect Rie Haan undertook a thorough renovation to match the narrower tastes of the time. The dome disappeared under a false ceiling. The cinema disappeared total in 1973 and a home appliance store was built in its place.
In 1999, the cinema came back with the arrival of Kladaradatch (Yiddish for "big spectacle"). The new owners reassembled the different parts of the building and connected them through the PPCafé. Despite adequate public participation, bankruptcy followed after only a year and a half. Later the Théâtre National found a new home there.
In February 2018, the cinema Pathé Palace reopened its doors after fourteen years of vacancy. More than 600 seats are available in the four rooms (373, 140, 80 and 60). The program consists mainly of art house films.
Wendelstein is a 1,838-metre-high (6,030 ft) mountain in the Bavarian Alps in South Germany - the mountain in the middle of the photo.
In 1936, Josef Reheis built the Filmtheater Degerndorf-Brannenburg, a 295-seat cinema hall. The movie theater had such a large audience that a second cinema hall was added in 1955. After enlargement the cinema was called Wendelstein-Lichtspiele. The cinema closed in 1969.
I think, the owner Josef Reheis was a relative of Max Reheis (1869-1936). Max Reheis was a famous cyclist in his youth, later he had a bike shop. He opened the cinema Stadt-Kinematograph in Rosenheim in 1909 and the Central-Kinematographen-Theater in Salzburg in 1912.
The postcard was sent in 1963.
The 1992 feature film Stilles Land tells about a theater in the north German provinces in the autumn of 1989 in the dying GDR. The ensemble of an (unnamed) small town theater is rehearsing the play Waiting for Godot. The film is Andreas Dresen's first feature film. Today he is one of the best-known German directors
The feature film about a cinema in the GDR has not yet been shot.
The cinema Lichtspiele was opened in 1914 with 450 seats and closed in 1990 (or later). The building no longer appears to be standing. I like the figures on the building.
The 1959 sent postcard was printed in the 1950s. At that time, the street was called Stalin-Strasse. Today the street's name is Pasewalker Strasse, it was the Stettiner Strasse in 1914.
The Panorama Filmtheater was built in 1958/1959 in Berlin-Britz, planned by the architect Gerhard Fritsche. From 1951 to 1961 he was involved in 17 cinema projects, above all in West-Berlin.
The free-standing building had a futuristic shape, the outer wall caught the eye with its bluish-white block stripes. At that time there was a row of shops in this cinema building.
The cinema had 893 seats with high-upholstered armchairs from Schröder & Henzelmann. With a Zeiss Ikon and Ernemann X projection apparatus and Zeiss Ikon amplifiers and loudspeakers, widescreen films could be shown in 1:2.35 and 1:2.55 in CinemaScope with one-channel optical sound and four-channel magnetic sound.
In 1980 the cinema was closed and a supermarket opened and is still in use. The building is a listed monument.
The photo was taken in 1961/62, the postcard was sent in 1968. The cinema advertises the movie Die Irrfahrten des Herkules / Goliath contro i giganti / Goliath against the Giants (Italy / Spain 1961, directed by Guido Malatesta. The movie came to West German cinemas on December 8, 1961. The German version was 8 minutes shorter than the original and the hero's name was Hercules and not Goliath.
Piešťany is a town in Western Slovakia. It is the biggest and best known spa town in Slovakia and has around 28,000 inhabitants. And a cinema, too.
The Kino Fontána (Cinema Fontaine) started showing films on December 1, 1951. Then under the name Kino Moskva. In 1958, the cinema hall was rebuilt and panoramic films could shown. Because of the popularity of the spa, a large number of visitors came to the cinema in socialist times. Some films even premiered in Piešťany.
A natural cinema extension was built in 1959. This area was put back into service in the summer of 2020. It has now a capacity of 1,000 seats and it is also equipped to host concerts and performances by musical groups and soloists.
The cinema has today a capacity of the fixed auditorium of 262 seats. With additional retractable side and rear seats, the capacity can be increased to a maximum of 386 seats.
The postcard was sent in 1963.
