City Theater in Steenwijk / Netherlands

The City Theater in Steenwijk opened in 1959. The owner was Johan Miedema Sr. His Frisian cinema exploitation company came to Steenwijk in 1945 and converted the concert hall into the Roxy Cinema. 

When Johan Miedema Sr. was given the opportunity to build a completely new theater on the Goeman Borgesiusstraat, he grabbed it with both hands. In 1958 the Roxy was closed and the new City Theater was opened in 1959 in collaboration with Ger and Jantje Vos. The City Theater  had one auditorium, but the cinema was renovated in 2000. The theater now has 3 modern cinema rooms with large screens, digital sound and plenty of legroom.

Ludie Vos, the son of Ger and Jantje Vos, tells: 'Because my father was already showing films in Lumiére (Wapen van Steenwijk), he was not happy with the arrival of a new cinema. But due to the good relationship my father had with the municipality, a proposal was reached that both parties agreed with. The requirement that the municipality made of Miedema was that my father would become manager of this cinema. Both parties agreed to this and the cinema could be built.'

The cinema is still working and belongs now to Luxor Cinemas. 

Roxy in Geleen / Netherlands

 

The cinema Roxy in Geleen was designed and built by the architect Pieter Augustinus Schols (1892-1873) in 1932. It had 900 seats in 1933. When it was closed on 31th December 2003, it had 468 seats.

I found on youtube a video made in the empty cinema:
Roxy Geleen 2019: The making of .... Fortuna '54, de pioniers van het betaald voetbal.

Not far awy there is a new cinema Foroxity - the largest cinema in the Limburg region with 8 halls and 1.936 places.

Metropole Tuschinski in Den Haag / Netherlands

 

Adrianus Gijbertus van Tool  built the cinema after he won the main prize of 100.000 (or 50.000?) guilders in the lottery. At this time, he was the owner of a theater and he dreamed of the most beautiful cinema in Den Haag.

The Metropole Palace was opened on 15th October 1936 with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat (USA, 1935). It had 1.260 larger luxury seats in orchestra and balcony levels in the shell-shaped auditorium. There was a fountain and water feature containing real fish at the base of the staircase to the balcony. 

Although some distance from the city centre cinemas, the Metropole Palace attracted many premiere attractions. During the 1930’s foreign stars such as Shirley Temple, George Formby  and Mistinguett  made personal appearances here. During the German occupation of World War II, the Metropole Palace ceased screening films and became a dance hall, utilizing the glass floor in the orchestra level. It became a cinema again from 27th April 1945.

In April 1949, the cinema was sold to the Tuschinski group in Amsterdam, and it was named to Metropole Tuschinski. On 30th June 1950, the new Metropole was opened with the film La Beauté du Diable  (France 1950, directed by René Claire).

In 1976, the Metropole Tuschinski was converted in a five-screen cinema. The cinema was closed in 2003 and later demplished. In October 2008, a block of 30 apartments named Residence Metropole was being built on the site.

From June 1962 until 29th November 1963 the film West Side Story (USA, 1961) was presented for 518 days seen by 286.706 visitors!

I got this postcard from Willie via Postcrossing. She wrote she saw West Side Story a couple of times in this cinema. 

Bedankt, Willie, voor deze ansichtkaart!

CineMec in Ede/Netherlands

I got this postcard via postcrossing from the Netherlands.
I think it is an ad card for a new cinema. But unfortunately there weren't written any name and address on the card. But I could found it: it is the CineMec in Ede. CineMec opened in 1999. It is a building for cinema and conferences and has at all 9 rooms, with 120 to 1030 seats, made by DP6 Architectuurstudio.