Cinema Teatro in Asmara / Eritrea

 

Cinema Teatro in Asmara - today Teatro Asmara - is a late eclectic historicism building in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site  Asmara: A Modernist City of Africa.

The building was designed as an opera house and was completed in 1920 according to plans by Odoardo Cavagnari (1868–1920). The design of the immediate area could no longer be completed, as the sponsoring company went bankrupt in 1924. 

The as yet unused area in the vicinity of the opera house fell to the state, which sold it to investors in 1927, who built shops and a dance hall here 10 years later. The opera house itself has been converted into a cinema. Since then, there has been a café in the foyer. The building was used as a cinema until 1957.

After the federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1952, under pressure from the Ethiopian viceroy, the building was sold to the state by the Italian owners at a price that was far below its value, and according to other sources, it was sold to a son-in-law of the then Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie. 

After Eritrea gained independence in 1991/93, it was transferred to the state property of the new state. The main office of the national telephone provider Eritel is located in a side building and the actual opera house is occasionally used as a theater.

In Asmara there are still other worth seeing cinemas like Cinema Impero, Cinema Roma and Cinema Odeon.

Kino in Nový Bor / Czech Republic

 

Kultura Nový Bor writes about the cinema: 

The permanent screening of silent films was allowed to the town of Bor near Česká Lípa on September 10, 1920, by granting a license to the District Political Administration in Česká Lípa with the assurance that no further concession would be granted within a radius of 4 km. It was screened in the building of today's falconry, which then belonged to the German Gymnastics Association. This makeshift, dependent on the benevolence of the association, led the city council to build its own modern theater building, which also serves to screen films. 

The cinema was a project of the architect Rudolf Bitzan, a native of Stráž pod Ralskem, living in Dresden, who has already designed the new theater in Teplice and a cinema in Teplice. He was also architect of the Crematorium and urn grove in Liberec-Perštýn. According to his plan, the cinema was built by the local company Rösler and Glaser, under the leadership of architect Riegl.

The ceremonial opening took place on November 13, 1926 at 8 pm, with the participation of important guests from the provincial authorities, district representatives and representatives of neighboring towns and villages. On Sunday, November 14, the morning promenade concert in front of the cinema followed, and in the evening the feature film An der schönen blauen Donau (Germany, 1926) was screened. Ferdinand Krehan from Česká Lípa became the tenant of the building.

Until 1980, two reconstructions took place, which mainly concerned projection technology, electrical installation and interior. On June 30, 1981, a large fire destroyed virtually the entire building. The next day, the Municipal National Committee decided on a complete reconstruction of the cinema. According to the architectural solution of Ing. arch. Rudolf Bergr and Ing. Vladimír Novák from Stavoprojekt Ústí nad Labem, carried out the reconstruction of the Nový Bor District Construction Company. Construction manager Walter John handed over the construction to the Municipal National Committee in April 1989.

On April 21, 1989, the cinema was ceremoniously opened with a new Czech film Oznamuje se láskám vašim / Communicating to Your Love. Mr. Radovan Novotný was appointed head of the cinema. The Municipal Cinema won the "Cinema of the Year" award in 1996 and 1999.

The Cinema still works and has one hall with 293 seats.

The postcard was published between 1938 and 1945, when the city belonged to Germany. Since 1948 the town is named Nový Bor. 

Scala in Mukachevo / Ukraine

 

The cinema Scala opened in 1929. At this times (from 1919 till 1938) the city Mukachevo in Transcarpathia was part of Czechoslovakia, later of Hungary (till 1945), then of the Soviet Union and since 1991 Ukraine.

The cinema was built in the style of modernism. It was designed by the famous Czechoslovak architect Ludovít Oelschläger (1896-1984) a native of the Slovak city of Košice. Among his works the Jewish synagogue and school in Košice, cinema Slovan in Košice, trade academy in Mukachevo (now city house of culture), Sanatorium in Tatranská Polianka, a cinema in Uzhhorod.

In Soviet times, the name Scala was changed into Перемога / Peremoha ("Victory") - as you can see above the entry on the 1958 published postcard. The cinema was renamed in the 1990s and still works. Today there are 329 places in the hall and a VIP-box on the balcony with 82 seats and separate tables.

Balkon-Kino in Berlin/Germany

 

In 1994, the Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Hellersdorf (WoGeHe - a housing association, today Stadt und Land) stretched  a canvas between two steel scaffolding on Stendaler Strasse for the first time. A new open-air cinema was born. Viewers could enjoy the films free of charge from the balcony or from the space in front of the screen. Everyone brings their own chair. Balkon-Kino  - Balcony cinema.

In 2005, the Balkon-Kino moved from Stendaler Strasse to Cecilienplatz, and shows four films in one season.

The postcard is a free postcard from the Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Hellersdorf, published between 1994 and 1999. I like this view of the audience. 

Cinema's name remembers me the film Sommer vorm Balkon, directed by Andreas Dresen 2004 in Berlin ...

Caroli, Regina, Rex in Rüsselsheim am Main / Germany

 

Rüsselsheim is famous for the Opel car production. And good workers need good entertainment in their spare time. The 1962 sent postcard shows the building Friedensplatz 6 in Rüsselsheim. Honestly, it doesn't show a cinema - only neon signs for three cinemas.

Caroli was opened on Christmas Day 1955 with 407 seats, Rex was opened in 1956 with 482 seats (not far away from Friedensplatz) and closed in 2011, Regina has opened from 1957 till 1985. From 1958 all three cinemas belonged to Kurt Palm.

Kurt Palm, born in 1924 in Mainz-Gustavsburg, made his first 8mm films at a young age and initially trained as an electrician. During the Second World War he was employed as a cameraman and reporter. In 1947, he opened his first movie theater Burg-Lichtspiele (today Burglichtspiele Gustavsheim) in a 1899 built chapel.

Palm soon expanded its business activities. He owned more than twenty movie theaters and began to produce films himself. His best-known projects include the documentary Der 2. Weltkrieg / The Second World War (1982) and various erotic films. His REPA Filmproduktion GmbH was one of the most successful German film producers in the early 1970s.

Palm's busy life finished in 2013.

I publish this no-cinema-showing postcard because cinemas are not only any buildings for showing films. Making good entertainment is a hard job from Monday till Sunday, all year long, done by enthusiastic men and women and not by machines. When these people die, a piece of culture and history and their stories are also dying.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Frau, die man nie vergessen kann" 1964

 

Another postcard in my collection of Kino International in Berlin. It is a view of Karl-Marx-Allee (until 1961 Stalinallee) with the cinema on the left, looking east to Strausberger Platz. The two 14-story high-rise buildings were built in the 1950s as Haus des Kindes (House of the Child) and Haus Berlin. In addition to the apartments for hundreds of workers, there was a dancing bar in Haus Berlin and in Haus des Kindes there were a puppet theater, a kindergarten, a children's department store and a children's cafe.

It wasn't easy to read the advertised movie on the poster. I could identify it with the help of the book Mehr Kunst als Werbung. Das DDR-Filmplakat by Detlef Helmbold (even if the poster does not match the illustration in the book). It is the Polish movie Die Frau, die man nie vergessen kann / Naprawdę wczoraj (Poland 1963, directed by Jan Rybkowski). This movie was released in East Germany on July 10, 1964.

The postcard was published in 1965 by Gebr. Garloff KG Magdeburg.

In October 2020 I visited Berlin and Kino International. There was a little interesting exhibition inside Pavillions für die Karl-Marx-Allee. And I heard, that Berlin's Karl-Marx-Allee should be on the Unesco World Heritage List.

I didn't see a movie there. I preferred to walk along Karl-Marx-Allee to Warschauer Strasse. I was amazed that there was so little going on on the avenue on a Saturday afternoon.

Lichtspielhaus in Nerchau/Germany

 

Nerchau today has about 3800 inhabitants and belongs to the city of Grimma, it is located on the river Mulde.

The cinema Lichtspielhaus ("Light Play House" = Movie Theater) in Nerchau opened on 25th December 1912. Hermann Märker was the owner. I think he is the man on the picture below left, to the left of the door. Maybe, the woman to the right is his wife.

Hermann Märker was a plumber by trade, with his own business.

Look at his advertisment in the address book of Grimma 1912:

"Nerchauer Lichtspiel-Theater. Great constant theater, singing and speaking photographs in the highest perfection. The very latest events of the day in the picture. Pleasant, interesting stay.
Program changes every Wednesday and Saturday.
Excellent entertainment music from first-class instruments during the presentation of the slides.
Half price for students and children."

I don't know if the house was newly built with a cinema in 1912, it could be. A year later, Hermann Märker opened another cinema in Brandis, a city 25 km away.

The 1912 opened cinema with 200 seats was the only one in Nerchau and closed in 1991.

In its last years it was used as a Café-Kino with 60 seats, where you could have a meal during watching a movie. If you look at the postcard, there was already a Café in this house in 1912, maybe run by Hermann Märker's wife Lina.

Karl-Marx-Lichtspiele in Stadtroda/Germany

 

Stadtroda is a city with about 5.000 inhabitants in Thuringia. It has a castle and an old monastery, and no more cinema.
The cinema Karl-Marx-Lichtspiele opened in 1955 and closed in 1991. It was newly built with apartments above the cinema hall.
You can see bove the entrance a poster for the film Zwei Mütter / Two Mothers (East Germany 1957, directed by Frank Beyer).
The film was Frank Beyer's graduation film at the Film School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague. The film tells the story of two women, one French and the other German, who fight for a child who has been mistakenly taken by the Germans after a bomb raid.
In 1974, Frank Beyer directed the film Jakob der Lügner / Jacob the Liar - the only East German picture ever selected for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Bali in Oberhausen/Germany

 

Bali - sounds like wide world and adventure, and only means Bahnhofs-Lichtspiele - Railway Station Cinema. So you can see on this 1959 sent postcard the railway station in Oberhausen and about in the middle the lettering BALI above the showcases and BALI Kino left above the main entrance.

From 1930 to 1934, the station was built in the classic modern style. The Oberhausen architect Schwingel and the Reichsbahnoberrat Karl Herrmann designed the current building with a clear and calm cubist design language.

During the World War II, the station was badly damaged. The reception building hall could not be put back into operation until 1954 in a greatly modified form, a false ceiling was put in to install the Bali cinema in the upper part, and a small shopping arcade was created below it.

The BALI cinema opened as a newsreel cinema operated by AKI (Aktualitätenkino AG). These newsreel cinemas opened with the aim of reducing the waiting time for rail passengers to get to their train connection. The more televisions there were at the homes, the less important newsreel cinemas became. From 1982 there were shown sex films not only in BALI Oberhausen. And finally it was closed in 1984.

Another former newsreel cinema in my collection: Filmtheater Hauptbahnhof in Dresden

Röda Kvarn in Halmstad/Sweden

 

Another maximum card showing a cinema building, published in Sweden in 1998. The design was by Eva Lena Johansson, the stamp was made by Piotr Naszarkowski, photo was taken by Kjell Furberg.
Furberg, who worked as a cinema machinist, has made a name for himself as a cinema historian and his book Svenska Biografer / Cinema Theatres in Sweden was published in 2000. 
The cinema Röda Kvarn ("Red Mill") was built in 1925 according to drawings by the town architect August Svensson (1886–1935). Opening in February 1926, it had 500 seats in one hall.
What distinguishes the cinema is mainly a magnificent classicist screen façade on two floors that is unparalleled in Sweden. Changes have been made to the interior during the 1950s and 1970s, mainly in terms of surface layers, proscenium and ticket office, but on the whole the interior is well preserved with a lounge, balcony and lower and upper foyer. Many time- and cinema-typical details are preserved. The cinema conveys knowledge about the aesthetic ideals of the 1920s and about the importance that the cinema had as a central entertainment palace during the early 20th century. Its unique façade reflects the ambition to give the cinema and the film a reputation and status as a cultural institution through a pompous architecture.
The cinema has been a building monument since 27 May 1994.
Today cinema Röda Kvarn has five halls with 562 seats at all. It is Halmstad's only cinema.