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 The postcard with the photo taken by Jürgen Henkelmann is no longer current.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.
