Oktyabr in Taganrog/Russia

 

On skif_tags journal I found a wonderful article with great photos about cinema Oktyabr / October in Taganrog. Here is a part translated into English: 

"The cinema Oktyabr appeared in our city in 1937, to the 20th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, the main holiday of the country of the Soviets.

This was a typical project of the work of the talented architect Viktor Petrovich Kalmykov (1908-1981), who in the early 30s became famous for his futuristic project Saturniy (an international space city built on artificial rings encircling the earth)

But, the architect's real success can be considered his projects of typical cinemas, made in the style of constructivism. Suffice it to say that out of 60 cinemas built from 1935 to 1940 in various cities of the RSFSR, 50 were realized according to the projects of V.P. Kalmykov. For the anniversary of the revolution, cinemas similar to our Oktyabr appeared in many cities of the Soviet Union (Kirov, Frunse, Omsk).

Under German occupation in World War II between 1941 and 1943, the cinema continued to work and considered to soldiers. A musical group under the direction of Makarov performed in front of the audience in the foyer, and on weekends, local residents, everyone who wished, were allowed to see the sessions.

The cinema had two halls, a large one and a small one. A newsreel was shown in the small hall, and when the large hall was vacated, people from the small hall passed into the large one, which was through the wall. And the entire wall was pasted over with movie posters of past years from floor to ceiling. And it was the foremost entertainment to play the game find such and such a movie.

The main feature of the large hall was the gradually fading light. This was not the case in any other cinema in the city."

In 2007 the cinema was closed and the building is used for an alcohol market now ...

Here I found more pictures and information about cinemas in Taganrog. I am really surprised to found in this city of 258 000 inhabitants not only one big enthusiast of history and cinemas.

The postcard was published in 1969. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to read the films advertised.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Königin der Wildnis" + "Eine total, total verrückte Welt"

 

This postcard is a unique piece in my collection of postcards showing the Kino International in Berlin. It was published in the USSR in 1974 and sold for 3 kopeks. Maybe, it was a portfolio of postcards and sold in the shops for the members of the Soviet Army and their families in East Germany (so called magazines).

Two films are advertised on the large poster at the cinema:

- Königin der Wildnis - Born free, the great British movie about the lion Elsa (directed by James Hill, 1966) and

- Eine total, total verrückte Welt - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (directed by Stanley Kramer, USA 1963).

The first one came to East German cinemas on 4 July 1969, the second one on 2 August 1968. Maybe it was a rerelease of these movies about 1974 (when the postcard was published).

Cinéma Casino in Tébessa / Algeria

  

This postcard is from the 1950s. The building was a multi-purpose event venue, also used as a cinema and casino. Most recently it was called Cinéma Maghreb and closed forever in 2018.

L'Empire Cinéma in Fès / Morocco

 

The construction of the L'Empire Cinéma in Fès began in the summer of 1931 with the Empire-Jardin, an outdoor cinema venue. The architect of the cinema with 1800seats was François Robert (born in 1902 in Charleville), who worked for the company Balima and designed for it the Balima hotels in Rabat and Ifrane, as well as other buildings on avenue Mohammed V in Rabat and around it. 
Mr. Joseph Seiberras from Malta (1886-1942) was the owner not only of this emblematic cinema of the colonial period in Morocco, but also of forty other cinemas built at the time in Algeria and Morocco.
The cinema was closed in 2012, demolished and replaced by the Mégarama Fès, a multiplex cinema.

About the history of cinemas in Fès look here.

Gloria in Weissenfels/Germany

 

I met the Gloria cinema in Weissenfels in summer 2013. On the way to the holidays destination on the Unstrut river, we got off the train with our bikes in Weissenfels. And immediately came across this impressive building (look the train on the postcard). It's a big box, unfortunately empty for many years.

The Gloria has had better days. It was opened on October 18, 1928. The architect was Carl Fugmann. The remarkable building in the Bauhaus style impresses with its nested cubes, slotted windows with originally preserved lattice division and a corner structure with brick strips. The neon sign Gloria was placed directly on the street. The cinema had 1.200 seats and was also used for congresses and variety events. It was already equipped with modern air conditioning and red plush armchairs.

It is a really big cinema for a city with 40.000 inhabitants. But Weissenfels is (or was?) an important industrial city, famous for shoe manufacturing and the food industry.

In 1991, the UFA-Theater AG took over the cinema. In 1994 a discotheque moved into the building, which had to close three years later. The building was emergency secured in 2019. And it is a listed historical monument. It was never parted in smaller halls.

The postcard was printed shortly after the opening. You can see at the cinema advertising for the film Dulderin Weib / Tesha with Maria Corda. This film was released in German cinemas in 1928. 

The postcard was sent in October 1943. Pierre wrote to his wife Suzan. He was a French slave laborer in Weissenfels and worked in a factory that was on the same street as the cinema. He walked past the cinema every day. I hope Pierre and Suzan saw each other again ...

I met another cinema designed by Carl Fugmann in my next holidays, the Centralkino in Wittenberg.

Vielen Dank an Greta, die mir die Postkarte übersetzte!

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Perle" 1964

 

This is already my 25th postcard showing Kino International in Berlin (counted according to the poster motif). The postcard is extra large (21,4 cm x 10,3 cm) and was sold with an envelope. It was made by Graphokopie H. Sander K.G. Berlin and was published by Berlin Werbung Berolina.

The poster on the cinema building advertises the film Die Perle / The Pearl / La perla - a 1947 Mexican-American film directed by Emilio Fernández. It is based on the 1947 novella The Pearl by John Steinbeck, who also co-wrote the screenplay.

The film came to East German cinemas on May 26, 1964. It was shown already August 12, 1950 in the West German cinemas with the titel Mexikanische Romanze - but only 77 min of total 85 min.

In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The poster was designed by Horst Klöpfel.

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 ...