Kino - Theater in camp Saalburg in Autry / France

 

"Kino in Saalburg. Fritz Beck als Führer. Mai 1918"

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.

Odeon in Harrogate / United Kingdom

The Odeon in Harrogate opened on 28th September 1936. The one hall had a total of 1,647 seats -  1,049 in the stalls and 598 in the circle.

First shown movie was the British comedy film Where’s Sally. 

Oscar Deutsch (1893-1941) was the owner of this cinema and the founder of Odeon Cinemas in 1928. 

1937, there were 250 Odeons, including the flagship cinema in Leicester Square, London, making Odeon one of the three largest cinema chains in the United Kingdom.

Like the majority of Odeon's cinemas, the Odeon Harrogate was built in the Streamlined Moderne style and was designed by Harry Weedon and W Calder Robson. Harry Weedon (1887-1970) became involved with the Odeon chain in 1934 and his company produced designs for some of the finest buildings of the period. Influenced by the work of Erich Mendelsohn and Hans Poelzig – the Odeons "taught Britain to love modern architecture".

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.

Columbia in Berlin / Germany

 

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!

Yubileiny in Qaraghandy / Kazakhstan

 

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. 

From 2012 to 2015 the cinema was completely rebuilt. A modern cinema complex with 7 screens was built around the old cinema. The Yubileiny cinema became one of the best cinemas in the country, meeting high international standards.

The postcard was printed in 1972. On the left you can see  poster for the 1965 US-American film  Звуки музыки / The Sound of Music  and for the 1970 Lithuanian Мужское лето / Vyrų vasara (Men's Summer).

Andreas Praefcke writes on his Carthalia-Website about this cinema: "This standard design by M. P. Bubnov, V. V. Lazarev, I. V. Semeikin, E. B. Ter-Stepanov and V. G. Nemirovsky was used for many cinemas in the Soviet Union, among them Kinoteatr Soyuz in Aleksin, Kinoteatr Gorizont in Chaikovsky, Kinoteatr Ural in Chelyabisnk, Kinoteatr Udokan in Chita, Kinoteatr Donetsk in Donetsk, Kinoteatr Rossiya in Dzerzhinsk, Kinoteatr Burevestnik in Gelendzhik, Kinoteatr Yubileiny in Grozny, Kinoteatr Sovremennik in Ivanovo, Kinoteatr Kosmos in Kaluga, Kinoteatr im. O. Dovzhenka in Kharkov, Kinoteatr Salyut in Kharkov, Kinoteatr Nivki in Kiev, Kinoteatr Komsomolets in Mariupol, Kinoteatr Murmansk in Murmansk, Kinoteatr Ekran in Novotroitske, Kinoteatr Orsk in Orsk, Kinoteatr Shipka in Samara, Kinoteatr Parma in Syktyvkar, Kinoteatr Druzhba in Sumy, Kinoteatr im. Valikhanova in Taraz, Kinoteatr Iskra in Ufa, Kinoteatr Rossiya in Vinnytsia, Kinoteatr Yubileiny in Volgograd, Kinoteatr Volga in Yaroslavl."

Crișana in in Oradea / Romania

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.

Vörös Csillag Filmszinhás in Túrkeve / Hungary

 

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!

Ufa-Palast in Hamburg / Germany

 

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.

Capitol in Parchim / Germany

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.

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. 

Pathé Palace in Bruxelles / Belgium

 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.