It’s been a while since I last did these, but it’s time to journey back into time and look at another lost cinema. One which I used to visit during my teenage years. Continue reading
Tag Archives: history
The lost cinemas of Rotterdam: Lutusca
It has been a while since I’ve done this, but time to continue my journey through the cinema history of Rotterdam. This time with a big cinema which stood in the centre of Rotterdam, close to Central Station: Lutusca. Continue reading
The Lost Cinemas of Rotterdam: Arena
Although most people in Rotterdam will know this location, on the Kruiskade, as the former stage Nighttown (where a lot of famous musicians have played, it was a cinema for a couple of decades before. It was also one of the few cinemas which survived the second world war.
After the success of his W.B.Theater located on Nieuwe Binnenweg Karl Weisbard decides in 1930 to open a second cinema: Roxy Theater. The building is designed by Jac Van Gelderen. It has a thousand seats and opens its door on May 31st. Besides movies some stage performances take place as well. Continue reading
The Lost Cinemas of Rotterdam: Capitol
In the past I have looked at various cinemas that are no longer around in Rotterdam, but since the city has had such a rich cinema history there are still a lot of them I have not written about. Enough reason to continue this series, now with a new look and an interactive implementation giving you control over looking into the past and present.
This time I take a look at one of the few cinemas which has managed to survive the bombing of Rotterdam during the second world war:
The West Cinema Theater / Capitol / Grand / Studio ’62 located at Nieuwe Binnenweg 326, close to the Heemraadssingel. Continue reading
The Lost Cinemas of Rotterdam: Thalia
This week I take a look at the Thalia cinema, which used to be located on Kruiskade, opposite of the Lumière cinema. This was the third location where the cinema was located under that name. In 1911 the cinema opened at Coolvest 44. Within a year the boss, Tuschinksi, was forced to close it down because the area was needed to build the new city hall. Continue reading
The Lost Cinemas of Rotterdam: Cineac NRC
In the past I have looked at several lost cinemas, but there are still a lot I had not touched upon yet. Time to continue with my journey to the past, this time with Cineac NRC cinema which was located at the Coolsingel, next to department store Bijenkorf. Pathé started the Cineac cinemas to show the latest news. It was shown constantly and visitors would be able to stay there as long as they wanted. With the slogan “A journey around the world in 50 minutes!” it tried to lure them in.
The Story Behind… The Walt Disney Pictures logo
In “The Story Behind…” series I take a look at the history of anything related to movies. One of them are the logos of the various studios, this time that of Walt Disney Pictures.
The man who lent his name to the company was a big fan of drawing as he grew up. He shortly worked at The Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he met Ubbe Iwerks and after their contract with the studio expired they decided to start their own company. It was called “Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists” in 1920. Since they couldn’t manage to run it succesfully Disney started working at the Kansas City Film Ad Company and was joined by Iwerks. He started experimenting with animation and made Laugh-o-grams. These were so succesfull that Disney was able to start a new company called “Laugh O Gram Studio”. Unfortunately this company went bankrupt and Disney decided to move to Hollywood in 1923 together with his brother Roy.
They started “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio” and they succesfully sold a live action/cartoon named “Alice’s Wonderland”, which became very succesfull and more episodes were made. After the popularity dropped Disney developed the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons together with Iwerks who created the character. Unfortunately for Disney it was Universal Studios who owned the rights to the character and after most of his animators were hired away (except Iwerks) he had to come up with a new character, which was Mickey Mouse. The instant success of this first cartoon with synchronised sound meant he was able to create other shorts, which became the Silly Symphonies. His cartoons were distributed by various big studios including Columbia Pictures and United Artists. In 1934 he started production for the first feature length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which was released in 1937. Continue reading
The Story Behind… The RKO Pictures logo
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these “The Story Behind…” posts, but felt like doing a new one. For those who don’t know the series, in “The Story Behind…” I take a look at movie related things and the stories behind them. I’ve written several of these about the history and various logos of the major studios. I’ve covered quite a few studios, but there are a couple I didn’t cover yet. One of them is RKO, which was part of the “Big Five” studios during the golden age of Hollywood. The studio has been responsible for some classic movies like King Kong, It’s a Wonderful Life and Citizen Kane. It matched up Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant was under contract with them for a long time. Although the RKO name still exists it’s not the big studio it once was as the original RKO Pictures was out of business in 1960. Continue reading
Exhibit: Hollywood’s Egypt
Als a movie fanatic I love the magic which movies possess. Even if you know that it has all been made up and it has been recorded on sets, they manage to provide experiences that you’ll never be able to experience yourself. Whether that’s a space journey, a war or an adventure. When Hollywood tells its stories it regularly looks back at the past and Egypt seems to be one of the infinite sources of inspiration. Stories about the mystery of the mummy, the beauty of Cleopatra of biblical events have all appeared on the silver screen many times.
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden will open a new exhibit tomorrow named “Hollywood’s Egypt” in which the history of Egypt in movies (including many props from various movies) is combined with the true history. It offers the moviefan a chance to get closer to movie magic and I had a chance to sneak a peak during the press preview. Continue reading
The Story Behind… The United Artists logo
It’s been a while since I did one of these, but “The Story Behind…” series is back, this time featuring United Artists. I really never thought about the name of the company, but if you read about its history it becomes very clear. The company was formed by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith and lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo, who all had a 20% stake. As the studio system was forming these actors wanted more freedom and this was the way to get it. Although they managed to set up the company it had some tough times and during the fifties two lawyers-turned-producers Robert Benjamin and Arthur Krim took over United Artists. Its logo has also changed a lot during the years the company has been in existence. Continue reading