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All the Cinemas, we once had
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All the Cinemas, we once had
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On these twin topic of movie and cinema I have 2 different sentiments The first one I want hijack the the introduction part of this page to talk about myself. Part 1 - Singing about myself I was once associated with the filming industry. I was an actor and now allow me to show a couple of my glorious moments. The first pictures shows that I was doing autograph when one of the movies I acted in "End Credit" was submitted for premiership at the Taoyuan Film Fest.
Next, was the picture of us lined up on stage on the Gala Night during the premier of another movie "The Journey" This movie still maintain the record as the second highest box office rating. Both movies are made in Malaysia
Cinemas Now on the topic of cinemas. We must understand the making of movie and eventually showing it to the public is an art form. In the early days where communicative channels were so restrictive, getting involved with some form of art - which ever form that it may be, was a social status. It is an avenue of expression for the people. So among the many art forms, playhouses and theatre was the most popular. That art form of theatre evolved and got upgraded. Movie became a trend, it evolved and bring forth a new dimension which we now called - Entertainment. In the old days when we say "Let's go to see a play" We were then almost half involved with art as a spectator. Then trend changed - we got ourselves entertained Play evolved. First change the Talkies came! Then more changes from Talkies to movie The evolution to movies made our outing to cinemas as 80% entertainment and 20% a social event. That is why in the early days, our old cinema Halls had decors and program to bring forth an ambience of art. Remember the heavy curtains and decorated stage. Oh! Different classes of seating etc. More so - some cinema like the Sun and Majestic retained that mixture of showing movies and at times offering live stage shows. I couldn't help but kept on comparing the idea of seeing a live show with that current trend of watching a movie. The "Before & After" effects of stage shows. Live shows is still popular now but handled as a very much exclusive event For example think of the days when you only need to pay a couple of Ringgit seated in an enclosed air con hall and within touching distance - watched singers or Rose Chan performing on stage. Today for those same act, you pay a few thousand Ringgit, seated with 20K other people, some 200 meters away from stage to see Andy Lau doing a live show. Perception and values had varied so much. Was there any added value between the two? This topic of movie cinemas I find is a topic very close to most people heart Everyone has some sort of memories with each particular cinema that they had good times with. I have read on the internet, recollections of many cinema goers who related their young days experiences. This page is a compilation and collection of old pictures for cinemas in Penang. Pictures of a time when I was still very young. Not coming from an affluent family, at that time seeing a cinema was confined to walking around its ticketing lobby.. A couple of cinemas in Great World and Wembley that I have not been to Then there is the Globe cinema where we could join to see movie from the outside the fence and that I visited often. My collection would be almost complete - but I have not found a picture of that Globe cinema Part 2 - The Cinemas Along Penang Road Pix #3 The Old Windsor Theatre A very good picture to keep - take a look at the Windsor and this picture had a car inside to give a clue as to its time of the picture was taken. I guess must be a period just after the World War II. The proprietor of Windsor Mr Khoo Heng Pan a prominent businessman died at the age of 43 years old on March,14th 1934. Just days after this theatre was opened
Pix #4 And now - The Capitol Cinema Capitol Cinema - this picture was made when the building was very new, Remember the days of earliest film on show - "The Conqueror". Just look at the pictures, it was still the days when riding bicycles was the trend
Pix #5 The Capitol Cinema Now you see the samebuilding again! Picture from a later year, Capitol Cinema seen with colors. The place was bereft of crowd, Very empty?
Pix # 6 Memories from Capitol Cinema There were epic movies like this one, Ben Hur and the Ten Commandments etc
Pix # 7 M-G-M This was the logo which is etched into our memory. The roaring Lion
Pix # 8 The Empire Cinema Watch that 1914 signage! Boldly displayed too the "Empire" signage. Good to see real evidence of the words EMPIRE. This picture was taken well before my time. Also note in this picture, the signage of "Choong Lye Hock" 莊來 福 not seen on this building yet. He is son of Choong Cheng Kean - a rag to riches tycoon. Lye Hock himself kept a low profile. Not much was written about him other than having own this Cathay Building an another mansion in Macalister Road
Pix # 9 This next picture, the year's sign is 1927 Another very good collection - this time Choong Lye Hock sign was up - name of cinema is QUEEN
Pix # 10 The Queen Cinema On this next picture, the facade changed slightly and the building's owner name again not visible. I have more photographs of the Cathay Cinema on another page featuring the cinemas of Penang. For this picture, the name is still "Queen" but the Choong Hock Lye name taken off
Pix # 11 The Cathay Cinema - at last Now this is the Cathay Cinema. I cannot confirm when the switched was made, More importantly, picture shows the cafe next door on the left. Much enquiries made on the internet seeking the name of the Coffee shop . I found it at last. It was called "Khor Lok Cafe". In Hokkien with the same sound and pronunciation - it's "The Cola Cafe|
Pix # 12 The Cathay Cinema ^ Pennag Road I was constantly reminded that Penang Road was known for its crowd presence ? This picture shows rather thin crowd. There was one group of people though - on the left edge, all gathered in front of "Murah". Notable point - the old electric bus with the two poles upright was in use then
Pix # 13 The Cathay Cinema Found another picture with better signs of life along Penang Road. In another era with lots of bicycles and cars. Guess must be in the early 1960's
Pix #14 The Cathay Cinema I have deliberately chosen a picture with big crowd at the Cathay. Quite a change in mood. Good showing the craze then was over a Jerry Lewis movie. "The Defective Detective" was on screening then which would placed this picture as 1974
Pix # 15 Movies that I am most impressed with! Rogers & Hammerstein "South Pacific" - In Super Toa AO and color by De Lux etc, Unforgettable was the changing hue scenes during the musical segments that swept everyone away
Pix #16 Next - The Odeon Cinema
A bit of background about this name
"Odeon". A very popular name
for Cinemas in UK, Read that origin had been based on the ancient Greek
word 'Odeion'.
They were huge open air
theatre at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. Also were more
popular amphitheatres of ancient Greece which had adopted this name
too . There was a claim that our Odean Cinema in Penang could be been open as early as 1921. At that time this cinema came under the name "Lyric". With time passing it was later changed over to be called "King". The exact dates of all these changes is unclear. For me, at last I solved one mystery and that is - there were a trio of cinemas name "King, Queen and Majestic" While Majestic was straight forward, in my search I now found the "King" and "Queen"
Pix # 17 The Old Odeon Cinema In between showing pictures from the west, occasionally a local movies would be offered as and when they were available
Pix # 18 The 1970 Odeon Cinema I salso read record that even up to the 1970s, Odeon was still screening western films.
Pix # 18 The 1970 Odeon Cinema Then the cinemas switched over to showing Movies from Hong Kong as their main line. I am not sure whether it was with this change that another name was needed - this picture shows PG Odeon had to be adopted
Pix # 20 The Old Odeon Cinema Over time, it was tough showing movies from Hong Kong. There was a switch of popularity among the cinema goers from watching Movies in the cinema to chasing TV series at home. At the same time, illegal VCR with the latest movies were offered at night market. Was a big impact to running a cinema hall
Business was so bad that Odeon in Penang was closed on April 30, 2001 Pix # 21 The Old Odeon Cinema Good news for Penang folks the cinema was once again reopened on 31st July 2014 To keep the patronage, the cinema focus on screening Hindi movies in its ending years. That time our cinema was known as Iswaria Veenai Cinema.
Pix # 22 Majestic theatre The first real cinema in Penang was
knoown as the Majestic Theatre, which opened in
1926. It was also named by its owner, the late Khoo Sian Ewe, who
was the doyen of the Chinese business community.
Pix # 23 Majestic theatre It was not actually a full fledge cinema but more of a theatre offering live performances and shows. The Majestic Cinema in color . Through the passage of time, with less live shows, Majestic became one of the more popular cinema.
Pix # 24 Rex Cinema It was an outstanding cinemas as well as a very accepted place of entetainment. One of the early captures of this building - The Rex Cinema
Pix # 25 Rex Cinema Sorry all the pictures I collected seem to show the building in a drab state. Can't help, as the pictures available on line. I accumulate my stock of pictures of Rex cInema, most of them taken after the place was left to a long period of neglect
Pix # 26 The Rex cinema This is a cleaner picture of Rex Cinema
Pix # 27 The Rex Cinema One of the more notable pictures of the time. "Around the World in Eighty Days" This was a1956 movie
Pix # 28 Federal theatre As far as I can remember, Federal Cinema under the Shaw Brothers umbrella was the latest as well as the newest cinema to open in Dato Kramat Road. For a change, instead of looking at antique pictures of cinemas, these few photographs show the hype brought about by this new addition The size of crowd, that were gathering for each showing
Pix # 29 Federal theatre Another frame showing the crowd inside the lobby
Pix # 30 Federal theatre Then looking down from the Level 2 of the cinema's Hall
Pix # 31 Royal Cinema The Royal cinema at Prangin Road. it was a cinema for Indian Movie goers. Having said that, I could see the poster of English movies in this picture. Surprised me that Royal had handled Western Movies at one time. Must be in its very early days.
Pix # 32 Hindi Movie Haathi Mere Saathi Hindi movie had its trend, imagine a cinema screening the same shows 4 times daily continuously for a period of 6 months. That's a feat that no one can compete with
Pix # 33 Bee Toh Cinema Metro Cinema in Jelutong, a place we hardly step foot on
Pix # 34 Cinemas showing Indian Movies The Paramount Cinema together with the Eastern Cinema were lost - demolished at that time to make way for the Komtar construction work
Pix # 35 Star Cinema Very good picture taken in the late Forties after the war or very early 1950's. This picture do not have the big Star signage yet.
Pix # 36 Star Cinemas Star Cinema - A pathetic looking faded colored picture of the Star Cinema. The buses that I was on, passed this place on my trip in and out of town
Pix # 37 The Sun Cinemas After school I took a bus down from Dato Kramat Road to Prangin Road and then walked to the shop to render assistance in the shop selling watches. As the shop was just next door to the Sun Cinema, their car park our backyar.d Play time, we would sneak into the Sun Cinema halls to enjoy the cool air con and to collect discarded cigarette boxes after the show was over. Big time hobby then was keeping a collection of used cigarette boxes. Sometimes when the show started, we would make our way past the curtains at the entrance for some free shows. At that time still in the primary school years I was too young to know what movies or the live stage show were all about. There were occasions when Sun Cinema was having live shows, though it was brught we got ourselves inside too. As I grew older and looking back I learnt that we could at one time had seen saw Rose Chan performing on stage. Believe me those days nothing was mentioned about sex and I had not reach puberty to make any sense out of it. This Sun Cinema had its interior renovated and converted into a place to be used as a fitness centre
Pix # 38 Tears jerker movie From the most loved actress of that time Lin Dai. Till these days we are still singing Karaoke with songs featured in the movie
Shaw Brothers Bringing back good memories. This is the screen logo that we all are very familiar with After the Great Depression of 1930s Shaw brothers started their amusement business in Hong Kong. Rapidly spreading their presence to all over to South East Asia. The Second World War came and all these countries were under Japanese occupation. Shaw Brother closed their business but was asked by the Japanese to keep them going but to be supervised by the conqueror.
. By 1939, the Shaws Brothers operated a chain of 139 cinemas across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Indo-China. Some buildings were bought, others constructed by the Shaws and quite a number leased or operated in partnership with the buildings' owners. All these cinemas were managed under "Malayan Theatres Limited", a subsidiary of Shaw Brothers Limited. In Penang, the cinemas were the Rex, Sun (previously known as 'Drury Lane Theatre'), Liberty, Royal, Majestic, Windsor (later Capitol), Metropole, Globe and Palarnippa Theatre. Pix # 40 Office of Shaw Brothers, Penang They started their business as early as the 1930's. Here is a picture of their office in Penang. I could not find the address
same New World Amusement Park 大世界 There were two amusement parks set up by the Shaw brothers organization The Great World Amusement Park was located at Prangin Road was in the heart of town while the New World Amusement park was in the suburbs The Great World Amusement Park set up with tinge of family based fun seeking crowd had Ferris Wheels and complimented with two cinemas. Even though there play places for children I feel that this Park was cater more for the adults. It had good Cabaret Dance Halls which were drawing in the crowds There is a same picture further down but enhanced with color show the entrance to the Great World Park Pix # 41 Great World Amusement Park As seen from Prangin Road
Pix # 42 Great World park Looks like this picture was taken at the main entrance to the Great World Amusement Park, though the Gate itself is not seen in this picture
Pix # 43 Night Life @ Great World Amusement Park What is the significance of this picture and who were these ladies? Amusement Park as they called it is very important and popular as night entertainment scene from the 1920s to the 1960s. These ladies went by names such as ‘Cabaret girls’ and "taxi dancers" Here in the Great World was their cabaret. These The Dance Hall opened around 7 pm, closing on midnight during the week and 1 am on Saturdays. In the 1930s, admission fee was between 50 cents and one dollar. On weekends, there were tea dances that cost a dollar for
three dances. Cabaret ballroom dancing was dominated by the
waltz, fox-trot, quickstep, tango and rhumba. Big bands entertained crowds in the
1930s with the latest Western tunes. The cabaret girls were known as taxi-girls because they could be hired for dancing by anyone with a coupon. These coupons were purchased by single men at the door. Three dances cost one dollar. Out of this, Cabaret girls were generally paid a commission of about 8 cents a dance and each dance is registered on a card. Popular girls, whose dance cards were always filled, would be promoted by management and allowed to keep all their coupon takings. Others were paid a fixed salary of $25 monthly but only 40% of coupon takings. The girls could even be booked at a rate of $13 an hour, of which they kept a fraction as commission. Often, 'booking' meant that the man could date the hostess after the cabaret closed. But at such a high booking fee which only rich towkays could afford, most men could only engage dance hostesses for a few dances. Pix # 43 Beautiful and skillful dance hostesses
Pix # 44 Ferris Wheel @ Great World park Good picture. This must be another entrance going into the Park. The interesting point to me in this picture is seeing the Ferris Wheel. I have never being inside the park and so I could not offer more details other than what I could see from the outside
Pix # 45 Great World Amusement Park Eastern Cinema! Oh those forgotten memories of this cinema that I never set foot in. Passed by it daily when coming down from the Lim Seng Seng bus i.e. the last bus stop which was in front of the Park's Entrance.
New World Park Pix # 46 New World park! 新世界 The New World Amusement Park is what we modern people called "One stop center" Besides known places for amusement like cinemas, they had dances halls, western and locals, Hall for the Cantonese opera. More facilities for the children like Merry-Go-Round and bumper cars rings This facilities could be set-up to accommodate Trade Fairs and commercial promotion programme. Among the regular features, there were boxing and wrestling shows in the rings Then again when celebrities from overseas needed to appear on stage during their visit to Penang this would be the venue for them to perform and meeting the fans. So many different types of function had taken place just to mention a few. Oh! not forgetting that there were a few Beauty Contest held too. I could remember that there were 2 entrances or ticketing offices. One in front of Lido Theatre and another one in front of Globe Cinema. Again I cnnot rmember seeing this frontage, could be the earliest version or looks long before I was born
Pix # 47 New World Park Good picture - down memory lane This was how the place was like when it was still in business
Pix #48 New World park This is the looks of the Lido Cinema from outside the Park that I could associate with. Picture taken at the time when the whole park was in its hibernation stage
Pix # 49 The Lido Cinema
The picture says "Lido" - so? Lido Cinema!
Honestly the looks of the Cinemas is familiar to my impression but I still could
ascertained that this is the same cinema that I knew which was inside the New World
Amesment Park . One point! - mainly because
the presence of the
crowd and the Zebra Crossing. Both didn't fit my picture Wembley Amusement Park 春满园 Pix # 50 Wembley Amusement Park : Wembley Cinema! This must be an early picture from the days gone by. I have no Impression at all of the place. From my search, this place both Wembley Cinema and Amusement Park were popular in the 1950's and 60's mostly on weekends. For attraction the Wembley Amusement Park offered :- Spiffy swing dance Halls, movies screening, live Bangsawan performance, Ronggeng parties, Pin ball arcade, Billiard parlors and Bumper cars.
Pix # 51 Wembley Amusement Park The Wemley Cinema sharing the same name as the Park. Wow! That must be a long time ago when the cinema was there. We hardly ventured down to the Magazine Road area as it was so far away from Campbell Street where I had spent time
In Air Itam Village Pix # 52 The so-called "Kong Beng" Cinema Glory Cinema or locally called "Kong Beng", The cinema having the exact same Chinese sounding name as my primary school which was right across the road. Of course the Chinese writing for both were entirely different. Happy to have this valuable picture in my collecton
Pix # 53 The so-called "Kok Pin" Which in fact was named as the Ambassador Cinema. Didn't spend time in this cinema at all - I had already left Air Itam for further studies during its era
Pix # 54 Not so well known Choong Nam Cinema It was hard to get this picture
This is the best I could get in assembly the pictures of old cinemas. Regrettably, I could not find any picture from the Globe Cinema in New World Park and also good direct picture of Lido Cinema. Happy that I finally got those from the Great World Park. Anyway these pictures are only a fraction of the stories linked to Cinema. There are more stories about First Run Pictures. the secknd and Third run. Without internet we depended solely on monopolistic Magazine "Movie News" Then comes the hard to get ticket for premier on Saturday night "Midnight Shows" and a swing to the low end - cheap matinees! Cinemas and Movies were graded to First Run, Second run, and Third Run. Remember those ticket trouts selling black market tickets at triple the official prices. Of course, there the seasons when cinemas offer running 2 shows for the price of one ticket. Good recollection eh? Hang on, when I find time I will keep writing
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