Comments from guarina

Showing 101 - 125 of 245 comments

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Coloso on Jun 30, 2013 at 6:29 pm

This movie theater was located on Prensa between Washington and Agua Dulce in Las Cañas.

guarina
guarina commented about Teatro Nacional on Jun 30, 2013 at 1:03 pm

This theater was inaugurated on 15 April, 1838 by Catalonian owner Francisco Marty Torrens, as the Gran Teatro Tacón, named after Spanish Governor Captain General Miguel Tacón, its architect was Antonio Mayo. When the ornate Centro Gallego was built on that site, Paseo del Prado 452 and San Rafael, in 1914, in German neo-baroque style designed by Belgian architect Paul Belau, the Teatro Nacional was located in the building. From the late teens to the early 40’s, it was the best and largest theater in the city. It also showed films. I saw Mexican charro Jorge Negrete perform there live on stage around 1949.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Maxim on Jun 29, 2013 at 4:43 pm

This movie theater was located between Ayestarán and Almendares streets, in “Ensanche”, next to the “Trocadero” Distillery, which at some point made Havana Club rum. There was a triangular park in the next block to the west.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine City Hall on Jun 29, 2013 at 3:47 pm

What a crying shame!

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Vedado on Jun 29, 2013 at 11:38 am

This movie theater was located on Calle B between 25 and 27, west or even-number side, opened around 1930. Amadeu Vives i Roig, a Catalan musical composer born in Collbató, Barcelona, in 1876, went to Cuba on a tour in 1924. It was the first movie I ever attended as a child. I read that only the steps remain leading up to the lot where the theater used to stand.

guarina
guarina commented about Teatro-Cine Trianon on Jun 28, 2013 at 6:44 pm

This theater was inaugurated in 1920, designed by architect Joaquín Emilio Weiss y Sánchez. It was once very elegant. It is erroneously positioned in El Cerro on the street map, it was located on Línea between Paseo and A in Vedado. Eight of the 29 theaters listed are positioned on the street map at Avenida Independencia and Lombillo Street in El Cerro. That spot is just where Google chose to place the name Havana.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Candido on Jun 28, 2013 at 3:26 pm

This movie theater was located in the Pogolotti district of Marianao municipality. It is erroneously positioned on Lombillo street and Rancho Boyeros in El Cerro. It had the peculiarity of its entrance being next to the screen.

guarina
guarina commented about Auto-Cine Mediodia on Jun 28, 2013 at 3:17 pm

The full name of this drive-in movie was “Novia del Mediodía”. It was located on the Autopista del Mediodía, which led to San Antonio de los Baños, to the southwest. It is now a forsaken overgrown grassland.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Rex on Jun 28, 2013 at 3:05 pm

This movie theater was closed down in the early 60’s.

guarina
guarina commented about Cinecito on Jun 28, 2013 at 2:54 pm

This theater, located on San Rafael between Consulado and Industria, opened on 9th July, 1942 with the original name Cine Periódico Resumen, and was later renamed Cinecito because of its small size. It catered to children, and showed cartoons, “The Three Stooges”, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy and Abbott & Costello comedies.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine-Teatro Fausto on Jun 28, 2013 at 2:32 pm

The original theater started showing films on November 15, 1915 and it was one of the first to show talking movies. I think the building designed in 1938 originally had a beautiful streamlined façade. I went a couple of times as a child. A frequent patron in the neighborhood tells me orchestra seating was 50¢, balcony 30¢.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Actualidades on Jun 28, 2013 at 2:20 pm

This theater, located on Bélgica between Neptuno and Virtudes, opened in 1939; it was originally the property of Eusebio Azcue.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Campoamor on Jun 28, 2013 at 2:12 pm

Previously the Albisu Theater, belonging to Eusebio Azcue’s widow, Campoamor theater opened on November 17, 1915, named in honor of Asturian poet Ramón Campoamor, on the corner of San José. Supposedly the property of Universal Studios, in 1916 it offered a North American film season, which it was forced to cancel in complete failure. In 1923 it was demolished and later rebuilt. Warner Brothers' “The Jazz Singer”, the first talking movie, with Al Jolson, premiered there on 15th February, 1928; the Vitaphone system was installed. The balcony was perched high. It now stands gutted.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine City Hall on Jun 28, 2013 at 12:39 pm

A crying shame.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Shanghai on Jun 27, 2013 at 10:03 am

This theater was inaugurated in the early 20th Century at Zanja 205 between Manrique and Campanario, initially intended for Chinese drama. In 1923, under Cuban management, it diverted from the original Oriental art to showing live vaudeville and burlesque. Its marquee advertised a “frivolous and risque” show and claimed “everything like in Paris”. The audience was almost exclusively male. The newspaper in July and August 1949 announced shows at 8:30 and 11:30 Monday through Saturday, and Sundays at 3.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Finlay on Jun 26, 2013 at 4:47 pm

This movie theater was named after physican and scientist Carlos Juan Finlay y Barres.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Charles Chaplin on Jun 26, 2013 at 9:08 am

This theater was located on 23 Street between 10 and 12 in Vedado, it is erroneously positioned in the street map on Lombillo street in El Cerro. It was modern, admission in 1958 was $1. I remember seeing “The Third Sex” there, German, with Christian Wolff and Paula Wesseley.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Marti on Jun 25, 2013 at 3:06 am

This simple, elegant neoclassical theater was inaugurated with the last name of its Basque proprietor, Ricardo Irijoa, on 8 June, 1884, with an amateur show for the benefit of El Buen Pastor convent. It presented Santiago Pubillones' circus and Puccini’s opera “La Bohéme”. It was the first theater converted to cinematography in 1897. It was bought by Enrique Pastoriza in 1899 and named Edén Garden. In 1900 it was renamed Martí and was home to the Assembly which drew the Constitution for the Republic founded on 20 May, 1902. It closed in 1977, when its ceiling collapsed.

guarina
guarina commented about Gonzalez Cinematograph on Jun 25, 2013 at 1:05 am

elmorovivo, you seem to know your way around Havana movie theaters. Do you know about this one?

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Principal on Jun 24, 2013 at 9:24 pm

This theater was on Calzada del Cerro and La Rosa in El Cerro district, not in the center of the city, and it belonged to Ricardo Viñalet and his brothers since 1939 until its appropriation by the government.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Astor on Jun 24, 2013 at 8:35 pm

This theater was on Belascoaín near Sitios.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Neptuno on Jun 24, 2013 at 7:31 pm

This theater was located on Neptuno street between Manrique and Perseverancia, near the city center, not in Vedado at all.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Encanto on Jun 24, 2013 at 7:09 pm

Very elegant. It was located on Neptuno street between Consulado and Industria. The architect who designed it was named Enrique Gil y Castellanos. It was open by 1924, in my mother’s youth. It had an orchestra then, where Armando Oréfiche played the piano, on a pit which rose at intermission, and it showed silent movies.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Meca on Jun 23, 2013 at 10:33 am

The theater was located on Estévez between Fco. Rivera and L. Pérez.

guarina
guarina commented about Cine Praga on Jun 22, 2013 at 3:37 pm

This theater was the property of Juan Pérez Valdés.