Taft Theatre
317 East Fifth Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
317 East Fifth Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
1 person
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Looks like it’s currently operating as a legitimate house / theatre nowadays, hosting tours and stuff, not just as a rental hall. https://tafttheatre.org/
The Rathskellar is not the same area as where the UFA or Mayfair Hall operated.Mayfair Hall still exists on the first floor next to a present exit coridor.
They are about to reopen the former Rathskeller which was used when UFA screened films,it is located under the Taft Th. and it is to be used for musical events. Earlier it saw use as an exibition space for auto shows. It contains the restrooms for the Taft Th. as well.
A little archway between Taft Th. and Masonic Hall was UFA’s main entrance ,later its name became Mayfair Hall.
The U .F .A Studio in Germany would have been equal to Hollywood’s M.G.M.,. It did in fact have connections to Louis Mayer the President of M.G.M. for distribution rights to their product as well as displaying films made in Germany for as long as the market remained friendly. Remember the early days of filmdom were silent, so films made anywhere could play to peoples in many languages. Changing title cards into another language was a common occurance, thus when we entered WW1 and WW2 a huge revenue loss was felt amongst our U.S. studios in those countries we were warring against.
On January 7,1940 the ad for the Mayfair Cinema listed a film called,“Stolen Life”, starring a Ms. Bergner and a Mr. M.Redgrave. Unusually mentioned in the advert for this British flick was an offer of free coffee and cigarettes being served to the cinemas patrons in the lobby. Since WW2 had not begun for America there wasn’t any rationing of these staples,yet.