India’s first permanent cinema to be demolished after 101 years

posted by tibiarex on September 7, 2008 at 11:20 pm

It has recently been announced that the Chaplin cinema in Kolkota (Calcutta), India, is soon to be demolished for an office building. Converted from a theatre in 1907 by Jamshedji Framji Madan (1856â€"1923), the Elphinstone Picture Palace was India’s first permanent cinema building. It was later known as the Minerva, before becoming the Chaplin in the 1980s. It was the first cinema in India to be equipped with sound (De Forest Phonofilm system), premiering Universal’s “Melody of Love” on 28 December 1928. Earlier in 1928 the building had received the only theatre organ ever installed in India, a 2/8 Wurlitzer in which mahogany replaced the usual pine construction for its mechanisms, and the chamber was encircled by a “moat” of oil to deter termites. The organ disappeared long ago, its fate unrecorded.

Details and small photo at:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080827/jsp/calcutta/story_9737831.jsp