hugovk
commented about
Orionon
Oct 4, 2009 at 3:04 pm
“The Finnish Audiovisual Archive (KAVA) supports cinematic heritage by restoring old films and showing them in its 216-seat cinema Orion. In recent years, annual audiences totalling 44 000 have seen over 800 screenings yearly. KAVA also conducts research and issues publications.”
hugovk
commented about
Orionon
Oct 4, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Here’s a general photo of the building containing the cinema and lots of flats. Nowadays you enter the cinema through the foyer, but the exit hall is shared with residents. http://www.korttelit.fi/rakennus.php/id/738
Arkkitehti/architect: Selim A. Lindqvist
Rakennusvuosi/contruction year: 1908
Kaupunginosa/city neighbourhood: Kamppi
Kortteli/block name: Telkkä
Helsinki city blocks are named after animals and plants. Telkkä is the Common Goldeneye sea duck, Bucephala clangula.
hugovk
commented about
Kinoon
Oct 4, 2009 at 2:31 pm
===
In the beginning of the 20th century a Russian merchant sold home-made candies at Eerikinkatu 11 and the basement of the building was used for selling firewood. The building was renovated in 1966 and is known as Rakennusmestarien Talo (building engineers' house).
We have now reconstructed the basement’s movie theatre, formerly known as Andorra, for new use. Hall number one has been left as a theatre and named as Kino. Hall number two and lobby have been renovated as Dubrovnik Lounge & Lobby bar, named after a neonlight from Aki Kaurismäki’s movie “Drifting Clouds”.
Kino seats 183 spectators and you can also reserve it together with Dubrovnik Lounge & Lobby, situated on the same floor.
===
The Bio Rex cinema was opened in February 1936. The main door to the cinema is situated under an illuminated curved concrete awning and leads to an entrance hall containing the box office and a broad staircase leading up to the first floor foyer. The foyer, with its large windows, afforded access both to the cinema auditorium and to the restaurant and terrace. A spiral staircase also led up to the curved cinema gallery.
“Even an ordinary layman is delighted at the appearance and comfort of the cinema: its entrance hall has a high ceiling and is delightfully spacious and well-lit. A broad, well-appointed staircase leads to the hall itself, which welcomes the visitor with its beautiful colour scheme and peaceful ambience. ”
Ordinary Helsinki residents read in their daily paper about the special guest opening night of the cinema. The invited guests were given a guided tour of the new cinema and treated to a programme including the music of Sibelius performed by the cinema orchestra. The event culminated in the premiere of the film “Mustia Ruusuja” [black Roses], which was damned by the critics, while the new cinema, on the other hand, was greatly appreciated.
Although the Bio Rex was only the second largest cinema in Helsinki at the time of its opening, it was indisputably the most modern. All of the very latest technological advances were exploited: “The sound equipment of the cinema is based on the Western Electric Wide Range system”, and with a view to favourable acoustics, the walls of the auditorium were cladded with Austrian Heraklith tiles made of wood-wool. This was a novelty for the 1930s and was valued for its fire-resistant, sound damping and thermal insulation qualities – and also because it repelled lice! Acoustic demands were still a relative novelty in cinemas, as talking pictures had arrived in Finland only in the early 1930s.
This “cinema of first class and partially brilliant design and construction ” was blessed with “a uniquely modern ventilation system encompassing heating, humidifying and cooling equipment ” in which “the air is cleaned four times an hour in machinery in the cellar of the building”. The clean air was blown into the auditorium at the level of the ceiling lights and stale air was sucked out through ducts at the bottom of the seating stand. The ventilation room is located on the ground floor. The designs of the Stuttgart firm Lufttechnische GmbH were used in the planning of the Bio Rex ventilation system.
One of the high points for the new cinema undoubtedly occurred in 1938, when the prospect of getting the 1940 Olympic Games organised in Finland inspired the extension of an invitation to Leni Riefenstahl to visit the country. Riefenstahl’s film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics “A Festival of Nations” was shown to the guest of honour at the Bio Rex. It is said that Riefenstahl was given a standing ovation, not merely during the presentation but also afterwards, and that the applause continued and followed her all the way out of the building and into the street. The second part of the film: “A Festival of Beauty” was likewise shown at the Bio Rex.
[i]“… Undoubtedly the most splendid cinema in Sale was the Pyramid on Washway Road; this was designed by Drury and Gomersall in an "Egyptian” style, hence the name. The Pyramid was built 1933-4 to seat 2,000 at a cost of £70,000. The building included a first-floor cafe advertised as the “rendezvous for discerning folk” and, flanking the cinema, two rows of shops were built in a style which harmonised with the nearby Post Office.
“Once built, the Pyramid then needed a licence to open; this was refused by the magistrates after oppostion from, among others, the Palace and Savoy cinemas and the Regal, Altrincham. A protest meeting was organised by a local committee which included the vicar of St. Paul’s. The meeting was a success, as the Pyramid’s 2,000 seating capacity was filled and another 2,000 gathered outside; a petition had attracted 18,000 signatures.
“The result was that a licence was then granted and the Pyramid was opened for its first public performance on Monday, February 26, 1934 with a film and stage show. It is a cinema typical of prosperous suburbia of the 1930s and was built with a spacious car park. The Pyramid was bought by Rank in 1941 and, later, became an Odeon cinema. The Odeon showed its last film in October 1981; the cinema was sold and later re-opened as the Tatton, finally closing in 1984.”[/i]
From A History of Sale, by N.V. Swain.
Since the Tatton closed, it opened as a nightclub called JFK’s in 1990, then it closed again for a few more years before reopening as an L.A. Fitness gym, which it is now.
Here are some more photos of the Pyramid Cinema/Odeon Cinema, inside and out.
1934, Pyramid Theatre’s opening, “Only the best is good enough for Sale”
Cinema Bristol closed in December 2010 with a showing of the film that it opened with in 1961, Ben Hur:
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/iBen+Huri+epic+is+the+last+picture+show+as+Bristol+closes+its+doors+/1135262553720
Kino is Finnish for cinema, and this cinema is known simply as Orion, not Kino Orion.
A cinema first opened here in 1929 and it has had many named in the past:
BIO ATHENA 04.03.1928 – 1929,
RITZ 31.03.1929 – 1930,
ATEENA 01.01.1931 – 1934,
ATHENA 04.03.1934 – 1961,
ATHENA-STUDIO 22.09.1961 â€" 1964,
ATHENA 03.01.1964 – May 1964,
ORION 22.5.1964 – present.
The national audiovisual archive (KAVA) (formerly the Finnish film archive, SEA) have been operating the cinema since 09.10.1984.
Source: View link
Architects: Valter Jung and Bertel Jung
Firm: Jung & Jung
Rakennusvuosi/contruction year: 1937
Kaupunginosa:city neighbourhood: Kaartinkaupunki
Kortteli/block name: Lohi
Helsinki city blocks are named after animals and plants. Lohi is Finnish for Salmon.
Savoy is not part of a chain, it’s now a theatre and concert venue owned by the City of Helsinki.
Architect: Helge Lundström
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennispalatsi
2007: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugovk/2073030617/
2007: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugovk/521603576/
“The Finnish Audiovisual Archive (KAVA) supports cinematic heritage by restoring old films and showing them in its 216-seat cinema Orion. In recent years, annual audiences totalling 44 000 have seen over 800 screenings yearly. KAVA also conducts research and issues publications.”
View link
Here’s a general photo of the building containing the cinema and lots of flats. Nowadays you enter the cinema through the foyer, but the exit hall is shared with residents.
http://www.korttelit.fi/rakennus.php/id/738
Arkkitehti/architect: Selim A. Lindqvist
Rakennusvuosi/contruction year: 1908
Kaupunginosa/city neighbourhood: Kamppi
Kortteli/block name: Telkkä
Helsinki city blocks are named after animals and plants. Telkkä is the Common Goldeneye sea duck, Bucephala clangula.
More photos:
2005 exterior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tietoukka/3794330997/
2006 interior: View link
2007 exterior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/me_maya/2155984832/
2008 programme: View link
2008 exterior: View link
2008 exterior: View link
And here are the tickets for a film I saw there:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugovk/2545098678/
===
In the beginning of the 20th century a Russian merchant sold home-made candies at Eerikinkatu 11 and the basement of the building was used for selling firewood. The building was renovated in 1966 and is known as Rakennusmestarien Talo (building engineers' house).
We have now reconstructed the basement’s movie theatre, formerly known as Andorra, for new use. Hall number one has been left as a theatre and named as Kino. Hall number two and lobby have been renovated as Dubrovnik Lounge & Lobby bar, named after a neonlight from Aki Kaurismäki’s movie “Drifting Clouds”.
Kino seats 183 spectators and you can also reserve it together with Dubrovnik Lounge & Lobby, situated on the same floor.
http://andorra.fi/default.aspx?site=10
http://andorra.fi
The outside of the cinema’s building:
http://www.korttelit.fi/rakennus.php/id/586
Arkkitehti/architect: Helmer Stenroos
Rakennusvuosi/construction year: 1966
Kaupunginosa/city neighbourhood: Kamppi
Kortteli/block name: Keltanokka
Helsinki’s city blocks are named after animals and plants. Keltanokka means “yellow beak”, and also “freshman”.
Fixed Jukka’s link:
View link
And you can see the whole building here, the cinema doors are on the left.
http://www.korttelit.fi/rakennus.php/id/13
A couple more photos from August 2007:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugovk/1283905542/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugovk/1283899758/
And some more history:
===
The Bio Rex cinema was opened in February 1936. The main door to the cinema is situated under an illuminated curved concrete awning and leads to an entrance hall containing the box office and a broad staircase leading up to the first floor foyer. The foyer, with its large windows, afforded access both to the cinema auditorium and to the restaurant and terrace. A spiral staircase also led up to the curved cinema gallery.
“Even an ordinary layman is delighted at the appearance and comfort of the cinema: its entrance hall has a high ceiling and is delightfully spacious and well-lit. A broad, well-appointed staircase leads to the hall itself, which welcomes the visitor with its beautiful colour scheme and peaceful ambience. ”
Ordinary Helsinki residents read in their daily paper about the special guest opening night of the cinema. The invited guests were given a guided tour of the new cinema and treated to a programme including the music of Sibelius performed by the cinema orchestra. The event culminated in the premiere of the film “Mustia Ruusuja” [black Roses], which was damned by the critics, while the new cinema, on the other hand, was greatly appreciated.
Although the Bio Rex was only the second largest cinema in Helsinki at the time of its opening, it was indisputably the most modern. All of the very latest technological advances were exploited: “The sound equipment of the cinema is based on the Western Electric Wide Range system”, and with a view to favourable acoustics, the walls of the auditorium were cladded with Austrian Heraklith tiles made of wood-wool. This was a novelty for the 1930s and was valued for its fire-resistant, sound damping and thermal insulation qualities – and also because it repelled lice! Acoustic demands were still a relative novelty in cinemas, as talking pictures had arrived in Finland only in the early 1930s.
This “cinema of first class and partially brilliant design and construction ” was blessed with “a uniquely modern ventilation system encompassing heating, humidifying and cooling equipment ” in which “the air is cleaned four times an hour in machinery in the cellar of the building”. The clean air was blown into the auditorium at the level of the ceiling lights and stale air was sucked out through ducts at the bottom of the seating stand. The ventilation room is located on the ground floor. The designs of the Stuttgart firm Lufttechnische GmbH were used in the planning of the Bio Rex ventilation system.
One of the high points for the new cinema undoubtedly occurred in 1938, when the prospect of getting the 1940 Olympic Games organised in Finland inspired the extension of an invitation to Leni Riefenstahl to visit the country. Riefenstahl’s film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics “A Festival of Nations” was shown to the guest of honour at the Bio Rex. It is said that Riefenstahl was given a standing ovation, not merely during the presentation but also afterwards, and that the applause continued and followed her all the way out of the building and into the street. The second part of the film: “A Festival of Beauty” was likewise shown at the Bio Rex.
From View link
Signs down, and blue boards up: 9th April 2006 photo
Photos after closing:
* 21st July 2005
* 17th August 2005
* 5th November 2005
* 6th December 2005
* 2nd February 2006
* 21st March 2006
* 25th March 2006
* 22nd June 2006
* 11th July 2006
A couple of extras from September 2006: from above, and around the side.
[i]“… Undoubtedly the most splendid cinema in Sale was the Pyramid on Washway Road; this was designed by Drury and Gomersall in an "Egyptian” style, hence the name. The Pyramid was built 1933-4 to seat 2,000 at a cost of £70,000. The building included a first-floor cafe advertised as the “rendezvous for discerning folk” and, flanking the cinema, two rows of shops were built in a style which harmonised with the nearby Post Office.
“Once built, the Pyramid then needed a licence to open; this was refused by the magistrates after oppostion from, among others, the Palace and Savoy cinemas and the Regal, Altrincham. A protest meeting was organised by a local committee which included the vicar of St. Paul’s. The meeting was a success, as the Pyramid’s 2,000 seating capacity was filled and another 2,000 gathered outside; a petition had attracted 18,000 signatures.
“The result was that a licence was then granted and the Pyramid was opened for its first public performance on Monday, February 26, 1934 with a film and stage show. It is a cinema typical of prosperous suburbia of the 1930s and was built with a spacious car park. The Pyramid was bought by Rank in 1941 and, later, became an Odeon cinema. The Odeon showed its last film in October 1981; the cinema was sold and later re-opened as the Tatton, finally closing in 1984.”[/i]
From A History of Sale, by N.V. Swain.
Since the Tatton closed, it opened as a nightclub called JFK’s in 1990, then it closed again for a few more years before reopening as an L.A. Fitness gym, which it is now.
Here are some more photos of the Pyramid Cinema/Odeon Cinema, inside and out.