Eden Cinema
Lilenblum Street 2 - 4,
Neve Tzedek,
Tel Aviv
Lilenblum Street 2 - 4,
Neve Tzedek,
Tel Aviv
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JessLFH must be a descendant of Howard Leighton-Floyd, an American who, with his father, operated the Eden Cinema in Jerusalem sometime after 1930. Howard Leighton-Floyd’s obituary is online here. The Jerusalem Eden Cinema is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.
The Eden Cinema in Tel Aviv, probably quite a bit earlier than the house in Jerusalem, was built by Mordechai Weiser and Moshe Abarbanel. Weiser was one of the founders of Tel Aviv. Ofer Adaret’s recent article about the Eden Cinema can be read online at this link.
Hi Jess, If you belong to either the Abarbanel or the Wiser families, then you people have most of the info, certainly the photos, regarding the inside story of the Eden Cinema. If you are interested in a critical approach to the Eden days(and you can read hebrew), try my book: Projecting Power – The Cinema Houses, the Movies and the Israelis (Resling, Tel-Aviv, 2006)
My great-great grandfather started the Eden Cinema. My family has photos of the cinema and the staff and movie passes and such things. I am looking for more information though as I don’t have too many details about it. Thank you for your post.
The Eden cinema opened in August 1914 and closed a short while after by the Turkish authoroties – they claimed that the projectors were used to signal british submarines in the Mediteranian. The cinema reopened in 1917 with the new order of the british mandate. Eden was the first and only cinema in Tel-Aviv till 1927. With the establishing of the new state of Israel and changes in the city and the new movie theatres, the Eden lost its appeal, now showing mainly indian, greek, and turkish movies of poor quality. The place closed in 1974.
A recent photograph of the exterior of the Eden Cinema:
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