Odeon Theater

About Herengracht 13. Since 1898 “De Haagse Kunstkring” (the Hague Art Society) was located in this building. They already created a small theater room and a gallery. They exhibited the work of Vincent van Gogh and Jan Toorop.

Theater Heerengracht took over.
Theater Heerengracht was founded just before the breakout of World War I by actor, director and theater director Eduard Verkade. It settled in the building in 1913. Eduard Verkade was the son of Ericus Verkade, the founder of the well known Verkade Bread and Cookies factory. The common name of the theater became “Theater Verkade”.

Eduard Verkade’s leadership. Theater group “Die Haghe Players” played from 1913-1917. Players in this group included Hetty Beck, Paul Huf, Herman Kloppers, Tilly Loop and Enny Peace. They were all young players who wanted to be innovative and stood at the beginning of their careers. The hall was extended after Herengracht 15 was purchased. The hall then had 640 seats.

In May 1917 Eduard Verkade sold his rights to the theatre owner K&W. With the profits he as much as possible paid the salaries of the players who were under contract with him. The theater remained open. In October 1918 Eline Vere by Louis Couperus was staged in the process of Elisabeth Couperus Baud and leading actress Else Mauhs.

The YMCA and the KLM. In 1918, the YMCA also located in the building to represent the interests of the British prisoner of war. On November 1, 1919 was located on the first floor of the newly founded Dutch Airline KLM’s first headquarters.

The end of Verkade Under the direction of Verkade and Dirk Verbeek was formed in 1924 from a merger between Comoedia and The Players Haghe the company: The United Tooneel. Verkade left for Amsterdam and the name was changed to “Odeon Theatre Verkade”.

The movies move in.
Already on January 31, 1930 the first sound film was shown here.
In 1975 the theater was converted into a cinema Odeon. The number of seats was increased to 950. In 1995, Odeon was closed.

Herengracht 13 is a monument.

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