Edison Saal & Kinematograph Lumiere

Located in the centre of the city centre. The exhibition of automats by Kobrow & Co. was operated by the Automaten Commandit Gesellschaft at this address had 4,500 square metres space for the automatic machines. A part of the exhibition was a seperate room named Edison Saal (Edison Salon) with a number of Kinetoscope machines by Edison. The Edison Kinetoscope Salon was installed and opened in 1895. In the same year a Kinetoscope Salon was opened at Gansemarkt 2 in Hamburg (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures). Kinetoscope parlours were also opened worldwide in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin and many more cities and they too have their own pages on Cinema Treasures. It was a sensation to see living/moving pictures from the first time on a film strip. And for the first time in history for a huge audience it was possible to feel the magic of photographed moving pictures.

In 1895 the brothers Max & Emil Sladanowsky from Berlin presented in a tent the first film projection on screen in Hamburg with their own invention the Bioskop projectors at the fair named Dom. Only a short time later the Kinetophone machines by Edison were installed at Kowbows exhibition of automatic machines. The Kinetophone reproduced moving pictures with sysnchronized sound.

In 1897 the Kinematograph Lumiere and a Visiontoskop was installed at Kobrows exhibition in the Edison Salon. The Kinematograph Lumiere was also known as Cinetoscope de Projection. This invention of Victor and Louis Lumiere could project short movies onto a screen. This happened 3 years earlier than Eberhadt Knopf who was beginning operating and screening movies in 1900 at Spiebudenplarz 21 in the St. Pauli district in front of the famed Reeperbahn. Also 9 years earlier than his famous Knopfs lebender Photographien with 667-seats in September 1906 at Spielbudenplatz 19 (it also has its own page on Cinema Treasures).

The Edison Salon at Kobrows was closed in December 1899. After recordings of Kobrow, the Kinetoscope/Kinetophone machines went to the ballroom Feensaal at Grosse Bleichen 32 and were reinstalled there. The ballroom Feensaal was later transformed into the cinema Alster Lichtspiele (1913-1917 exact date not known, maybe the Alster Lichtspiele opened earlier and has its own page on Cinema Treasures).

The Edison Saal at Kobrows exhibition could be the very first movie theater in Hamburg showing all the time living pictures on screen without live theatre. A Netto supermarket now operates at this address.

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