manila movie theatres
in the '50s...
One of the theatres seen in the vintage photos in the previous entry is the Ideal theatre. It was the home of all MGM movies, e.g. Ben Hur, The Big Fisherman, Where Eagles Dare, etc.Yes, I saw Ben Hur here before..It was called a "Roadshow Presentation" as announced by the posters so they could jack up the prices from 1.20 to 2.50 pesos. I do not know the meaning of this "Roadshow" hype which seemed to be one more way of picking more pesos from your pocket and another reason for you to ask for extra allowance from your parents living in the province.
If you walk up Rizal Ave from Ideal , then you would come across Universal Theatre..I remember seeing HORRORS OF DRACULA in here one of the most talked about movie in my College class in 1958. It also ran for a long, long time. I remembered Universal's very long lobby from the ticket booth to the actual auditorium gates draped with heavy curtains.Needless to say, all Universal International movies were shown here.
The next theatre is AVENUE. It showed mostly Paramount and Warner Bros. movies then. One time, I came all the way to Manila just to see in this cinemahouse James Dean's last movie: GIANT where he starred with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Shortly afterwards, Lou Salvador Jr. ( or was it another Salvador sibling?) was groomed to be the James Dean of the Philippines. He did looked like him. Then many of the male teenagers in Manila( and also in the province ) started to dress up like James Dean: the famous blue denims, red windbreaker and the famous scowl. That was his image in his 2nd movie REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. His third and last was GIANT.
The aroma inside Avenue theatre ( even in the lobby itself ) was so fragrant you would be enticed to buy a ticket just so you could have a good siesta inside the theatre.
Then you cross Avenida along Azcarraga to go to the other side, and start walking again towards Carriedo, you come across EVER theatre ( owned by the Rufino Bros. ) side by side with STATE theatre. EVER was the home of 20th Century Fox movies, STATE was mostly Columbia. The old name of EVER before was the RIALTO. RIALTO was renovated into EVER well known then for its round shaped auditorium. Rialto always played most of those old time cliff hangers, the serials like ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL ( in black white and lasting for 3 hours ). Kids called the cliffhangers PANAY BAKBAKAN. The characters always fight each other and each chapter would end with one or both the leading man and leading lady in precarious positions. Of course they would live!
Somehow these movies featuring comic book characters drew a lot of patrons because American comic books were also very popular then in Manila during this era. So there was CAPTAIN AMERICA, FLASH GORDON, BRICK BRADFORD and of course SUPERMAN! Lots of memories for me in Manila while watching those movies..
EVER opened its doors with PRINCE VALIANT starring Robert Wagner, Sterling Hayden, Janet Leigh and Debra Paget. Manila patrons were introduced to the amazing 6 track stereophonic sound of EVER theatre and no theatre in Manila then could match its sound system ( except GALAXY theatre )
I remember this well because as a 7 year old, the first page I opened up in the Manila Times were the movie pages. I always absorbed the movie titles being shown in Manila, from the first run houses to the Sine Surot ones. The last ones cost only 25 centavos ( like MACTAN in Legarda ), but the interior smelled like piss and the seats had bedbugs which would enter your short knickers. A few of them would come with you to your boarding house. ---#
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