We recently received an email from Agostino Agostini, whose family own the Lumière Cinema in Pisa, Italy. Mr Agostini is researching the world's oldest cinemas and found, amongst others, the Picture House.
This is the text of his email.
Dear Sir/madame
I am looking on the web to find the oldest cinema (continually operating) in the world and I found your cinemas.
My family is the owner of the Lumière Cinema in Pisa (Italy) that, I believe, is the oldest purpose-built (continually operating) cinema in the world. The Lumière was opened in December 16th, 1905.
http://www.lumierecinema.it/LumierePisa_storiainbreve.htm
It has not a certificate issued by the Guinness World Records but our family has still the documents, published in the book "Il Lumière di Pisa. 100 anni di cinema a Palazzo Agostini" (Pisa, Felici Editore, 2005) by Renato Bovani e Rosalia Del Porro.
The Lumière Cinema was founded by my grandfather Alessandro Agostini. The first official screening was made on 16 December 1905. The first official sound screening was made on 19 October 1906. Even after a thorough renovation in 2005, which brought modern equipment, the cinema did not lose its original Art Nouveau charm by the famous architect Luigi Bellincioni (1842-1929).
In Italy the first commercial screening of movies with a fully synchronized sound system took place in the Cinema Lumière (Pisa - Italy) in October 19th, 1906 by the “Fabbrica Pisana di Pellicole Parlate”, patented by Pietro Pierini with the name of "Isosincronizzatore". http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Pierini
I believe that Korsør Biograf Teater (opened January 30th, 1907) in the danish city Korsør was listed the oldest cinema in the Guinness Book of World Records from 2008. The Pionier Cinema (opened September 26th, 1909) in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) was listed as the oldest in the Guinness Book of World Records from 2005 to 2007.
Could you be interested to web link together our oldest cinema (continually operating) in the World? Thank you for your reply.
Best regards
Agostino Agostini
Using the various links Mr Agostini sent with his email, we have added a section of weblinks to the Picture House website. These link to some of the oldest cinemas still operating in the world. The new links can be seen here . As many of these websites are not in English you can use a translation service such as Google Translate or Free Translate to view them. Just type or paste the weblink into the appropriate place of the service you choose to use. We intend to keep in contact with Mr Agostini and build up a relationship between the Picture House and the Lumière Cinema in the future.
|
