Silver Cinema, Kisumu, Kenya

 

Moons Cinema, Mombasa

 

The day in Oct 1971 when parliament demanded to know the profits made from Kenya's first locally produced Swahili film MLEVI !!

 Now this is interesting. MLEVI was a locally produced, black and white film in Swahili that was hugely popular since its release in 1968!.

By 1971 word in the streets was that the producers Ragbir Singh, and Kenya Film Corporation had made lots of money while the actors had been paid very low wages!!

So in October 1971 one member of parliament demanded to know how much money MLEVI made since 1969 (see hansard below), how much money KFC made as distributor and more importantly how much money was paid to the local actors!!

The mp did not get far in getting answers. The Assistant Minister of Information and Broadcasting said as the producer Ragbir Singh and his company African Producers was a local private company it was not possible to know the revenue and profits!! The Assistant Minister refused to divulge how much the government distributor Kenya Film Corporation made, essentially saying that would place KFC at a competitive disadvantage.

Even more frustrating for the mp was that the Assistant Minister said it was not right for the government to find out the details of a private agreement between the producers, that is, a private company and the actors, and that it was for the actors to assure themselves that their money they made was justified!!

The speaker of the house then intervened and refuted the mp's conclusion that the Assistant Minister had said the actors should take the producers to court!!

This reminds me of Sean Connery who was paid only $30,000 to make the first James Bond movie Dr No before anyone knew it was going to be a blockbuster. He was paid close $1m for the last Bond movie he acted in Diamonds are Forever!! Lucky are the actors who manage to negotiate a percentage of the revenue!!

Watching MLEVI at the Regal Theatre, Mombasa!!

 Some may have read about the first locally produced movie, Mlevi in 1967 The film was released in Kenya in 1969. The film was produced by Ragbir Singh and Kuljit Pal. The movie was produced by their private company African Producers.

This was the first cinema film in Swahili! The movie starred Oliver Musila Litondo and Mzee Pembe.

In a 2024 segment on KCB Channel 1 about the history of Kenyan film, Oliver Litondo said that he tried unsuccessfully to locate this pioneering film. (see below)

The film had repeated many times across Kenya. I remember watching this film at the Regal Theatre in Mombasa around 1973 during its repeat release.

By the time I watched it, the black and white standard print was full of scratches and cuts and all spliced up!

There was a lot of excitement amongst the audience. I remember sitting in the balcony in the Saturday matinee show. The balcony was more than half full.

I remember a scene of an old penniless man sitting by the Jamia mosque in Nairobi and he was later aided by others. The audience was quite emotional. At the time the talk was that the movie was a remake of a Hindi movie!

The balcony audience was glued to the screen. They waited until the end of the credits to leave. As the moviegoers left the balcony, one man with his whole family in attendance very emphatically said that these were the type of films he wanted to see!

top photo: Mzee Pembe

bottom photo: Oliver Litondo

Cameo Cinema, Nairobi 1973

Cameo Cinema is the third building on the right on Kenyatta Avenue!!

wonderful!!

20th Century Cinema, Nairobi

view of 20th Century Cinema, Nairobi before Hilton Hotel was constructed!!

You can see the 20th Century cinema on the far left. In between Government road (now Moi Avenue) and the cinema is the hugh open air parking lot and bus station, where Hilton hotel was later constructed!!

 

2012 Embassy Cinema and Odeon Cinema buildings

 

2012 Latema Road photo that shows both the old Embassy Cinema (left) and the old Odeon Cinema (far right). By this time the 2 cinemas were not operating.

Avalon Cinema, Dar-es-Salaam

1945:

in the 1970s:

Moons Cinema, Mombasa

The 1940 flyer provided below advertises the film Captain Caution with Victor Mature and Alan Ladd ...there were 2 shows at 5.45pm and 9pm on Wednesday and Thursday!!

In 1940 it appears Mombasa had 3 cinemas: Regal, Majestic and Moons!!

This film was distributed by United Artists 

    

More information on this film is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Caution

Odeon, Nakuru - Cinema ticket!!

This ticket must have been used in the early 1980s! 

Princes Theatre, Nairobi

 Interesting history!

In the 1920s the Princes theatre was constructed in Nairobi. It was located at the intersection of Stewart Street and Portal Street, (now Muindi Mbingu Street and Banda Street).

Princes theatre was an imposing building, constructed in the latest British architectural fashion. It was built as a cinema with a small stage equipped for live shows. Wilfred Harris, an ardent supporter of theatre joined Vassey and Weatherall to present a series of stage plays there. Most people who lived in Nairobi at the time acted in some local stage production at this theatre.

At some point the cinema was renamed Playhouse Theatre.

In 1935 the restaurant and bar owner at Playhouse Theatre declared bankruptcy! Business was tough in those days! In 1938 the Municipal council issued a notice ordering the lane behind the theatre be built to specifications and the cost be borne by the theatre!! (all this from the old Kenya Gazettes). In the same year,1938, the cinema started showing 20th Century Fox films. In 1941 Playhouse Theatres Limited was dissolved and was struck off the Register of companies. It probably then had a new owner.

Like many other theatres in the British colonies, theatre shows were replaced with films only, sometime after WW2 due to poor patronage for the theatre shows as most soldiers had returned to Europe.

By 1960 the theatre had been demolished and had been replaced with a new building, the Portal Place House, which still exists today

Princes Theatre is on the left (now Banda street):

Entrance to the Playhouse Theatre (intersection of Stewart Street and Portal Street) (now Muindi Mbingu Street and Banda Street):

Playhouse theatre in a more built up Nairobi:

2018 photo showing a new building (Portal Place House) replaced Playhouse and the lane off Banda Street was still named Playhouse Lane (probably the same lane the theatre had to pay the Municipal Council for it's construction in 1938!!):

2023 Google photo showing the name of the new building ( Portal Place House). The sign 'Playhouse Lane' (and a little bit of Nairobi's history) has disappeared!!:

Cinema Benadir, Mogadishu

In the 1960s/1970s!!

 

African Consolidated Films Ltd's 1956 sale of cinemas and film distribution to 20th Century Fox in Kenya

 Isadore William Schlesinger arrived in South Africa from America in 1894. Penniless at first, Schlesinger began working in the insurance industry and by 1904 he became a significant figure in the insurance world and eventually developed massive interests in land and real estate. (see 50yr anniversary letter below)

By 1913, through his company African Theatres Trust Ltd, he had acquired all distribution rights to films in Southern Africa.

Schlesinger continued to hold monopoly over local distribution in South Africa, Rhodesia and Kenya, through African Consolidated Films Ltd. American films were distributed through African Consolidated Films Ltd and into African Consolidated Theatres (Ltd).

In 1956, 20th Century Fox bought the Schlesinger monopoly. This included the 3 cinemas in Nairobi that operated since the 1930s, namely the Empire, the Capital and the Playhouse. See photos below. These were then closed and replaced with Kenya cinema and the 20th Century cinema.

The new film distribution organization was called Anglo American Film Distributors.

Cleopatra Cinema, Malindi

 

Cleopatra Theatre, Malindi

After its first fifty years, the legendary Cleopatra Theatre in Malindi, is to live up to its name that evokes a proud, never tamed and self-confident empress. It deserves not only a ‘touch-up’ but also a second life under the sign of art and culture.

The building, inaugurated in 1973 at the behest of a local couple, for years performed plays, children's shows and lectures, before the advent of cinema (especially Indian Bollywood) on the Kenyan coast. After being ravaged by vandals in 1988, it was passionately put back on its feet for the first time, and was given a second life by broadcasting football matches and matinees for schools. The five hundred seats, however, became progressively empty after the arrival of satellite TV and mobile phones that ate away at the spirit of sharing and community.

Now an art-focused collective workshop based in Malindi, Maabara Atelier, with a number of collaborators has decided to transform the historic Cleopatra Theatre back to its original purpose

excerpt from malindikenya 30-05-2024

The state of Indian films and cinemas in Kenya in 1942: Interesting article by a Film India reporter on a visit to Kenya

 excerpts:

'As for the Indian Film business, it has suffered so far due to the distribution of Indian films being in the hands of a syndicate which has been having its own way with the result that in 1942 people in East Africa are compelled to see 1930 productions like "Gaibi Gola and "Noor-E-Watan"

.....the syndicate controls the cinemas with the result that for the time being I am shut out....

...The Indian film therefore, has, in a place like Nairobi with a population of 20,000 Indians only 6 shows a week - 4 on Sundays and 1 on each Mondays and Wednesdays. In Mombasa with an Indian population of 14,000 they get only 4 shows a week, 3 on Sunday and 1 on Monday.

....The result is that there is so much rush at the cinema that respectable family people refrain from going to the pictures to avoid being crushed. Both Nairobi and Mombasa are capable of maintaining an all time Indian cinema...

...no junk should be sent to Africa. Africa needs only 50 pictures a year and surely India can send only 50 good pictures a year. Producers should realize that the Indian pictures are well patronized not only the Indians but also by the natives of Africa and even by several Europeans.'

The Film India reporter Mr Kanga was recognized in various places including Jinga...and the reporter indicated:

'I assure you every Indian without exception reads Film India in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. It is one magazine that is awaited with anticipation and pleasure....

...one thing is certain and that is that the value of "Film India" as the medium of advertising Indian films in East Africa is tremendous ...

Comments: 

In 1942 there appears to be 2 cinemas in Mombasa, Regal which opened in 1931 and the Majestic which opened in 1933. They probably had contracts with 20th Century Fox etc. which prevented them from showing more Indian film shows!!