Regal Theatre, Mombasa during World War II

As most people know, Mombasa was relatively untouched by WWII. The most extreme case appears to be sirens going off in Mombasa at times, and on one particular day 2 Italian fighter planes flew over Mombasa without much fireworks! Malindi though was bombed!! Ameer Janmohamed provides the following description in A Regal Romance (pg 44):

The Regal Theatre operated during the War, often to a a larger audience as the British Royal Navy used Mombasa heavily during it's war efforts. Both theatre shows and movies played at the Regal.   Ameer Janmohamed provided the following description in the book, the Regal Romance (pg 27):

            

Additionally, as explained by Ameer Janmohamed a free open air cinema near the tusks on Kilindini road was operated for the British armed forces. 

I came across a biography of one Navy sailor (Ray Jimmie James) who acted in a stage play of Alladin at the Regal theatre in 1944. Here is his interesting description: 

The other big musical event in which I was involved in Mombasa was a production by the Navy Signals Sports Club of the pantomime "Aladdin", the first of its kind in East Africa. For some reason which escapes me, I wasn't too keen to take part, but as it turned out, I wouldn't have missed it. There were so many very clever people involved, stimulating each other to greater efforts, that the whole show became a real challenge and, while rehearsals were putting it together, almost a way of life. 
 
I was convinced that three of the leading characters would find careers on the stage after the war, whilst people responsible for scenery, costumes, lighting etc proved to be equally professional. One of the Club members wrote a basic script; after that it was amended a thousand times as someone thought of a new gag, or a fresh tune to add to the show. It was finally presented at the Regal Theatre, Mombasa on 4th and 5th January 1944, two shows each day. 
 
The principal "boy" Aladdin was played by Wren Irene ("Twinx") Almond and I can remember clearly the occasions when she would stand or sit by the piano, singing a tune I didn't know time and time again until I did know it. (After a great deal of effort by a few people in UK, Twinx was finally run to earth living in Oxfordshire, and I lunched with her at her home in 1993. She and her husband joined our small Mombasa reunion in 1994.) During the production of the pantomime, I was given the lordly title of Musical Director which at the time embarrassed me quite a lot. But looking back on that show, it was probably fair enough - all of us worked relentlessly for many weeks and I think the final standard proved it. Someone tried very hard to get the show up to Nairobi for a couple of nights but there was a war on after all and many of us were watchkeeping so Nairobi missed out. 

Interestingly enough, Ameer Janmohamed, in A Regal Romance (pg 42), also describes how non essential residents had to leave Mombasa Island for some time. He describes the impact on the family while operating the Regal Theatre:                     

A short history of the Odeon Cinema in Nairobi, Kenya

Photo: Odeon Cinema Latema Road 1956.

 

Did you ever hear ODEON is the acronym for "Oscar Deutch Entertains Our Nation".

Wikipedia indicates, 'Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. Odeon publicists liked to claim that the name of the cinemas was derived from his motto, "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation", but it had been used for cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920s, and the word is actually Ancient Greek ᾨδεῖον, Ōideion, meaning "a place for singing" '. 

Odeon Cinema opened in the 1950s. After the Odeon was built, Mr. Dahyabhal K Patel obtained the lease and the Odeon franchise. A the time Odeon Cinemas was a large international company. Mr Patel also opened an Odeon in Nakuru. The Business Daily reports that before the cinemas picked up the Mau Mau conflict started. Additionally there was competition from other Nairobi cinemas showing Indian movies. These included Shan, Liberty, Embassy and Globe cinemas.

Mr. Patel sold the cinema to a non resident company, the Indian Film Combined Ltd in 1959. He continued to operate the Nakuru Odeon. (see a separate post of the history of the Odeon Nakuru cinema). 

Indian Film Combined Ltd operated the cinema until 1969. The business was then sold to Kenya Exhibitors. Kenya Exhibitors was a Kenyan organization, It's directors were all Kenyans. 

In the 70s an 80s the Odeon showed most of the new Kung Fu blockbusters and first repeat Hollywood blockbusters. It ran continuous shows everyday at around 1pm,3,5,7,and 9pm. It was usually in the top 10 of all cinemas in Kenya with respect to movie attendance and box office revenues.!!

Kenya Exhibitors ran the cinema until the proliferation of pirating, VHS and DVD crushed movie attendance in Kenya.

 In the 1990 it was transformed into a church. And in 2011 it became the Kenya Aviation College.

 Photo: Odeon Cinema

 Photo: Odeon building with 5 floors and windows covering the front of the premises is occupied by the Kenya Aviation College.

Kenyans still remember the Odeon Cinema in Nairobi. Here are some of the comments from Facebook:

'The first fim screened at this cinema was Anarkali, starring Pradeep Kumar, Bina Rai, Mubarak etc. © Rajni Shah'

'Watched The Ten Commandments there multiple times'

'Gosh! There was a tree on Latema road!!! Compare this to the matatu menace right now!!!!'

reference:

Oct 4th 2011:

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/society/lights-out-for-odeon-after-a-good-run--1994052

https://m.facebook.com/KenyaHistory101/photos/odeon-cinema-on-latema-road-1956-the-first-fim-screened-at-this-cinema-was-anark/502068589806122/

Cinemas in Kenya and the Entertainment Tax

                                                       

The sample tickets from the Metropole Cinema (above) and Shan Cinema (below) provide the statement 'Including Tax'. This refers to the entertainment tax. Cinemas in Kenya were subject to an Entertainment Tax of 10%  in the 1970's and 1980's. It is interesting to note that the government implemented a complicated system to ensure it received the tax. The system was not as simple as just reporting 'sales x 10%' as in many VAT jurisdictions today. 

Cinemas had to print their tickets way in advance, and then store the tickets at the local tax office. I had the opportunity to accompany a couple of staff members from the Regal Cinema, Mombasa. We made  the trip to the local tax office to pick up ticket booklets when the current stock of tickets booklets in the cinema office was running low.  Such trips were made monthly or more often when cinema attendance spiked due to popular movies being screened.

Cinema staff had to show up at the tax office with a cheque on hand. The tax had to be paid in advance!. The cinemas therefore had to estimate demand for the next little while for each ticket category. They also had to estimate how much cash they could afford to dish out!!  

At the time of my visit there were 4 ticket categories. These were common to all Mombasa cinemas. Balcony tickets in the mid 1970s were 6 shs. Stalls had 3 ticket categories. These were 4.80, 3.60 and 2.40. Management had to estimate the expected demand for each category and crunch up the total entertainment tax.

I remember my visit well. On a particularly hot afternoon we walked from the Regal Cinema on Digo road, down Nkrumah road towards Old town. The shop awnings kept the hot sun away from us. As we were avid movie buffs, we paused outside the Kenya cinema to view the posters of upcoming releases. Having made a mental note of the competition and what to watch next we continued down Nkrumah road, past the Banki Kuu ya Kenya building and entered the white colonial building on the other side of the roundabout which was just before old town. 

A tax official met us. After some pleasantries he accepted our cheque, He then led us down a corridor to a large stock room. The room was lined with wooden shelves. Each shelf was piled with cinema tickets.  The shelves had labels identifying each Mombasa cinema. These included Kenya, Naaz, Moons, Drive In, Chox, and the Regal cinema. 

At the end of the shelves we found a wooden table and 2 chairs. The tax official brought the applicable tickets to the table. Each ticket booklet had 100 tickets. They were all in numerical order. You can see the numbers on the top right of the sample tickets from Metropole and Shan cinema (above).

The tax official provided a government stamp (holder) and stamp pad that was refilled with blue ink. The stamp holder basically provided the date and a statement that said something like 'tax paid'. We then spent the next hour stamping each ticket!!.

On completion of stamping all the tickets we packed all the ticket booklets in a box and made our way back to Regal. The task that afternoon took a good 3-4 hours!!  

Interestingly the sample ticket from the Avalon cinema (see below) in Dar-es-salaam has a government stamp similar to a postage stamp. This system was not followed in Kenya.

Also note that the sample tickets (see above) from the 2 Nairobi cinemas do not have a government stamp indicating tax was paid. Perhaps they had a different system in Nairobi. Or perhaps these particular tickets were issued without paying entertainment tax!. Staff, owners and cinema patrons had all sorts of ingenious ways to bypass the tax man and in fact avoid paying anything. But that is a topic for another day!