Eastlands Cinema, Nairobi

 Eastlands Cinema was located on Jogoo Road, Nairobi.

The original owners of Eastlands Theatres Limited were James and Anne Kinyanjui. They constructed the cinema in 1978-79. At the time the property was valued at shs 7 million.

The property was taken over by the lender Kenya National Capital Corporation in 1983 and was sold in 1990 for shs 4.5 million as there were few buyers.

This was a great pioneering effort involving a lot of risk as there were few new cinemas constructed since Uhuru. 1983 was just about the time VHS was impacting cinema attendance.

Eastlands Cinema was still operating by 2002 under new owners! It was later converted to a church.

top photo: Eastlands Cinema from the outside

bottom left photo: Main entrance with all the film posters

bottom right photo: the auditorium and stage after it was converted to a church

ref: civil case 4640 of 1988 KENYA NATIONAL CAPITAL CORPORATION v EASTLAND THREATRES LIMITED & 2 OTHERS [2009]

Regal Cinema, Mombasa Letterhead

This letterhead was printed in the 1960s and used right upto the 1980s!! It was used mostly in corresponding with the distributors in Nairobi!!

Advertising Filmlets and Slides brought in good revenue to cinemas in Mombasa in the 1960s to 1980s ...roughly 5% to 10%

Regal Theatre, Mombasa

 

Globe Cinema, Nairobi

 

Top Ten Cinemas in Kenya by Attendance in 1981

 If you like stats.... you will love this!!

The top 10 Cinemas by box office attendance for 6 months in 1981 is shown below. The figures include cinemas that screened either English movies (A), or Indian movies (B), or both English and Indian movies (X). Other than Kenya Cinema and Regal in Mombasa all the Cinemas were in Nairobi.

note: double the figures to get annual numbers; the top ten cinemas accounted for roughly 40% of the total annual Kenya movie attendance of approx. 7 million

Fox Drive In, Nairobi

 

                                                                             

 

2 interesting photos:

The top one is of the box office booths at the entrance of the Drive In. You can see the screen in the background center right.

The bottom photo is of the screen (from the rear).

When the Drive In opened it was known just as: 'the Drive In'. Later the name changed to Fox Drive In

Top 10 Cinemas in Kenya by Box Office Collections Jan-Jun 1981

 

Film Listings, Mombasa Times, Wed Feb 11th, 1959

 

 

 

Green Cinema, Nairobi

 

Green Cinema, Nairobi in the 1950's

Green Cinema was later demolished.

The Green Cinema plot was combined with the neighboring plot. Embassy Cinema was built on the combined plot. Embassy Cinema opened in 1958.

The first movie shown at Embassy Cinema was DO ANKHEN BARAH HAATH

It won a Silver Bear at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival and a Golden Globe Award in the Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award for best film produced outside of the United States category

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Aankhen_Barah_Haath...

Cameo Cinema, Nairobi

 This photo was taken sometime in 1973!

Embassy Cinema, Nairobi

nice timeline..

top photo ...Embassy Cinema photo in the 1950s

center photo...probably 1970s

bottom photo ...how it looks today

photo taken from the balcony:

Nairobi Cinema, Royal Circle

 Have you ever sat in the Royal Circle in Nairobi Cinema?

In the 1970s the most luxurious and expensive seats were in the first row on the balcony (see photo below). The seat cushions were more comfortable than other seats.

You had an unobstructed view of the cinema screen. No one's head or body came in the way! Additionally, there was more space to stretch your feet. Not least there was a partition behind you to give you privacy. You avoided moviegoers walking and kicking your seat from the back!

If you went to see a movie in the afternoon or evenings you might be sitting next to someone in a smart suit. Perhaps a mp, businessman, or some technocrat! You could not have recognized anyone as the auditorium was always dimly lit.

The location of these seats was in the center. You did not have to look up (such as the front stalls) or look down (such as at the back of the balcony) (see photo below).

Today you will not find any such cinemas in the west as the trend is for stadium style seating. So, this is a truly heritage cinema!!

The Roxy Theatre and the Little Theatre Club, Mombasa

 

The Little Theatre Club came into existence in the late 1940s and still survives!

But before the Little Theatre Club (built in the 1940s) and the Regal and Majestic (built in the 1930s) there was the Roxy Theatre on Kilindini Road.

Amazingly we grew up in Mombasa without knowing about the Roxy Theatre!

It served as both a cinema and theatre!!

Before the Regal and Majestic was built, the Roxy Theatre was a popular venue for amateur theatre productions (Jahazi Vol 8 Issue 1 2019). Roxy and other theatres of the time showed a series of the lightest of almost exclusively British plays and revues, by both professional touring and local amateur groups, punctuated very occasionally by an obligatory Shakespeare or Sheridan production (A History of East African Theatre Volume 2).

The Roxy Theatre was also a cinema! Edward Rodwell indicated that,” the Regal was not the first cinema; there was the Roxy, opposite PWD headquarters in Kilindini road. There the projectors worked by a man turning the handle. The lighting came from two carbons that provided an electric flame rather like an oxy-acetylene burner. The same process could set fire to film.” (from: The Regal, ‘a fast and furious place’... The Standard, Friday September 27, 1985).

More about the fast and furious place later!!

Nairobi Cinemas listings: August 23rd 1983

 

this is very interesting!...

-2 big hits in town...James Bond Octupussy at Kenya Cinema Nairobi and Return of the Jedi at 20th Century Nairobi...

-just remembered ...Advance booking office for Kenya and 20th Century was at 20th Century Cinema!!

-Liberty Cinema and Shan Cinema had switched to English movies (probably as Indian movies attendance had dropped)

-only Embassy Cinema was showing Indian movies

-repeat blockbusters Language of Love was playing at Cameo and Rise and Fall of Idi Amin was playing at the Shan Cinema

-August 23rd 1983 was a weekday Tuesday and yet there were so many afternoon shows!! school holidays

enjoy!!

Nairobi Cinema listings March 16th 1987

 

Norman Cinema, Kampala, Kenya

 

Tivoli Cinema, Mombasa

 

Most baby boomers remember the single screen cinemas in Mombasa well. In the days before VHS, DVD and streaming you could only watch movies in cinemas such as Kenya, Naaz, Regal, Moons and Drive In. Most of these closed as DVD and streaming on the internet took off after 2010. 

I assumed all cinemas were successful until this time. What is probably little known is the Tivoli Cinema which was arguably Mombasa’s first cinema. I came across this old 1920’s flyer (see below) that advertises the Tivoli as a cool, comfortable cinema showing good movies and that is known to taxi drivers! The cinema was obviously targeting well to do patrons.  

A review of the Kenya Gazette unearthed a theatre liquor license application in 1929 for Tivoli cinema on Coronation Street. The Tivoli was bankrupt by 1934 and an application for discharge was made to the Supreme Court of Kenya by a one Mr Manibhai Hathi Bhai Patel doing business as Tivoli Cinema. What a pioneer!