Rainbow Cinema, Nairobi

 

The Rainbow Cinema in Nairobi, was located at the Nairobi West Shopping Centre, and appears to be a historic single-screen cinema

The Rainbow Church of Christ purchased the Rainbow Cinema complex in 1990. The theater which has a large stage and screen for overhead projection and films can seat 520 persons and has rooms in both the front and back of the auditorium*

Rainbow Cinema is listed here:

https://www.cinematour.com/theatres/fo/KE/1.html...

*

https://www.ngctc.ac.ke/our-history/...

Majestic Cinema, Tanga

 

Elgon Cinema, Mbale, Uganda

Elgon Cinema in Mbale seating ranged from 500-900. It was built in 1956. The photo below shows the poster Zamana. Zamana was released in 1985

Elgon Cinema auditorium was being used as a church in 2019:

Century Cinemax Cinemas in East Africa

 

Century Cinemax is the leading cinema chain in East Africa. With a history born out of Tanzania, the chain now boasts more than 65% market share, with:

3 sites In Tanzania,

3 in Uganda,

and 4 in Kenya.

Century Cinemax is now the exclusive licensee of the patented IMAX screening format, having the only IMAX screen in the whole of East Africa.

Century Cinemax branches in Kenya can be found only at the following locations:

Century Cinemax, Junction Mall, Ngong Road
Century IMAX, Garden City Mall.
Century Cinemax, Sarit.
Century Cinemax, Two Rivers (see photo below). (You can see a technician at work in the projection booth!!)

Nairobi Indian Cinemas 1970s tickets!!

Embassy and Liberty Cinemas:

See a sample of an Embassy Cinema ticket - customer's portion below.    

        

In Nairobi upstairs was called 'Circle' while in Mombasa we referred it to the 'Balcony'!!. Embassy Cinema was owned by the Samji Kala family, the same family that owned wonderful Kenya Cinema in Mombasa.

This ticket was probably issued in the early 1970s. The date is in Gujerati! Can someone translate!

On the top left of the Embassy ticket you can see a portion of the the circular entertainment tax stamp. Each such ticket had to be stamped by a cinema staff member at the tax office. The ticket books (usually 100 tickets to a book) could only be released from the tax office after paying the entertainment tax in advance!! You can read more about Kenya's entertainment tax system in the 1960s-1980s here https://historiccinemaseastafrica.blogspot.com/search...

The photo at the bottom provides a Liberty Cinema ticket-customer's portion. 

I liked sitting at the back in the stalls as you could look directly ahead on a screen that was far enough, while in the balcony you had to look slightly down!! The new cinemas have no stalls!! If you find a seat so that you can look directly ahead the screen is usually too big

Globe Cinema, Nairobi ticket

 

Globe Cinema Nairobi ticket

The date is written in Gujarati...12.6.1974

It's for a Saturday Night 8pm show of an Indian film. Looks like its for seat # CC18. Remember the days when an usher showed you your seat even if you knew where your seat was!! Note the ticket #11331.

Occasionally a government entertainment tax auditor would buy a ticket such as this and show up the next day to see the books so as to check if this ticket was recorded as a sale!!

After printing, ticket books were stored at the government Tax office. The cinema had to pay entertainment tax in advance before ticket books were released!! It's a pity they did not extend this system for Video stores!!

Majestic Cinema, Mombasa Ticket!!

This ticket probably dates back to the early 1960s! 

Later on tickets had to have a serial number when the entertainment tax was introduced. And there was a door keeper's portion on the left that was separated by a perforation. This made it easier for the door keeper to tear when the film patron entered the auditorium!

At the Regal the door keeper would count the number of door-keeper's ticket portion, write the count on the top and drop these at the book-keeper's office. These would just end up in the dustbin. I always thought this was a make work task! That is, until I saw a door keeper's portion being sold as legitimate ticket to an unsuspecting film patron!!

Garvie's Rooms - Kenya's first Cinema

 I came across the following descriptions about Garive's Rooms, the first cinema to operate in Nairobi!!

Kenya's first Cinema

Donald Sutherland Garvie (3 June 1873 – 22 October 1912) was a pioneer European settler in Kenya. In 1909, he opened Garvie's Bioscope in Nairobi, the first movie theatre in Kenya

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Garvie

Donald Garvie, a Scotsman, began new ventures. He opened a a picture house or Bioscope, known as ‘Garvie’s Rooms,’ opposite Madame Rowe et Cie in Government Road, Nairobi. This was sometime after 1907. It showed entertainment every evening at 9 pm. The program was changed twice a week, and on Wednesdays there was a matinee for children; the cost was 3 rupees a chair, and half price for children. Donald’s youngest brother George often played the pianola during performances and his daughters Dolly and Louise were fine singers who took part in Nairobi concerts. If the quality at the Bioscope was poor, there were jeers from the audience and bottles would rain down on the tin roof of the Travellers’ Club next door. Garvie also edited the Nairobi newspaper The Advertiser

At Garvey's Rooms in Government Road, on hard wooden seats, Europeans could enjoy shadow play and music-hall acts, smoking concerts and amateur theatricals.

source:https://oldafricamagazine.com/donald-garvie-and-the-first-cinema-in-kenya

 "Although amateur theatricals were the mainstay of pre-war entertainment, celluloid had made its debut thanks to J.Garvie (sic). If films were  little more than flickering shadows thrown across a screen, many paid to  sit on wooden forms at Garvie's Rooms to watch them. When the quality was  very bad, the performance was interspersed by jeers as disapproving  members of the Travellers' Club nearby threw empty bottles and more  vulgar things on to the tin roof of the little theatre." - Errol Trzebinski, The Kenya Pioneers.

source: https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/default.asp?a=viewIndividual&pid=2&person=873