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Cathay Theatre, Ipoh
This photograph shows the Cathay Theatre (Cinema) Ipoh.
This beautiful single-screen theatre was designed by Danish architect Berthel Michael Iversen and built in late 1956. It opened on August 31, 1957, with the movie, ‘The King and I’, telling the fictitious romantic story of Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam. At that time the 3rd Class seats (front rows downstairs) cost 60cents per ticket, while 2nd Class further back cost around $1.20. 1st Class upstairs (mainly for Europeans or VIPs) cost $2.
By the 1970’s prices had only increased marginally and $1.00 could still get you a third class ticket plus some ‘keropok and kuaci’ (fish crackers and edible watermelon seeds).
As can be seen in the photo, in addition to the normal front lobby, the Cathay had a second, side, lobby. Seating capacity in the downstairs portion of theatre was 798 seats, while above, the balcony seated 376.
Initially the cinema showed mostly English language films until the around 1985, when with falling audiences it added films in Malay, Hindi, Tamil, and Chinese. In the photograph there are both Chinese and English films advertised including ‘Mambo Girl’ a Chinese movie starring Grace Chang, better known as Ge Lan (a most famous Hong Kong star in the 1950’s) and the American movie ‘World Without End’, where four astronauts returning from mankind's first mission to Mars enter a time warp and crash on a 26th Century Earth devastated by atomic war.
Today (2007) the Cathay is long-closed due to the introduction of the cineplex complexes with their fewer seats per screen.
The Cathay Organisation, one of the most prominent film enterprises in South East Asia, was established as Associated Theatres Ltd. by Mrs Loke Yew (widow of the famous Singapore pioneer and philanthropist, Sir Loke Yew) together with her son Dato Loke Wan Tho. More information may be found at http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1212/.
To read more about Berthel Michael Iversen, click here
((cinema))