First - note:
The materials for this article are based a little on personal knowledge and a lot from other sources that I cherish, thank you, from Wikipedia and the Haifa City Museum, to materials written and published by many that I learned from, such as David Shalit, Inbar Dror Lex, Boaz Rafaeli, Sharon Raz, Pini Schefter, Adi Feuerberger, Shirley Hovav and others, which in my guilt I may have forgotten to mention.
The big breakthrough of cinemas in Haifa
A central reason for the unimaginable boom of movie theaters in the 30s in Haifa, which manifested itself in the breaking of the world record for watching movies per capita (about 1954 times a year on average in XNUMX, according to official data from the UNESCO organization), was probably the lack of theater and entertainment institutions in the city. The city's residents had to make do with the plays, concerts and other cultural performances that came from Tel Aviv, which had already opened a cultural divide on Haifa. When these shows arrived in Haifa, they were hosted in the few halls that could provide them with a suitable stage - chief among them the "Palace" cinema.
The nature of the population in "Red Haifa" also contributed to the boom. Haifa was a city of workers, which also took in many immigrants, and the popular entertainment offered by the cinema suited the residents' pockets very well.
In 1944, the cinemas "Armon", "Ampi" and "Ein Dor" operated in Haifa. The smaller "Moriya", which operated as a community center ("Beit Am"), started showing movies in August 1943. The "Ora" cinema also already existed, but had to go out of business between the years 1941-1947, following a fire that broke out in it.
The British impose a curfew
In April 1944 something happened.
In this month, the British Mandate authorities imposed a nine-day curfew on the residents of the three largest cities in the country. As soon as the curfew was lifted, the Haifaites stormed their cinemas, mainly in the Hadar neighborhood. All the tickets were sold out in a few hours, and the brokers celebrated.
Following the proven demand, entrepreneurs and capitalists who read the map correctly jumped at the opportunity, and during 1946 they submitted 37 (!) applications to the Haifa municipality to establish cinemas. It was an excessive number by all accounts, but 15 of those requests were indeed approved, and the promoters continued to build the cinemas.
They made a great deal.
As an example of one of many cinemas, which was not actually established, a very ambitious initiative by Moshe Gridinger (the owner of "Ein Dor" and "Armon", for which many plots were made) to establish a cinema, cafe, restaurant and dance hall on Shaar HaLebanon Street in the center of Carmel is worthy of mention.
The impressive plans, the work of the Rosov architectural firm, emphasize the big-picture thinking that also characterized the Palace Cinema, built by Gridinger a decade before, and which was also designed by the Rosov firm. Eastern and Western elements were combined in the new cinema program.
The plan was approved in 1946, but was frozen in 1948 until the "replanning" of Yaffe Nof Street and the Carmel Center, a freeze from which the plan has not come out to this very day.
I came across the building plans in the Haifa City Archives, and below are attached several details from their content. It seems that Haifa has lost a unique and interesting building. Presentation of program details courtesy of the Haifa Archives.
The developers
The ownership of the movie theaters in Haifa was divided between private bodies, and public bodies such as the neighborhood committees, veterans' cooperatives and the Haifa Workers' Council.
The public bodies:
• The Haifa Workers' Council (MPH) established "Ampi" as early as 1927 as an open hall, and in 1942, turned it into a closed hall. The "Ora" cinema was also owned by MPH. Later these cinemas were rented, and operated by the Farbstein family.
• The Mount Carmel neighborhood committee owned the "Shavit" and "Moria" cinemas, which were leased to private operators.
• The Bat Galim neighborhood committee owned the open-air cinema "Gan Yam", which later became the "Teklet" cinema
• After the establishment of the state, an Arab cinema called "El Nasser", whose construction had just been completed, was transferred to the group of discharged soldiers "Liberation", and in 1949 it was opened as the "Hadar" cinema, on today's Kibbutz Galviyot street.
Most of the cinemas were established by private entrepreneurs, and we will mention some of the most prominent ones.
• Already in the twenties, the industrialist Yehuda Agam Laban founded the "Eden" movie theater (1923), and later the "Ein Dor" cinema (1929), in partnership with the businessman Moshe Gridinger.
For Gridinger, this was the first step towards the establishment of a cinema empire, one of the largest in the world, of the family, which owns and operates to this day, through the Israeli "Theatres Israel", and the Israeli "Rav Chen" and the British "Cineworld", many cinemas in Israel and around the world (following an epidemic Due to the corona virus and a number of business events, the group ran into financial difficulties, but it continues to operate as a "going concern", and we wish the Gridinger family to overcome this difficulty).
In 1935, Gridinger also established Haifa's magnificent cinema - "Palace", and in the early fifties, his son, Kalman, established the "Orly" cinema in the center of Carmel, and continued to operate the "Chen" cinema and the "Par" cinema, which he rented.
• Yaakov Davidon was a particularly colorful character. He was a Zionist activist, laborer, entrepreneur, and also a gifted writer, who already managed cinemas in Tiberias, Herzliya, Rishon Lezion and Tel Aviv ("Gan Rina" and "Beit Ha'am"). Davidon was the entrepreneur behind the movie "The Happy Garden" in 1925, and his next Haifa project was the "May" cinema which he established in 1940.
• A prominent figure in the movie theater business in Haifa was Simcha Perbstein, Perbstein started as a member of the "Liberation" cooperative, which managed the Hadar cinema, continued as the accounting manager of "May" with Yaakov Davidon, and from there embarked on an independent career as a film entrepreneur. He founded the "Atsmon" cinema and the "Miron" cinema, after his death in 1980, his sons Avi and David continued in his footsteps. The late Avi, through the "Psal" company, managed the "Ampi" and "Ora" cinemas, which the company rented from the Haifa Workers' Council.
• An unusual group of owners were the Ovitch family. It was a family that included seven dwarfs who passed under the hands of Dr. Mengele in the Auschwitz camp, and made a living from performances in their dwarf theater. The family received a concession to operate the "Carmel" and "Ganim" cinemas, in buildings where Arab cinemas used to live.
The family was mentioned in Amir Guttfreund's book "For her heroes fly", and in Avi Nesher's film "Once upon a time", the plot of which takes place in Haifa (by the way, since "Carmel Ganim" was already destroyed when the film was filmed, the abandoned "Hedar" cinema filled its place)
We are on the map
In 1954, the number of movie theaters in Haifa was already about 25 (!), and almost all of them were located in the vibrant center of entertainment and shopping, the heart of the city of Haifa - otherwise known as the "Hadar Carmel" neighborhood.
In the 60s, the monument to cinemas in Haifa looked like this:
In honor: "Aura", "Orion", "Ampi", "Armon", "Glaur", "Domino", "Chen", "May", "Mayon" (the little 'puppy' of "May"), " Miron", "Atsmon", "Par", "Ron", and "Tamar".
Other cinemas that operated throughout the city:
• In the center of Carmel: "Shavit" (before that "Hod") and "Orli"
• In the estate: "Moriah"
• In Neve Shanan: "Ziv" and "Ammi"
• In Tel Amal: "Vard" (before that "Maxim")
• In Kiryat Eliezer: "Haifa"
• In Kiryat Shaprintsak" "Nof"
• In the lower city: "Ein Dor", "Hadar", and the pair "Carmel Ganim" which screened Arab, Turkish and Indian films.
The phenomenon of the lobbies
The enormous popularity of the cinema created the phenomenon of the press. The censors used to purchase dozens of tickets for popular movies in advance (the movies usually arrived in Haifa after Tel Aviv, and the extent of their popularity was already known), and sell them at exorbitant prices. The police tried to combat this scourge, but did so with only partial success.
A number of small cinemas in Hadar, which could not compete in the market of the "big ones", found creative solutions. "Orion", "Glaur", "Domino" and "Chen" (Agadah in Haifa), as well as Miron, who was the backyard of the "Etsmon" cinema and the Perbstein family, specialized in screening action films, westerns of the second type (the first type went for "big ones"), and in repeated and late screenings of "big ones" movies. The clever collective name 'Agadah' given to the group, hints at the deep content of the films shown there. These cinemas also introduced daily shows every two hours from 10:00 to 16:00 (in addition to the evening shows at 19:00 and 21:00). And the ability, with one card, to see two movies and even more in a row. "Orion", "Glaur" and "Miron" also discovered at some point the attractiveness of sex films.
In 1961, the Municipal Theater of Haifa was opened, and made its modest contribution to the fact that the people of Haifa calmed down a bit, and the number of visits to the cinema per capita in Haifa dropped to 18 per year on average, still a respectable number in itself.
A request from our readers
In the following, we would like to review all the cinemas that operated in Haifa until the 70s. We have searched the archives and the nets but we still lack materials.
The cinemas for which the documentation (photos from the heyday and written material) that exists is negligible to non-existent:
"Orly", "Glaur", "Domino", "Ziv", "Haifa", "Chen", "Mayon", "Miron", "Maxim", "Nof", "Par", "Ron", "Shavit ", "Light Blue", "Tamar".
Our requests from you, the readers:
1) If any of you have materials (photos from a personal album or just stories) about these cinemas (and others), or you know someone like that (families of the owners or photographers, for example) - please let us know. In order for us to use the image, we must obtain the permission of the person who owns the rights to it. The photos we would like you to send us are ones that are yours, or are in the public domain, or that you know who owns the rights to them.
2) "May" cinema - Yaakov Davidon, one of the founders of the cinema, and a fascinating personality in his own right, deserves a separate article that will review his work. If any of his descendants are reading these lines, we would appreciate it if they would contact us as soon as possible.
3) "Carmel Ganim" cinema - if anyone from the Ovitch family, who founded the cinema, reads these lines, we would appreciate it if they would contact us as soon as possible.
4) Raion "Carmel" - operated in the lower city, in the Jaffa Street area, in the 20s. Does anyone know and can add details?
5) "Imperial" - Itamar Roteloi drew my attention to the fact that on a map from the 20s a cinema is marked (probably, we saw it), named "Imperial", on the corner of present-day Jaffa Street and Ben Gurion Boulevard. Does anyone know and can add details?
Write to us in the comments below, or by email [email protected]
This is an important service for the city and the community. Time passes, and there may not be any more opportunities like this.
Next week: the Haifa cinema experience.
[…] Chapter 2 – The hack […]
* and exciting
My late father was a cashier at the Armon Cinema.
A palpable nostalgic article.
Haifa is a city that does not know how to respect its cinematic past. It should be denied the existence of the film festival! Just look at how the cinemas of that time look today... (those that were not destroyed) disgrace
It makes me laugh to read that they want to turn Hadar into a tourist and entertainment neighborhood.
And there is nothing in it for old or young tourists.
It doesn't even have a single night club. Remember the city hall? Basement 10?
Yahav made sure to leave a complete wasteland and since then nothing has grown back.
The municipality does not know how to restore Hadar to being the heart of the city. After 8 malls it is impossible.
If a family from Carmel goes down to Sinmol and Big Nesher at Check Post as a pastime there is no chance of bringing the trade back to glory.
In an era where everyone drives around in a car, the malls that offer thousands of parking spaces and higher personal security simply slaughtered Hadar.
If you want Hadar to be "cool" for young people, you have to take Beit Maccabi and put back the City Hall.
Basement 10 should be returned. Add more budgets for culture in all institutions in Hadar. and to reward entrepreneurs of clubs and restaurants that will open.
Without it, not only the cinemas but the entire trade in splendor would be just a nostalgic memory.
The Perbstein family's son, Itzik, studied with us at the school in the SMT. From time to time, the division director Aliza Shanar, later the Israeli ambassador to Russia, would come into the classroom and tell Itzik to ask his father for the Atzmon Cinema for a division assembly. And so we found ourselves, ninth grade students, marching On the streets of Hadar and fill the stands of Atzmon in the middle of the day.
What beautiful childhood memories, Yossi, apparently had a significant impact on you. There were times, everything was simpler with all the beauty in it.
And more about movies. Children's films were also shown in the hall at the "Histadrut House" in Kiryat Eliezer on IDF Street on Friday afternoons in the 60s. The hall was always full. The special thing was that the script would give a summary of the film before the beginning. The noise of the excited children was terrible and they could barely hear what Oa was saying, and to try to control the mess and the noise he would threaten to take the disturbing child out of the hall. For this purpose, he was helped by his son Avishi ("Avishi...get this boy out..") The script did not give up and only after he finished giving the synopsis did he turn on the movie projector that was placed on a table in the middle of the hall.
I have a personal story about a movie at the Techelet/Bat Galim cinema: As a child in the 60s, I used to go to the movies a lot. One time I went with some friends to the cinema to watch a movie that I don't remember the name of. We entered the cinema, the lights had already gone down and the movie had started, so we looked for a place close to the entrance. After a few minutes the movie was stopped, the lights in the hall came on, and to the surprise of all the spectators, some policemen entered the hall. Since we were sitting in the last row close to the entrance door, the police immediately located us and took us out of the hall and took us to the cash register, returned our money and so we returned home in shame. And the movie continued, it became clear to us afterwards that the movie was intended for an (apparently) older age than we were... and to note that the hall was full of children, but only us were taken out. It's all a matter of location...
Curfew in April 1944 — now I know why I was born in Jan. 1945
What fun it was to read it and also to see the pictures. Thank you ?
exciting. I was born in Haifa in 1939. My parents were born in Jerusalem. My 2 brothers are older than me, they experienced life with me in the splendor of Carmel. We lived on Herzliya Street. I remember when we built the Atzmon and Gal Or cinemas. We were children and we especially "looked forward" to the May cinema. The bouncers chased us. We were brats. These brats became engineers, scientists, doctors...
The descriptions in the article are so vivid and kicking. The pictures warm the heart.
As a contemporary of Yoram Katz and a member of the scout movement.. several points. Tel. 68 years old, my memory is limited and closer to legends or *that's what I remember*
1- We liked going to the Ron cinema mainly for Joselito movies... We didn't like the exit at the end of the movie to the back corridor of the shopping center which had a bad smell.
2- We liked going to movies with music. Gone with the wind and the like at the Tamar cinema near Beyit in Gaola. That's where the roof was. we will open
3- We used to go and leave through the bridge to the Amphitheater as well.. but at a time like now sometimes it started to rain when the roof was still open during the first show.
4- Ora cinema also had classic movies. And we loved it, when we stood in line for the three cash registers. Stand in the right row.. to look at the "photos of the Habakroob movies" that were in glass frames on the wall.
5- I won't go into detail about Atzmon, Orion and the porn movies of the daily shows between them, but it is necessary to mention that after the movie it was mandatory to go to Falafel Orion... which is famous in the group. and the main competitor of Falafel Palace
6- Cinema Mai .. had its own special films .. seemed more in the direction of westerns to me
7- Going to the movie theater .. was accompanied by risks... because in many cases at the exit there were nationalist harassment or just drunks waiting outside in the alley with broken beer bottles. I'm talking about the XNUMXs to the XNUMXs.. a lot of "nationalist incidents started in Hadar in the area. Palace, Parr and the Shawarma Prophets across the street* or near the *Turkish Orchid on Sidon Street* I guess the next juicy article will be about the legendary falafel sellers... 🙂 Light.
The morning shows were populated by school students who skipped school to the cinema and the films shown there were Westerns and really uneducative crime films.
Fun to read, well done!
An exciting and important article! The buildings should be preserved and turned into museums or public buildings or anything else that would enhance tourism in Haifa. There are rare works of art there, such as the exterior mosaic of the Ron cinema (yes, it's real) by the artist Amnal Sela. This is a rare piece that still holds up, but needs preservation. Lots and lots of ideas and an article like this along with pressure on decision makers will lead to change. Thanks!!
It seems that you forgot the Atzmon and Orion cinema
We will not forget, read carefully, it is also mentioned
Those related to the Ovitch family are Freddy and his sister Tali (the ex-wife of the well-known Eyal Berkowitz). Freddie is the manager of the Carmel Center Discount Bank.
Cinema Par had several partners. One of them - the late Shimon Polak - was my former father-in-law. His wife's (wife's) name is Michal Eshel and it just so happens that during this period she is visiting Israel.
What does the writer mean by the nickname Ryano? As children in the late fifties, we saw movies on various websites:
1. In the Tsvata building that belonged to MPAM on Lochami Hagat'ot St. corner of the Maginims, usually on Saturday morning
2. In a closed yard on A. L. Ziso St. corner of Jaffa St. on Friday night
3. At the club at 81 Magginim St., second floor, on Saturday morning.
I remember that the subtitles were projected on the side of the film, written by hand and not always in sync with what was said in the film
A movie I remember was "Tarzan" which the children encouraged and warned him about the bad guys
interesting. In my opinion, this is a reliable report on the cinemas in the city of Haifa, my good friend Yoram Katz.
My late father was for many years the cashier of the Ora and Ampi cinemas, and was a close friend of the late Simcha Farbstein and his sons.
What was your father's name? It may have been my father's Mr
He knew my country Wilhelm? He was also the cashier of Ora and Ampi.
Like the small cinemas in Tel Aviv, it was expected that the buildings with the large halls would receive a new life cycle - for example, Par Cinema in Tel Aviv became a huge fitness and health complex. What happened that resulted in the closing of small urban cinemas is not unique to Haifa or Israel. Around the world, agile entrepreneurs knew how to buy the empty movie theaters and turn them into event and conference halls, health and fitness centers, huge and luxurious supermarket stores, hotels and more. Only in Haifa - there were empty and closed wastelands. Two or three were demolished for office towers, which is accepted all over the world as well as in Israel. (in Haifa Mai Cinema, Palace Cinema).
I cannot understand how a country can at the same time talk about a land shortage in its cities, and here in Haifa we see hundreds of empty buildings that are not recycled, that are not even demolished in favor of a residential building. Standing just taking up space, empty and closed. how does it work out
What municipality is willing to put up with the hazard of hundreds of empty buildings for years and even decades? Only the municipality of Harfa.
A municipality that brought shame on the city of Haifa. This is the truth in this story. No one even makes an effort there to encourage new uses of the buildings.
For 15 years there was a mayor here who wandered between the ruins of the Tamar cinema and the Gali Hadar pool, the ruins of the central station in Bat Galim, the ruins of the Shavit cinema on Hasport Street (don't say it's only in Hadar because there is no demand there...) and he didn't move anything. It didn't interest him that in his city there were endless empty buildings. Nothing, sat in the office and smiled at another article about the 'State of Tel Aviv'.
Municipality of Harfa. Listen carefully - that's what you'll call her. We deserve better, more caring people. Like those who write painful columns and sad comments, that will move something instead of the petrified officials in the mayor's office.
Detailed and described in a good and interesting way, the illustrations and photographs do a lot to illustrate the atmosphere and prestige of the beautiful buildings that have been celebrated over the years.
A very important and beautiful project that will serve us and future generations.
Well done for the investment Yoram, glad to know your documentary and literary side.
There was a "Bat Galim" cinema in Bat Galim, and maybe it was called "Techelet", close to the casino. My father, Zvi (Henrich) Gutertz, worked in the 60s as a screenwriter in the cinemas in Haifa: Ron, Mai, Haifa, Techelet, Davidon's, Perbstein's.
Lamni did work at the "Yuval Or" cinema in Tivon
I was familiar with the movie theaters in the city... There was a movie theater that burned down, right next to the Hapoel Haifa center further down Geula Street... It was the Tamar and Oo Dekal cinema.... Its ruins are still there... There was also a hall of the Histadrut called Ulam Yedhiu, in the Labor Party building, below the square In the name of Moshe Wertman... I think they also had the option of showing films...
Interesting. A reliable report on Haifa's cinemas
A beautiful article, a reliable report on cinemas in Haifa. Shabbat Shalom, Happy Holidays my friend