What happened to the cinemas of Haifa - Chapter 4 - The decline of the neighborhood cinemas

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 fault I may have forgotten to mention.

The decline of the "Hadar Carmel" neighborhood"

In the 60s, city centers around the world in general began to suffer from a situation where they became a victim of their own success. A decline in the quality of life (density, traffic congestion, traffic jams and pollution) on the one hand, and the rise in land and housing prices on the other, led to the middle class abandoning the city centers and moving to the suburbs.

At the same time, there was a decline in the volumes of industry, commerce and employment in the city centers, and real estate prices began to plunge. The place of the strong population was gradually taken by a weak population from a low socio-economic status, and with it came a deterioration into crime, poverty and neglect. Walking and spending time in the streets of the city center ceased to be attractive, And the entertainment centers started to fade.

 This process started in Haifa in the "Hadar HaCarmel" neighborhood, towards the end of the seventies.

The secular population of the middle class began to leave the neighborhood, and its place was taken by populations with a low socio-economic status. The "Gaula" and "Nachla" neighborhoods were occupied by ultra-Orthodox populations, who, in addition to their high natural population, also imported families from communities outside of Haifa.

The cheap housing prices also attracted new immigrants to the neighborhood, but those of them who were financially established, hurried to leave the neighborhood, while leaving behind the part that was more difficult.

"Hedar Carmel", the neighborhood where most of the movie theaters operated, completely collapsed, and became a poor, neglected, crime-ridden area, and without any character.

The cinemas could not help but feel this change.

The new competitor

At the end of the 60s, a big cloud overshadowed the film industry in Israel - the television.

For mainly ideological reasons, the opening of Israeli television was delayed several years after the rest of the world. Ben-Gurion was overwhelmingly opposed to the introduction of television into Israel, fearing that it would turn the people of the book into the people of the screen (as much as he was right... but as inevitable as that was...), and there was, of course, also the economic factor of avoiding encouraging the mass and expensive import of television receivers and the fear of damaging the balance of payments The problematic of the country, which was already on the way to a deep recession.

Only in 1965, after the retirement of Ben-Gurion and the entry of Levi Eshkol into the position of Prime Minister, and especially after the exit from the recession in 1967, was the possibility of introducing television into the State of Israel opened up.

Television broadcasts in Israel went on the air in March 1966, as part of educational television, and on May 2, 1968, the "Israeli Television" channel began broadcasting, opening its broadcasts by showing the first military parade in a united Jerusalem.

The penetration of television, with broadcasts from Lebanon and Cyprus, received in Israel, created a decrease in demand for cinema. With the opening of Israeli television broadcasts in 1968, the decline in demand was exacerbated even more. The movie theaters now had to deal with a new competitor that was even more popular than them, but the competition was still tolerable, as long as the television was broadcast in black and white.

The war on color

At the end of the 70s, television receivers that allow the reception of color broadcasts began to be sold in Israel. These devices were, obviously, more expensive than the black and white receivers.

Although the young Israeli television broadcast mainly in black-and-white, programs bought from abroad were already mostly filmed in color, the productions ordered by Israeli television from the Herzliya studios were partly filmed in color, and the neighboring stations in Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan already broadcast in color, so that the buyers of the color receivers already had content to watch

And here began a saga of an unwise and hopeless policy of over-involvement by the government against market forces - an episode that deserves to be studied in introductory economics classes:

With the increase in demand for the (more expensive) color television receivers, the government ordered the Broadcasting Authority to prevent the possibility of viewing Israeli television broadcasts in color. The goal was economic - not to encourage expensive and mass imports, and ideological - to prevent, in the spirit of socialism, the colorful shelters from highlighting the gap between rich and poor.

Israeli television was now required to delete the color from all its broadcasts. For this purpose, a technology called "erasing" was used that made the color disappear from the screens, even for programs that were originally filmed in color.

The anti-erasure

The sequel was predictable, and the Israeli response to the government's declared war on market forces came quickly. A young electronics engineer named Molly Aden (later President of Intel Israel and Senior Vice President of Intel Global) developed for "Metz Electronics" a device that was integrated into color television sets sold by the company, and turned them into a hysterical hit, by overcoming the erasure carried out by the Broadcasting Authority, and allowing the receivers to display the foreign programs in color, under the authority's nose and throat.

The trade name of the device was "anti-erasure". The device will make the colorful devices even more expensive, making a mockery of all the crooked government policies. Later, it could also be purchased separately, and in 1979, out of more than 100 color television sets in Israel, at least 10% had anti-erasing devices purchased, and the hand was still tipped.

The situation became even more absurd when, at the request of the stations in Europe and the United States, Israeli television had to, in the late seventies, transmit important live broadcasts to the world in color, such as Sadat's visit to Israel in November 1977. The Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in March 1979, was broadcast in color and marked the fall of the walls - Although it was a one-time color broadcast, it brought with it a huge wave of buying color devices all over the country.

All of this led the new Minister of Finance, Yoram Eridor, to allow the Broadcasting Authority to gradually switch to color broadcasts. As part of the Likud government's policy to "do good to the people" (a policy that brought the Israeli economy to 400% inflation in 1983), the tax imposed on colored devices was also reduced.

The dam was breached, and in 1983, the Broadcasting Authority threw up its hands and stopped the operation of the "deletion". Israeli television switched to full color broadcasting, and this strange saga ended.

the deterioration

At the end of the seventies, the cinemas were already struggling to function financially, and the burden of taxes started to be too heavy for them. This pressure is well reflected in the letter sent by Yehuda Doron, chairman of the Haifa Cinema Industry Association, to Mayor Aryeh Goral:

"...today when the pleasure levy, together with the value added tax of a ticket, reaches approximately 85%, the cinema has no option left to operate it in an orderly manner, and if the cinema still wishes to renovate - then this is impossible."

And he adds and threatens:

"In the dire situation we are in, we see the municipality as responsible, and if you, the mayor, do not intervene quickly to address the evil, then the cinemas in Haifa will be closed, and the only popular entertainment that still exists in Haifa will also disappear. In addition to this, due to the closure of The cinema will lay off all the workers, most of whom are war disabled, and probably at 7 o'clock there will be darkness in the city."

But from here things only got worse and worse...

Color television, which gradually became present in most homes, accelerated the decline of movie theaters. This decline was further accelerated with the advent of cable television in the 80s, and it seems that during this period Haifa converted the world championship in cinema visits, which it held in the 50s, into the world championship in pirated cables.

In 1989, the activities of the cable television companies began in Israel, which provided multi-channel television services, and dropped the ground from under the feet of the pirate cable industry.  

The last survival battle of cinemas

When the situation became very difficult, and the competition with television began to significantly bite into the revenues of the cinemas, these entered the last line of their last battle for survival.

The Farbstein family tried to change "Atsmon" into a multi-screen cinema. For this purpose, the area of ​​the old cinema + the area of ​​the "Miron" cinema is divided into five separate cinema halls. In order to maintain the high-quality branding of "Etsmon", while at the same time enjoying revenues from more questionable films, the "Glaur" cinema was purchased, which has now changed its name to "Miron", thus managing to confuse everyone who is looking for the historical "Miron" cinema today.

"Orion" and "Miron" made increased use of sex films, as a weapon they hoped would give them an advantage over television, and they began to rely almost entirely on these types of films, in a desperate attempt to survive.

"Domino", on the other hand, tried the opposite direction. It changed its name to "Ordan" and later to "Kern Or", and tried to brand itself as a cinema that shows quality films.

But at this point, nothing helped anymore, and the cinemas began, like a house of cards, to fall one after another.

the collapse

The neighborhood cinemas ceased to be economical, and began, one by one, to close, to be abandoned, and some were completely demolished in favor of towers or parking lots.

The closing of the cinemas, for its part, further deteriorated commerce and business in the city center, which lost the visitors that the cinemas brought there, and accelerated its decline.

"Tamar" cinema was the first to go. Already in April 1969, less than ten years since its opening, and even before the general decline, a fire broke out in the cinema, the origin of which fueled a juicy conspiracy theory. The ceiling of the cinema collapsed and it was closed. Several years later, one of its walls also collapsed, taking with it the nearby Gali Hadar pool.

"Ein Dor" "Vard" (formerly "Maxim") and "Hadar" were closed in the early seventies. Ein Dor was completely destroyed, giving way to an office tower.

"Palace" stopped showing movies in 1987, and in 1995 it was demolished to make way for an office tower.

Kolnoa "Ora" was closed in 1990 and stood abandoned for a long time. In 2002 the building was sold and its conversion into a commercial center was approved.

"Orion" was also closed in the 90s. The building was demolished and turned into a parking lot.

There is currently not a single active cinema in the Hadar neighborhood. Only "Moriya" and "Emmi" reached the 21st century, and in the end, of the entire magnificent list, only the "Emmi" cafe cinema in Neve Shanan, which somehow managed to adapt to the times (two screening halls), and create for itself Branding of a quality movie house, and the aroma of a neighborhood and community recreation center.

The transition to shopping malls

The new cinemas, which replaced the cinemas of the first and second generation, moved into malls on the outskirts of the city, which in themselves symbolize a revolution in shopping and entertainment patterns. The cinema turned from a social experience into a consumer product, and the cinemas became multi-screen supermarkets, based on a different business model, and kept this popular pastime away from the street and the community.

Is the death of neighborhood cinemas fateful?

Longing for the neighborhood cinemas is natural, but their decline was also a natural process, reflecting different times and conditions, changes in the world's cinema ecosystem in general, and also the transition of populations between neighborhoods. It is clear that today there is no room for 25 neighborhood cinemas in Haifa, certainly, when most of them are concentrated in the degenerating Hadar neighborhood.

"gentrification"

The term "gentrification" (Gentrification) describes an urban-social process of moving middle and upper class populations to weak neighborhoods, while continuously changing the nature of the neighborhood. This term, first coined in the sixties, to describe processes identified in London, mainly referred to the negative impact of the process on an old and weak community, which may, for economic and social reasons, be pushed out of its place of residence.  

Over time, this term also gained a positive connotation, since one of its necessary components is urban renewal in the neighborhood. Houses undergo renovation, businesses undergo a facelift, or are replaced by others, and the new populations bring with them a sense of momentum. Years of neglect are replaced by nurturing, and the culture of crime is disappearing with it.

The process of gentrification usually begins with "pioneers", such as young people and artists, who arrive due to low housing prices. They renovate the old apartments and buildings, create a social atmosphere around them, and attract an additional, mostly young, population to the neighborhood.

In the next step, a more established population recognizes the change and the potential, and begins to settle in the neighborhood. The neighborhood becomes "trendy", begins to undergo urban renewal, and prices begin to rise. Later, business people recognize the revival, and establish new businesses, which increase the interest and attractiveness of the neighborhood.

It is possible to turn the use of this term on its face, and point to the process that "Hadar Carmel" went through from the 1980s onwards as a process of "anti-gentrification".

Examples of gentrification processes can also be seen in Israel (for example, Jaffa and Florentine in Tel Aviv). In Haifa, the clear example is the downtown, which is increasingly becoming an attractive entertainment area, boasts an academic center, and even a small hi-tech center, and is beginning to attract new populations. In the past there were such signs on Masada Street that seem to have faded away, and today the Bat Galim neighborhood and even Sirkin Street show such signs.

And what about Lev Hadar Carmel, the capital of Haifa's abandoned cinemas?

Questions that can be asked:

• Is it possible to utilize at least some of the abandoned buildings, in such a way that the city and its communities can profit from them, and in the process also pay a little respect to the city's history?
• Is it possible to reproduce the (at least relative) success of "popular" cinema, which managed to position itself as a neighborhood institution, a kind of "Cinema Paradiso" Neve Shanni, and brings added value to the surrounding community?
• Is there no place for such a cinema in the renewed downtown?
• Will it be possible to utilize Hadar's abandoned cinemas for urban renewal?
• Can encouraging neighborhood cinemas be a small step in the revitalization process of Hadar Carmel?
  
  In the following, we will try to address at least some of these questions.

A request from the 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", "Ron", "Shavit", "Teklet ", "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.

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.