THE NEW
I R
EMPIRE THEATRE
EMPIRE THEATRE
DEPARTA
བ་་།་་
KANNA
10
CANOP
BERUITUL ULTORUL ONE
Elevation drawing of the main facade, with plans of the proscenium floor below.
21
The rate of growth of the Colony during the past few years can almost be measured by the number of new cinemas which have been constructed and put into operation during this period. Cinema entertainment takes its place amongst the foremost of recreational activities of every class of society and although it was pre- dicted that the popularity of radio would encroach seriously on the box office receipts of theatres, such has not in fact been the case.
As a city grows and new districts develop, the erection of a cinema in that district follows almost automa- tically. In most cases they are neigh- bourhood institutions showing second and third run pictures and are run for the benefit of those residents who have neither the money nor the transporta- tion facilities to visit the larger theatres in the centre of the town.
In Hong Kong prior to 1941 the principal theatres on the Island were the King's and the Queen's, the Cen- tral Theatre which for a time was considered a first run cinema house and then later the Lee Theatre which, when it was erected in the Causeway Bay district as a first run theatre, was considered a very venturesome project. In Kowloon the Alhambra was built in the middle 1930's and was the only first run theatre on the Mainland with the Star and Majestic as subsidiary houses, and the Prince's Theatre way out at Prince Edward Road. Since the re-occupation the number of first run and secondary cinema houses which have been con- structed on both sides of the harbour has been increasing rapidly.
When Roxy Theatre was completed a couple of years ago it was consider- ed that this theatre, together with the Lee Theatre, would more than
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