User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/Other Nollendorf-related articles

Started life as part of draft for Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz article. >MinorProphet (talk) 15:43, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Appendix A

Joe Goldsoll

Well, well, well... Goldsoll was also investigated by the FBI.

Frank J. Goldsoll (#8000-703) › Page 1 - Fold3.com

Lots and lots in The Washington Post, 12 May 1918, Page 48 and New York Tribune, 4 August 1918, p.4

NB Three chapters in an E-Book costing £55

• 59 The Family De Vere
• 170 The Mysterious Frank J. Goldsoll – Son in Law of Charles de Vere
• 194 Frank J. Goldsoll Revisited – Charles de Vere's Con-Man Son-In-Law

The Complete Rich Cabinet of Magical Curiosities

Guess what? Charles de Vere was a magician with magic shops in Brussels and Paris (1892). "Clementine De Vere, their daughter, launched a stage career of her own as the "Ionia, the Goddess of Mystery."[1][2][3] His son, Camille (1885-1909), was an ascending star with conjuring until his tragic death of diabetes a the age of 24 in Paris.[4]" Charles de Vere

While Goldsoll was in jail on an extradition charge to France, "through his wife (the sister of his office chief in Paris), he conducted his business as a partner of A. H. Woods and other theatrical managers in New York."

Not to be confused with his brother, Louis H. Goldsoll, who also sold fake stones like 'Chilian Topaz', or 'Barrios gems.

Frank Joseph Goldsoll, or Godsoll, later Godsol, (born Cleveland, Ohio, 11 July 1873, died 1934), the son of a tailor, was the chairman of the executive committee of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation between 1919 and 1924, ousting its founder Sam Goldwyn from the board from 1921.

A fairly comprehensive report on his early years appeared in the New York Tribune in 1918.

Described as "an elegant swindler and con-man", he made his money from selling fake jewellery at inflated prices. He amassed a fortune in a few years, including Butte, Montana where he picked up the gambling habit. Then he established the Saretecora and Brazilian [fake] diamond business, which had an amazing success. Later he invaded Europe and launched the Tecla Pearl, a synthetic gem which enabled the possessors of priceless strings of pearls to put their treasures in safety deposit boxes and at the same time appear properly jewelled. In London he organised a stock company for $1,500,000 including Charles Stuart Henry Abbott, 4th Baron Tenterden, to sell Tecla pearls, with an address at 30 Old Bond Street.

Details of his inauspicious early career came to light in 1917-18, when an attempt was made by the French government to prosecute him for fraud. In 1905 he appeared before the Paris Commercial Tribunal for selling cheap imitation pearls as if they were real. At the time, the press labelled Godsol as "the most colossal fake in the history of jewelry." From then on, he was in and out of trouble and in and out of jail.

Godsol invariably carried thousands of dollars loosely crammed into every pocket of his pants, coat and overcoat. To watch him disrobe was to sit in the midst of a storm of greenbacks. "You can never tell tell when the banks may close," he used to say.

He seems to have lived in Berlin from about 1905; he owned Tait's American Diamond Palace at 161 Friedrichstraße (which was also his Berlin residence), still selling imitation jewellery.

• Now... although Riccardo Redi (Redi 2009) admits the story of Cines in Berlin "is also very complex" ('E anche molto complesse'), he says that "publication of recent studies, conducted with particular rigor in other documents until now neglected, have clarified how around the original "Societa Italiana Cines", founded in March 1906, there were other activities - even a German Cines which ran two cinemas in Berlin - which then gave rise to separate histories." I feel that this tends to point towards Goldsoll as the prime mover in Berlin from 1906-7 on. Anyway, which documents?

Germany

Joe Goldsoll, "a non-combatant in show-things", with Al. Woods and a "theatrical mob" including A. L. Erlanger, Pat Casey and Charles Frohman, sailed on the RMS Mauretania for 4-6 week tour of Europe on 3 April 1912.

By June 1912 Goldsoll had been back in the US for three months, seeking to invest in an Ice Palace in New York, and travelled to Berlin in June to see the Eispalast in Lutherstraße in Charlottenburg with a view to duplicating it in New York in the neighborhood of Forty-fifth Street and Broadway. "The scheme contemplates an Ice palace and a lobster palace combined to cost $350,000 to start early in July or August. Mr. Goldsoll says there will be ice skatings in the mornings, afternoon teas, and dinners and supper in the balconies looking down on skating ice ballets at midnight."

1913

For some reason (possibly for tax purposes?) Joe Goldsoll became a French citizen in 1913. This was apparently achieved by underhand means: his witnesses (who later disappeared) claimed Goldsoll had been living in France for ten years, although it was more like a few months.

Nollendorf-Theater

Overview

The Nollendorf-Theater seems to have been built by F. J. Goldsoll (who had a business in Berlin since c1908 selling fake diamonds), Al. Woods, and Edward B. Kinsila from around May 1912. On the back of the huge success of Quo Vadis?, Goldsoll and Woods rapidly opened a chain of kinovaudeville cinemas in France and Germany in 1913, including many Berlin theatres and starting with the Zoo-Palast. In the wake of the break-up of the Woods-Goldsoll combine in March 1914, the Italian parent company Cines formed its own Deutsche Cines GmbH, replacing Golsdoll's Cines-Theater AG, and took control of the Nollendorf-Theater. Goldsoll reformed his reduced business with the Palast-Theater AG, which controlled the Zoopalast, the Apollo-Theater, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater (now the Deutsches Theater) and Liebich's Etablissement in Breslau. However, when the war started most of these investments were lost and Cines’ future as a European market leader was shattered.

The Cines UK representative was the Marquis Guido Serra di Cassano.

History

24 May 1913

"The claim is made that never in the history of theatricals, was a circuit of theatres organized so quickly as the Woods' theatres in Germany and France, which will be devoted to high class vaudeville and feature motion pictures. A. H. Woods and his associate F. J. Goldsoll will control fourteen theatres in the important cities of Germany and as many in France, besides two in Vienna and three in Brussels. Six are located in Berlin, and eight are divided between Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne, Bremen, Munich, Leipzig, Hanover and Frankfort. [projector] Lenses have been made for two theatres in Paris, and one each in Tours, Mantes, Rouen, Lyons and Marseilles. In a number of those houses the famous Quo Vadis? picture is now being exhibited to enormous receipts. The Woods-Goldsoll combines control the rights for Quo Vadis? in Germany.

NB extract continues with ""Another important feature will be..." below.

Huge Sidetrack

• NB Random factoid: "Henryk Sienkiewicz verklagte die italienische Firma "Cines" auf eine Schadenersatzsumme von einer Million Mark, weil die römische Gesellschaft den Film "Quo vadis?" unberechtigterweise im Ausland aufführen lasse."
• ie HS sued Cines for a million marks, because the Roman company unlawfully allowed it to be shown abroad.
  • NB 1,000,000 marks was about 1,249,000 lire. Historical Currency Converter (test version 1.0)

Transcribed from Zeit im Bild, 1913, Jg. XI, Bd. 3, S.2068-2069 Film Supply 1895-1920(?) (or Film-Allerlei) The German Early Cinema Database. acc.28 December 2016.

Quo Vadis: "The scenario of this great production was adapted from an Italian translation of the original book of Henryk Sienkiewicz, to which the Cines master-producers have added a number of original scenes never before attempted. All the facilities of the great Cines plant were drawn upon in the making of this film- -the staff of artists, producers and performers spent fifteen months in the production of this epoch-making work." Clipper (March 1913)

Sooo...

Goldsoll and Woods ended up with some 33 theatres or cinemas within about six months from March-August-ish 1913. Incomplete list™ follows: next, find showings of Quo Vadis? from March 1913 in these and other places... NB Joe Menchen sold a rip-off version of Quo Vadis?, just like Mime Misu's rip-off/fake of The Miracle, Das Mirakel (1912 film).

• 14 houses in Germany, of which 6 in Berlin: (NB Luna Park, Halensee, owned by EAPL with Joe Menchen}:

1. Cines Nollendorf-Theater (built 1912-13)
2. Cines Palast am Zoo (acquired May 1913)
3. Cines de:Apollo-Theater
4. Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater
5. de:Rose-Theater Wow, it was gigantic!
6. Potsdam

• and 8? outside the capital:

1. de:Neue Operetten-Theater, Hamburg, where Quo Vadis ran from 23-31 May 1913.
2. Dresden
3. Cologne (with Luna Park, owned by EAPL with Joe Menchen)
4. Bremen
5. Munich
6. Hanover
7. Leipzig - Königspavillon-Theater on Promenadestrasse (opened 24 April 1913 with Quo Vadis)
8. Frankfort
9. de:Hansa-Theater, Lübeck. de:Holstentor-Lichtspiele#Hansa-Theater has an advertisement for the 'Cines' Hansa-Theater, 28 October 1913 (de:Datei:WP Cines Hansa-Theater.jpg) with the same artistes mentioned in the 'Kinovaudeville liked' news item.
10. Liebich's Etablissement in Breslau ref "German Houses now 14". Lots of pictures here.

NB This is sixteen houses altogether: Goldsoll and Woods may have opened more than were reported, or had them at different times, etc.

Also, Quo Vadis showed at the Metropol, Thorn, from 7 May. It had showed at the Nollendorf for 4 weeks. Hmmm, seems most likely that this was the Menchen fake version.

The Paris Olympia in 1913

• 14 in France, of which 2 in Paris

NB Louis Aubert was the distributor in France for most Italian production firms: Cines, Italia, Pasquali, Ambrosio, and Nordisk as well.

1. Olympia (Paris) - showing La Quaker Girl in 1913..., double première of de:Le Duel De Max with Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, Berlin, 25 July 1913.
2. Casino de Paris? - Quo Vadis? played there in April 1913 Now I think that this was the fake 5-reel Quo Vadis, which I think Menchen had something to do with. Also, the Menchen/Carré film Tangomania showed there.

NB The Olympia, the Casino and the Eldorado (all vaudeville/music halls) began to include short films as part of their programmes from 1896-1897.

Quo Vadis showed at the huge fr:Gaumont-Palace (3,400 seats) in March 1913, but this definitely wasn't part of the Woods-Goldsoll chain.

• Kosko, Marja (1935). La fortune de "Quo vadis?" de Sienkiewicz en France (Reprint, Slatkine ed.). Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion.

• and 12 outside the capital:

1. Tours - probably fr:Grand Théâtre de Tours
2. Mantes-la-Jolie? - possibly Le Nouveau Théâtre, Rue de Lorraine
3. Rouen - Cirque-Théâtre, less probably the Le Théâtre Français possibly the old fr:Théâtre des Arts de Rouen, tho' quite big...
4. Lyons - Théâtre des Célestins?, less likely the Opéra Nouvel
5. Marseilles
6. x
7. x
8. x
9. x
10. x

• 3 in Brussels (with Luna Park at the Expo, owned by EAPL with Joe Menchen)

1. x
2. x
3. x

• 2 in Vienna (with Luna Park owned by EAPL with Joe Menchen, near the Rotunde)

1. Elite-Kino. Reason: Max als Torero, with Max Linder showed there on 26 September 1913, also shown at the Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz on 27 June 1913, Olympia (Paris), 6 July 1913, both Woods-Goldsoll cinemas. Premiered in 14 June 1913 in Barcelona, Nueva Plaza de Toros: hmmmz, I seem to remember Goldsoll reminiscing about Barcelona while in jail.</ref> The Elite-Kino showed a season of Sascha Kolowrat-Messter films in 1916.
2. Karntner-Kino. Reason: List of ads for cinemas in Vienna in February 1914:

• Opern-Kino
• Graben-Kino
• Heimat-Kino
• Kosmos-Theater
• Burg-Kino
• Tuchlauben-Lichtspiele
• Rotenturm-Kino
• Flottenveriens-Kino
• Kleine Buhne (Elite-Kino)
• Karntner-Kino - Showing The Student of Prague, special mention of script by Ewers.

So I reckon that the Karntner-Kino - near the Karntnertor - is the other Woods/Godsoll theatre in Vienna.

Back to History

NB 24 May 1913 continues here

"Another important feature will be the exclusive exhibition of all the films made in America by Klaw and Erlanger and A. H. Woods from their respective plays. The introduction of vaudeville in Germany and France, with a weekly change of bill, is a distinct novelty, as the few theatres that exist in that country play acts from four to six weeks. Mr. Woods has already appointed agents in London, Paris and Berlin, and fully one hundred acts are already under contract. He will also appoint an American agent within the next few days, who will be in a position to offer good vaudeville turns from ten to thirty weeks.

Before leaving Berlin Mr. Woods completed arrangements for the construction of a new theatre in Potsdamer Platz, in the heart of the big German city, and a location similar to Forty-second Street and Broadway, New York. The Woods-Goldsoll organization will not stop with the invasion of Germany and France. Representatives of the firm are already scouring Russia and Italy for locations and, with the beginning of the regular season in September, they will control the largest circuit of vaudeville theatres in the world. Mr. Woods promises to startle the motion Picture world. He has purchased the American rights of an absolutely new thing in moving pictures that will, in his opinion, prove a sensation. A demonstration will be given to the press and the important picture people in the United States shortly."

June 1913

All of the A. H. Woods-F. J. Goldsoil picture houses here are closed for the summer. Thirteen theatres in Germany under their management will reopen August 25, playing pop vaudeville (vaudeville and pictures). Of this number six will be in Berlin. Mr. Goldsoll is the general manager.

However, press reports in December 1913 indicated that Kinovaudeville wasn't doing as well as hoped, and some programme changes were made at the Cines venues:

"Pop policy abandoned.

Berlin, 10 December 1913. Some of the Cines houses have so far been unsucessful with vaudeville and moving pictures. Changes will occur. In the Friedrich-Wilhelm theatre operette will be played, at first, The Kinokoenigin. The Apollo will have straight vaudeville. Manager is Rachmann. The Nollendorf has no vaudeville license. It will have only pictures. The Hansa theatre, Luebeck, will also omit the vaudeville numbers and show films only. For the present the Cines-Palast Zoo will have acts and films. The two new houses acquired by Cines, The Neue Operetten, Hamburg, and Liebig's Variete, Breslau, have not been taken over yet. Cines expects to get the vaudeville license for these two houses and intends to have vaudeville acts in the bills."

13 February 1914

"Berlin, Feb. 11. F. J. Goldsoll is out of the Cines Corporation, which controls the picture houses in which A. H. Woods is interested. Goldsoll takes the Apollo-Theater [at 218 Friedrichstr., the other end? from the Cines-Theater offices at no. 11] and Zoopalast himself, the Cines Nollendorf is retained by the Cines Corporation; the Friedrich Wilhelm Theatre has been leased for operette and the disposition of the Breslau house [i.e. the Liebich Etablissement in Gartenstraße] is still unsettled. None of the theatres has made any money thus far, it is said." Woods had invested $160,000 in Berlin theatre venture with Goldsoll.

• Ha!!!!!!! The "Cines Corporation" referred to is Cines Theater AG (Berlin directors: F. J. Godsoll and A. H. Woods), a partly-owned subsidiary of the Societá Italiana Cines company of Rome. Thus, according to the specific use of "Cines Corporation" above, Godsoll deffo DOES retain the Nollendorfplatz cinema with the existing Cines Theater AG company. Godsoll also keeps the leases at least of the other establishments listed above, with his newly-formed Palast Theater AG. Cines in Rome re-orders its German operation as Deutsche Cines GmbH, possibly a wholly-owned subsidiary?

NB Random info re Menchen: The Menchen Studios in Paris used Cooper-Hewitt lamps for illumination.

15 March 1914

In February 1914 as Berlin's mini cinema boom ended, Goldsoll left Cines and Woods pulled out of Germany altogether, reportedly leaving behind $160,000 of his own money.

April 1914.

"The German correspondent of the Cine Journal [ie Cines Zeitung] announces that the Cines Company of Rome and the Cines Theater AG of Berlin have cancelled their contracts. A German Cines company is to be formed [i.e. Deutsche Cines GmbH] and in addition to marketing the parent company's productions will handle other brands which may possibly include Lubin films. Cines in Berlin [ie Goldsoll company] will now be known as the Palast Theater AG (Aktien Gesellschaft)." The Palast (am Zoo) was also owned by Goldsoll

May 1914

"Berlin, May 20. The interest held by A. H. Woods and the Cines Co., of Rome, in the German corporation that has been operating several picture theatres here have been purchased by F. J. Goldsoll, a former partner in the venture, said to have lost considerable money since its inception, with Woods (an American, as is Goldsoll) reported having put around $160,000 (approx £50,000) into the German enterprise. (possibly $16,000,000 or £5,000,000 in 2016)

"Goldsoll has changed the name by reincorporating to Palast Theatre Co., and this company now controls the Zoopalast, Apollo, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater and Liebig Breslau.

"All connection between Goldsoll and the Cines Co. has been dissolved through the latter having been appointed Managing Commercial Director for the Ambrosio-Torino, the big film makers. Goldsoll will especially be in charge of the sales department with all business going through him.

"F J. Goldsoll, the American proprietor of the Cines Palast, Beriin, and till recently director of the German Cines Company has just become director general of the Ambrosio Company. Goldsoll has engaged an entirely new stock company of moving picture players. He has also secured the services of Signor Caserini, who has been associated with the Gloria Company." [ie the Italian Gloria film company]</ref> This was Mario Caserini of Film Artistica “Gloria”, who directed Ma L’amor mio non muore! (1913)

Sooo... finally???

Cines-Theater AG

Cines-Theater AG, a cinema management company, was formed in Berlin, Germany, c1912. It was a partly-owned subsidiary of the Italian film production company Societa Italiana Cines (Italian Cines Company), based in Rome. The main shareholders were: the parent company Cines in Rome; A. H. Woods, a theatrical manager based in New York, originally from Hungary; and Joe Goldsoll, who later became the managing director of Goldwyn Pictures from 1922? to 1924, with Woods on the board of directors.<rff> Woods was married to Goldsoll's cousin.{sfn|Lewis|Lewis|198x|p=???}}

Cines in Rome was backed by the Banco di Roma, whose co-founder and president was Ernesto Pacelli. Pacelli was the financial advisor to three Popes, Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV; and the cousin of Pope Pius XII. Pacelli made use of Vatican money to increase the bank's ownership of a number of companies, including mining firms, the car-maker Societa Automobile La Roma, and Cines. (Pollard p. 100)

"Cines, for example, was backed by powerful, established entrepreneurs. Its main investor was Adolfo Pouchain Foggia, an engineer who came from a family of rich tycoons. Another important figure was the president of Banco di Roma, Ernesto Pacelli, who was named president of Cines so that he could oversee the bank's participation in the film company. Pouchain Foggia hired some French professionals, including Gastone Velle, a director from the famous French Pathe studio, to ensure that his artistic and technical personal kept up to date with the latest trends." (Ref 'Entrepreneurs & the State in the Italian Film Industry 1919-1935', p. 778) see ref a couple of paras below.

"Volpi's organization had had experience with the clerical bank's branch in Constantinople, and he felt that the Banco di Roma was technically incompetent and limited in real assets.

• Richard A. Webster. The Political and Industrial Strategies of a Mixed Investment Bank: Italian Industrial Financing and the Banca Commerciale 1894-1915. p. 358. JSTOR 20730057.

VSWG: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 61. Bd., H. 3 (1974), pp. 320-371 [Journal]

Pacelli was president of Cines Roma, the only Italian manufacturer of raw nitrate film, in a market dominated by Kodak and Agfa in Germany.

The Banco di Roma was highly speculative in an undiscriminating way, combining ordinary discount and deposit work with longterm industrial financing and development in a way which puzzled and dismayed foreign observers.

Pacelli seems to have been one of those "creative accountants" (Webster passim).

In 1914 Pacelli admitted losses of 53 million lire, which left the bank on the edge of total failure. (Webster p. 364)

Joe Goldsoll, a millionaire swindler and con-man, described by the French press as "the most colossal fake in the history of jewellery",<reff> (the Gerald Ratner of his day) was the money, and Woods had the theatrical experience. The "Woods-Goldsoll combine" (ie Cines-Theater AG) leased some 35 theatres in Europe for films & vaudeville. Few made any money.

Goldsoll built the Nollendorf/Ufa-Pavillon. Quo Vadis had its joint premiere there with the Ufa-Palast am Zoo which they converted into a cinema; Goldsoll also owned the Volksbuhne, & the Leibich in Breslau. All theatres filled with variety (vaudeville) performers from USA.

Banco di Roma had lost 53 million lire by 1914.

Fell apart by early 1914. Woods left, Goldsoll bought out Cines and Woods and kept his four theatres. Pacelli lost his position at the bank.

Goldsoll re-organised, forming two companies: Deutsche Cines GmbH, to act as a sales representative of Cines Rome, and which also controlled the the Nollendorf Theatre. The other company, Palast-Theater AG, ran the Zoopalast, the Volksbuhne & the Liebich Etablissiment in Breslau.

Then WW1, and everything fell apart even further. Then Italy declared war against Germany in 1916, and Paul Davidson's Union-Theater bought up the many cinemas vacated by the Americans/foreigners, including Goldsoll's four.

WW1 In 1914 his company Cines-Theater AG had offices at 11 Friedrichstraße. which I think was was taken over by Deutsches Cines GmbH -CHECK!

At the start of World War I, Goldsoll, as a French citizen, was called up and mobilised into the Army. Through his connections he landed himself a job as chauffeur to General Baptiste Faurie in Bordeaux. He somehow arrived in Italy (nominally allied with the Central Powers but remaining neutral until May 1915) [probably Turin, where Ambrosio Film was based] where he was able to send cablegrams to Berlin, to sort out his business affairs, including ownership of his cinemas (Zoo-Palast etc.)

28 October 1916

The Rochambeau Steams With many Passengers. F. J. Goldsoll, Whose Gift of $10,000 Started the Fund for the Aid of Hopelessly Crippled French Soldiers, Among Those Leaving for Bordeaux.

F. J. Goldsoll, whose of gift of $10,000 laid the foundation of the fund for the hopelessly crippled French soldiers the amount of which was later increased to nearly $50,000 is among the passengers on board the French line steamship Rochambeau leaving to-day for Bordeaux. Other passengers included Fara Forni. Italian Consul General in this city: Jean P. Faure, Robert Herrick, Miss Eleanor McClure, Frederick C. Payne, Mr. and Mrs. "William Whitlock and Mr. Stephen Bonsai.

And then the extradition process...

He owned a huge house designed by Stanford White at Mamaroneck on Long Island Sound from 1923 to 1926 , who was shot by Thaw, married to Evelyn Nesbit, who sang in the chorus of "The Girl from Dixie" for which George C. Crager was advance agent

Cines-Theater AG

NB Check Berliner Addressbuch for Cines-Theater AG in Friedrichstr. or anywhere else before 1912.

The Italian film production firm of Cines (Società Italiana Cines, Italian Cines Company, based in Rome) had a number of affiliated companies in other countries. By 1912 Joe Goldsoll had invested heavily in Cines; he owned the rights to Cines films in Germany (along with Al. Woods), and formed his own separate company in Berlin, Cines-Theater AG, to represent his own interests there. References to Cines in Berlin around this time should be treated with caution to distinguish Goldsoll's dealings (Cines-Theater) from those of the Italian parent company Società Italiana Cines (or Cines Corporation).

It seems quite likely that Goldsoll was the original builder and owner of the Nollendorf-Theater. He appears (as F. J. Goldsoll) as its owner ('Eigentümer)' in the 1913 Berlin address book. The Cines-Theater company published a promotional journal Cines-Zeitung from 1 April to 26 November 1914.

Goldsoll, Woods and Cines parted company in early 1914 when it became clear that kinovaudeville wasn't going to make the vast profits they had hoped for, and Goldsoll joined Ambrosio Film. The Italian Cines company acquired the Nollendorf Theatre and set up its own German company, Deutsche Cines GmbH, to represent its own interests in Germany. Goldsoll reincorporated his own Cines-Theater AG as Palast-Theatre AG which controlled the Zoopalast, Apollo, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater and Liebich in Breslau.

Now for the nitty-gritty of info & refs... Done

And so I know now that Goldsoll, Woods and Società Italiana Cines all had interests in Cines-Theater AG. See Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz#Later history for details & refs.

Its offices in Friedrichstr. 11 were taken over by Deutsche Cines GmbH when Goldsoll pulled out of Cines; Deutsche Cines GmbH seems to have only been concerned with the Nollendorf.

Palast-Theater AG again

This was Goldsoll's own company set up when he pulled out of Cines in February 1914.

Goldsoll's Palast-Theater AG company controlled 4 Berlin theaters: Cines-Palast am Zoo and the de:Apollo-Theater (Berlin), the Wihelm-Stadt (now Deutsches Theater), and the vast, cavernous de:Rose-Theater. See Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz#Later history for details & refs, JJ Rosenthal etc.

NB This ref, compiled from the archives of the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft bank, 1856-1945, says that Palast-Theater AG was in existence from 1913-1926, but no other useful info.

Ben-Hur

Goldsoll was at Goldwyn Pictures from 1919-1924, as MD from 1922-1924 having elbowed out Sam Goldwyn.

Which films released by MGM were started under Goldsol? See List of films produced by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation at IMDb (try sorting in reverse date order). And see List of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films.

• The Arab (1924 film) "The movie was filmed in North Africa just before the MGM merger, and edited under the new regime". See also List of rediscovered films
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1924 film) ?
• He Who Gets Slapped, released November 9, 1924. "The first film made completely by MGM". So I assume that all the others were started before the merger. But some would have come from the former Metro and Thalberg studios.

Production

Ben-Hur: Find deal with UCI, signed by Goldwyn Pictures in September 1923 - worth five million lire, to offset production costs. Goldsoll had been German distributor of Cines films and built the Nollendorf with Banco di Roma's papal money.

Lolissimo, Unione Cinematografica Italiana (UCI) was founded in 1919 by Baron it:Alberto Fassini, MD of Cines. UCI was

"a consortium of the major Italian producers that had the financial backing of Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) and the Banca Italiana di Sconto. Its board of directors comprised the social and economic national elite of Italy's financial system. Conceived as an "industrial solution" to the problem of the invasion of American films, UCI recruited some of the best technical and artistic experts in Italian cinema. Nevertheless, since the films it eventually produced were considered by contemporaries to be of poor quality and to lack stylistic innovation, they were unlikely to be exported successfully."(p. 783)

In 1921 UCI was badly damaged by the collapse of the Banca Italiana di Sconto, which had been a major investor.

UCI was also involved in a failed Quo Vadis remake in 1924:

"In the years after the war, Italian films reverted to old story lines. Emblematic of this trend was the remake of Quo Vadis? by Unione Cinematografica Italiana in 1924. The movie was a spectacular flop. Its technical production employed the same technology that was used in making the first version, and even more damaging, the producers ran up high costs that contributed to the company's bankruptcy." (p. 781)

The film production company Societá Pittaluga merged with UCI in February 1924, acquiring the Cines studios and became closely involved with the Mussolini regime. (p. 784) Fassini had been a member of the Italian Fascist Party since 1921 (ref italian wiki Fassini article).

Entrepreneurs and the State in the Italian Film Industry, 1919—1935 Author(s): Marina Nicoli Source: The Business History Review, Vol. 85, No. 4 (WINTER 2011), pp. 775-798 Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23239424

Charles Brabin was the original director of Ben-Hur, script by June Mathis. Brabin had been in Italy since October 1923, but when Mathis arrived in February 1924 he made it obvious that she would not be allowed to interfere. Differences developed into a split bewtween Brabin and Mathis camps. Production costs soared: Mathis had been in charge of the original project for 18 months and spent some $3 million with very little result.

By late December 1923 "Goldsol had already entered into merger negotiations with Marcus Loew and William Randolph Hearst." I fink Godsol had left by spring 1924, March/April time? Greed and Ben-Hur were still in production when he left. Immediately afterwards in 1924 the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, with MGM the result of the merger.

On 1 May 1924 in Culver City the MGM executives decided to destroy most of the footage made in Italy and re-shoot the entire picture. Greed by von Stroheim was cut down to 2 hours, and the rest of the 7 hours' worth of footage destroyed. Brabin and Mathis were replaced in June 1924 by Loew in person, who travelled to Italy with Fred Niblo. Brabin's footage was heavily criticised "the sets looked cheesy, the make-up awful, the wigs terrible.". Irving Thalberg's reaction: "...It is almost beyond my conception that such stuff could have been passed by people of even moderate intelligence - that June Mathis, in fact any one over there, could have allowed [it] to pass, for one single day."

The whole production was re-started in Italy, and a complete re-shoot begun with Fred Niblo, assisted by Christy Cabanne. The Technicolor inserts were shot by William Wyler. There was a fire in the props warehouse in January 1925, and the entire company was called home. Total costs reached $4 million, and it never made a profit. Finally released in US on 30 December 1925.

Ben-Hur had its European première on 7 September 1926 at the Nollendorf, while Parufamet was in charge, plus Metropolis. Remember, the Parufamet contract was in effect 1925-1927, until after Metropolis. So Goldsoll almost certainly still owned/controlled the Berlin theatres, and that's why (perhaps) Ben-Hur opened at the Nollendorf rather than the ZooPalast, since it was 'his' film: and perhaps the quiet Metropolis at the Nollendorf.

MOVE to sources

• Garnier, Philippe (2012). "We'll shoot it in the morning": The life and work of Charles Brabin (PDF). Festival Lumière2012, Institut Lumière.

• Solomon, Jon (2016). Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474407960.

Cines Palast am Zoo

There is a fair amount of material relating to the Zoo-Palast, so put it here...

Revised overview

The western hall (previously the Groß-Berlin theatre, converted from an exhibition hall) was leased on 1 May 1913 by A. H. Woods, a Hungarian-born vaudeville impresario based in New York. Woods, along with his business partner #Joe Goldsoll, was a director of #Cines-Theater AG, a partly-owned subsidiary of the Rome-based Cines film production company. They owned the rights to Cines films in Germany. Goldsoll and Woods, along with a consortium of American theatrical investors, had just built the Nollendorf-Theater where the German première of Quo Vadis (1913 film) had took place on 19 March.

The Groß-Berlin was converted into a cinema by Oskar Kaufmann, architect of the Nollendorf. It opened as the Cines-Palast am Zoo on 22 August 1913 with five vaudeville acts and moving pictures. (see below)

Goldsoll and Woods swiftly created a chain of fourteen theatres in Germany, and the same number in France, leasing them to show Cines films and/or touring vaudeville acts imported from the US. The combination of the two was known as kinovaudeville, and was essentially a reproduction of the shows in New York vaudeville theatres such as Koster and Bial's Music Hall, Keith's Union Square Theatre, and Tony Pastor's New Fourteenth Street Theatre, where the earliest motion pictures were shown from 1896 in between the stage acts. The projectionist at Pastor's was Joseph Menchen, who later became one of the world's largest makers of theatrical lighting equipment, along with Klieg. In 1912 Menchen produced The Miracle, the world's first all-colour narrative feature film. Woods bought the US rights from Menchen, and The Miracle showed in New York for nearly two months in February and March 1913.

Apart from his 'Tecla' pearls and imitation diamond business, Goldsoll had been a deal-maker since 1912 for Lee Shubert, who leased the Kinoplastikon stereoscopic film system which was to be used in the Shubert's recently converted Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. The offices of Goldsoll's Berlin branch of Kinoplastikon were at Hardenbergstrasse 29A, the address of the Ufa-Palast am Zoo.

Other Berlin theatres which Woods and Godsoll took over included the de:Apollo-Theater (Berlin) the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, later the Deutsches Theater (where Oskar Messter had shown synchronised sound films in 1903).

Timeline of name changes

The original exhibition hall at the Zoological Gardens, Charlottenburg in 1908, before its conversion into a theatre and then the Cines Palast am Zoo cinema.

Ahahaha Okkkkkkk.....

The 1908 German Naval Exhibition took place there.

The restaurant next door was called the Wilhelmshalle (perhaps because the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was in the middle of the square). NB Find those before and after pix of the interior.

The cinema had 700 seats. The original exhibition hall (Ausstellungshalle) ran parallel to the facade. See second image down at Berlin in alten Bildern (find Fotos von 1905 - 1945) The round arch of one of the windows of the exhibition hall can be seen directly behind the central entrance.

Timeline from Ehemaliger Ufa-Palast am Zoo:

• 1905-06 Erbauung der »Ausstellungshallen am Zoo« im romanischen Stil von Carl Gause; Umbauten

[1905-06 Construction of the 'Exhibition Hall the the Zoo' in the Romanesque syle by Carl Gause.]

• 1912 Umbau der Halle I zum »Theater Groß-Berlin« durch Arthur Biberfeld

[1912 Conversion of Hall I to the Groß-Berlin Theater, by Arthur Biberfeld.]

• 1913 Ausstattung mit einem Bildwerferraum (bis 1915) durch Oskar Kaufmann zwecks Aufführung des Filmes “Quo Vadis” der Cines-Filmgesellschaft. 700 places

[1913 Equipped with a projection room [ie converted with projection facilities] (up to 1915) by Oskar Kaufmann for performance of Quo Vadis? by Cines.]

• 1913-14 unter dem Namen Cines-Palast.

[1913-14 Called the Cines-Palast.]

I imagine the Palast was bought by Davidson's Union-Theater (U-T) chain, like all the other ex-Woods/Godsoll houses - CHECK!

• 1919 Umbau für die Ufa von Max Bischoff zu einem Kino mit 1740 Plätzen (1150 Parkett. 590 Rang). Längsrechteckiger, schlicht gestalteter Saal, doppelstöckige Proszeniumslogen, hufeisenförmiger Rang, mit Fayenceplatten verblendete Bühnenwand.

[1919 Alteration by Ufa by Max Bischoff to a cinema with 1740 places (1150 Stalls, 590 Circle). A long, rectangular, simple/plain auditorium, double boxes by the proscenium, horseshoe-shaped balcony, with faience tiles facing on the stage wall.]

• 1925 Umbau von Carl Stahl-Urach. Erhöhung auf 2165 Plätze, Einbau einer Lichtorgel.

[1925 Conversion by Carl Stahl-Urach. Enlargement to 2165 places. Installation of a 'lighting console' (not, sadly, an illuminated organ...)]

Kaufmann's work only lasted until 1919. The cinema was redesigned in 1919 by Max Bischoff, with 1740 places (1150 Stalls, 590 Circle). It seems quite likely that the old exhibition hall/theatre was demolished at this time, and the new building was aligned at 90 degrees to the street. See also photo dated 1924 in 'Berlin in alten Bildern' above (if this date is correct, it shows work done in 1919). I haven't found any other roof-top views of the Palast to compare the work done by Carl Stahl-Urach in 1925 for the enlargement to 2,156 seats. I think there were also around 500 standing places.

History

The exhibition hall at the Zoological Gardens, Charlottenburg in 1908, before its conversion to the Cines-Theater am Zoo

By 24 March 1913, Woods & Goldsoll had concluded arrangements to lease the Groß-Theater Berlin, part of the Zoological gardens exhibition hall in Charlottenberg, taking full possession on May 1.

30 April 1913: "A. L. Woods' theatre here continues to do an excellent business with feature films. The seating capacity is 700 and he is paying an annual rental of $37,500. [ie about $3,000 a month] It is the first time that pictures have been shown at a regular playhouse in this town. Edw. B. Kinsila, who promoted the deal, and the Goldsalls also are interested in the venture. [NB "The Goldsalls" would tend to imply that both Frank J. and Louis H. were involved.] By next season Woods expects to have 15 houses on the continent playing vaudeville, most located in Germany. His plan may be to establish a circuit of "pop" vaudeville and pictures similar to those in vogue in America."

20 May 1913

Das frühere Theater Gross-Berlin wird am 26. d. M. (will open on 26 May 1913) von der Cinesgesellschaft in Betrieb genommen. Die Eröffnung geschieht als Lichtbildbühne; erst zu Beginn der Wintersaison wird der kombinierte Betrieb Varieté und Kino bringen. Das Theater wird den Namen "Cines-Palast" führen. Das Programm der ununterbrochenen Vorführungen von 6-11 Uhr wird namentlich solche Films aufweisen, bei denen der Gesellschaft das alleinige Uraufführungsrecht für Berlin zusteht. Das Eröffnungsprogramm bringt einen Film der römischen Cines-Gesellschaft, dessen Titel Zuma ist, und der neben dem gesellschaftlichen Sujet einen starken exotischen Einschlag hat. Ausserdem wird das Programm noch ein anderes Filmdrama der Cinesgesellschaft: Staatsgeheimnisse, mehrere humoristische Szenen und eine Revue der Weltereignisse bieten.

With its former stage theatre interior redesigned as a cinema with 700 seats by Oscar Kaufmann, it opened as the Cines-Palast am Zoo on 22 August 1913 with five vaudeville acts and moving pictures, including A mile in a minute, featuring a race between a car and a locomotive.

19 August 1913

"Das frühere Theater Gross-Berlin, eröffnet am Freitag seine Winterspielzeit mit dem "Kino-Variété-Programm" das damit 'zum ersten Male in Deutschland gespielt wird. Die mit Lichtbildern, Humoresken, Exzentriks und den verschiedenen Variété-Akten kombinierte Programm enthält als Hauptattraktion den in London, New York und Paris mit grösstem Erfolg vorgeführten technischen Scetch "Eine Meile in der Minute", den Wettkampf zwischen Auto und Lokomotive, der gleichzeitig die verblüffende Lösung eines Bühnenproblems darstellt."

Opening program, 22 August 1913, with review

The film items are marked with an asterisk.*

"Cines"-Palast am Zoo. Variété-Lichtspiele. Programm 22. bis 28 August 1913:

• 1. Nur eine schäbige Puppe - Kinohumoreske* ('Only a tattered doll' - comedy)
• 2. Claude M.Roode - Das Wunder auf dem Drahtseil ('Wonder on the high wire')
• 3. Der zerstreute Julius - Filmburleske* (Julius amuses himself)
• 4. Filmdepeschen. (Lit. 'Despatch film', poss. Newsreel/Actualité)*
• 5. Bliemschen im Seebad* ('Milky coffee while bathing in the sea' - Term from Saxony: Kaffee mit viel Milch)
• 6. Ein stummer Held - Offizierstragödie* (A silent hero - officer tragedy)
• 7. Mr.Alfredo - Exzentr. Geigenkünstler. (Eccentric violinist/fiddler)
• 8. Kinder Wüste - Arabisches Sittenbild. ('Desert children - Arabian genre picture' [description of the customs or way of life of a society, social class etc.])
• 9. Herbert Lloyd
• 10. Freunde, auf die man sich verlassen kann - Lustspiel* (Friends you can rely on - love story)
• 11. Eine Meile in der Minute - Amerik.[anischer] Variété-Sketch.

Kinovaudeville liked. (Special Cable to VARIETY.) Berlin, Aug. 27.
"The Cines Palast Zoo, with the Woods-Goldsoll vaudeville and pictures, opened Aug. 22 with five acts and moving pictures to very good business. Herbert Lloyd is going big. Langdon McCormick's train effect worked into a sketch called "A Mile a Minute," is a great success though suffering from poor acting. Claude Roode is going well; Alfredo, the violinist, does nicely. Two modern dancers fell flat. The public is taking well to Kinovaudeville."

8 September

"Da die Vorstellungen im Cines-Palast am Zoo allabendlich ausverkauft sind, hat sich die Direktion entschlossen, einen Vorverkauf einzurichten. Von heute an sind die Kassen im Cines-Palast am Zoo von 2 Uhr ununterbrochen geöffnet."

18 September 1913

Das neue Programm im "Cines"-Palast am Zoo ist wieder ganz auf den Humor abgestimmt. Sechs meist sehr lustige Films stehen für die Kinematographie ein, darunter einer, ein sogenannter Trickfilm, der - eine drollige Idee! - Hermann Bangs psychologisch seinen Roman "Die vier Teufel" ins Tierleben übersetzt und die Handlung sich zwischen einer Ratte, Fröschen und Insekten abspielen lässt.

Von groteskester Komik ist die Burleske "Stärker als Sherlock Holmes", bei der die irrsinnigsten Dinge geschehen, und alles buchstäblich drunter und drüber geht. Unter den Spezialitäten ragen Francis und Alfred hervor, die die Jongleurkunst zum Gipfel gesteigert haben und im übrigen ihre Produktion mit allerlei erheiterndem Beiwerk schmücken. Von entzückender Tanzgrazie sind die Bekesy Sisters, während Thurber und Thurber, die dank einem originellen Kostüm zusammen über sechs Köpfe und acht Beine verfügen, in drolligster Phantastik des Tanzes ihre Stärke suchen. Das ausgezeichnete, aus dem Wintergarten schon bekannte Quartett The Gotham Tour erntete nicht nur für seine Spässe, sondern auch für seinen delikat abgestimmten Gesang herzlichen Beifall, und Hard und Gard, die in allen Lebenslagen und in allen Körperstellungen virtuos Flügel und Posaune handhaben und gegen Püffe und Stösse vollkommen unempfindlich zu sein scheinen, hatten sich gleichfalls der Gunst des Publikums zu erfreuen. In geschmackvoller Inszenierung und geübt und gewandt führt Jonia eine Reihe fesselnder Zauberstücklein vor."

11 October 1913

Die Cines-Theater brachten gestern einige neue Varieténummern heraus. Im Cines-Palast am Zoo stellten sich zwei amerikanische Ensembles vor, die urdrolligen beiden Thurbeos mit ihrem achtbeinigen Grotesktanz und das Gesangsquartett "Gotham Four", das sich aus stimmbegabten Originalen amüsantester Art zusammensetzte. Als eine Art Glanzpunkt ist die Ausstattungsrevue "London bei Tag und Nacht" gedacht, die ausser zwei Ragtime-Chansons keinerlei Handlung enthält, aber mit dem Themsegewitter und dem nächtlichen Londoner Lunapark dem Maschinenmeister alle Ehre macht. Baggesen wirkt auch in dieser Woche durch seine drollige Art, Porzellangeschirr zu konsumieren. Von den Films der Woche muss besonders die Groteske "Weh, wenn sie losgelassen" genannt werden, in der lebendige Tiger, Löwen, Leoparden, Elefanten, Bären und Affen die Hauptakteure - und was für Akteure! - sind. Es ist eine humoristische Glanzleistung der amerikanischen Vitagraphfabrik. Nur die Leistungen der Kapelle sind noch recht unzulänglich.

Das "Cines" Apollo Theater wartet in dieser Woche mit einem Varietéprogramm auf, das dem die Bekesy Sisters, zwei rassige, wilde Tänzerinnen, zu nennen sind. Eine bemerkenswerte Leistung vollführen auch die Radler Paulton und Doley, die durch die humoristische Ausgestaltung die Waghalsigkeit ihrer Vorführungen auf dem Zwei- [Zweirad] und Einrad ganz verschwinden lassen. Den gewohnten Erfolg erzielten wieder die klugen Affen Maude Rochez, die eine vollständige Varieté-Vorstellung darbieten. Den Mittelpunkt der Filmvorführungen bildet ein dreiaktiges Drama "Der schwarze Kreis", das durch seine spannende Handlung bis zum letzten Moment fesselt.

Das "Cines" Friedrich-Wilhelm-städtische Schauspielhaus bringt den Sensationsfilm "Quo vadis?" und den Sketch "Eine Meile in der Minute". The Avolos mit ihren verblüffenden Leistungen an freistehenden Stangen sind hervorragend. Die zwei lustigen Musikanten Herd und Gard sorgen für köstlichen Humor, ebenso wie Horton und La Triska der Clown, die lebende Puppe und Elly und Lully Hallass, die ungarischen Tänzerinnen.</ref>Die Cines-Theater. Berliner Börsen-Courier, 11.10.1913, Nr. 477</ref>

23 November

Die "Cines"-Theater [Bildtexte: (ie Ad.) ]

• Nollendorf-Theater, in welchem "Cleopatra, die Herrin des Nils", das Meisterwerk der Filmkunst, bereits das Jubiläum der 100. Aufführung feiern konnte.
• Palast am Zoo, führt allabendlich ein komplettes erstklassiges Varieté- und Lichtspiel-Programm vor.
• Apollo-Theater, bringt ein allgemein beliebtes Varieté-Programm.
• Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtisches Theater. Jean Gilbert's Operette "Die Kino-Königin", der grösste Erfolg dieses Jahres, wird täglich von einem vortrefflichen Gastspiel-Ensemble aufgeführt.

7 December 1913

Im "Cines"-Palast am Zoo erregt das Auftreten des Schimpansen Fuma allabendlich das grösste Erstaunen. Auch der aufregende Sketch "Marfa" ist in seiner gücklichen Kombination von Theater und Kino eine vortreffliche Nummer des Programmes. Grossartig sind die Musikalhumoristen Simms und Simms mit ihrer Komödie "Du bist nicht böse" und die erstklassigen Akrobaten Liévin und Pantzer. Das Lichtspielprogramm weist durchweg neue Bilder auf. - "Cleopatra, die Herrin des Nils" [actually "Die Herrin des Nils, Cleopatra" (1912), Enrico Guazzoni] bleibt im Spielplan des "Cines"-Nollendorf-Theaters und wird bald das zweite Hundert der Aufführungen vollenden. (200 performances)

12 December 1913

"Im Cines-Palast am Zoo sieht man einen alten Bekannten: den Varietékünstler Baggesen, den König der humoristischen Jongleure, der durch seine Komik wahre Beifallsstürme erzielt. Ferner zeigt "London bei Tag und Nacht", eine szenische Ausstattungsrevue in drei Tableaus bei guten Lichteffekten die Themsestadt aus der Vogelperspektive am Morgen und am Abend, bei Gewitter und bei Mondaufgang. Des weiteren werden andere gute Filme vorgeführt, wie "Autofahrt des Tontolini", das Abenteuer eines Bäckergesellen, "Finkler in Bedrängnis" u.a.m. -

Im Cines-Apollotheater gefällt von den Varieténummern besonders die possierliche Vorstellung von Maude Rochez' Affentheater, und weit über das Mass des alltäglichen gehen auch die Leistungen der beiden englischen Jongleure Francis und Alfred. Das dreiaktige Filmdrama "Der schwarze Preis", das das Treiben einer geheimnisvollen amerikanischen Verbrechergesellschaft zeigt, fesselt in seiner phantasiereichen und spannenden Handlung das Publikum von Anfang bis zu Ende."

Kinovaudeville still running in March.

"Gegen die Amerikanisierung des deutschen kinos", Film-kurier suppl., 8 October 1925.

Films shown at Palast am Zoo

• 8 January 1914: Die Letzten hundert Tage (Cines)

• 15 May 1914: The Miracle (1912 film) directed by Michel-Antoine Carré.

• April 1919: The Boy in Blue (1919 film), Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's first film may have shown there, since it crops up in searches for Cines-Palast. No, it was apparently never released, lost film.

Max Bischoff

Max Bischoff (architect of the U-T-Palast in 1919) was born 4 October 1875 in Magdeburg. He won the second prize of 12,000 marks in his Group in an architectural competition for house designs in 1908. Auction sale of eighteen photographs of his work. He was also the builder of the so-called Haus Kurfürsteneck, Kurfurstendamm 110, Berlin, which included the 'Kurfürsteneck' restaurant and was also his office address.

After the Ufa-Palast am Zoo (1919), Bischoff went on to design a number of new Berlin cinemas with de:Fritz Wilms (Architekt); they worked on the Decla-Lichtspiele cinema (1919-1920) with apartments and shops in Antonplatz / Max-Steinke-Straße, Berlin-Weißensee, (456 seats); the de:Alhambra (Kino) (1921-1922) at 68 Kurfürstendamm, where the first Tri-Ergon sound films were shown in 1922; extended a similarly-named Alhambra in the Seestraße (also 1921-1922) (originally built as the Apollo, now de:Cineplex Alhambra); the Colosseum (1924) in the de:Schönhauser Allee; the de:Turm-Palast (1924–1925) in the de:Turmstraße (1700 seats,later Ufa-Theater Turmstraße) and the Palastkinos Stern in de:Hermannstraße.

Well well, he co-designed the Ufa-Palast, ul. Elżbietańska 2 in Gdansk in c. 1931, along with de:Adolf Bielefeldt.

Carl Stahl-Urach

He designed the last rebuilding of the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in 1925, and then did the new sound stage (the Tonkreuz) at Babelsberg Studio in 1929.

Edward Kinsila

Edward B. Kinsila seems to have been a man of somewhat dubious character. He was the son of Hon. John Kinsila, member of the New York State Senate in Albany. He went on a world tour in 1890 including Japan, where he returned in 1920.

Kinsila moved to London for a time, where he where he passed himself off as an American attorney, although he had obtained a law degree from a university without studying, and had only spent a few days in an attorney's office. NB I definitely remember reading this a long time ago, but didn't note the url.

"ATTENTION of authors and theatrical managers is called to the fact that the present method of copyrighting American plays In Great Britain Is legally void. The undersigned, for the nominal fee of £5, is prepared to obtain for all American plays not yet produced an English copyright that secures absolute protection.

EDWARD B. KINSILA. American Attorney at Law, 24 Haymarket, London, England.

Bizarrely, Kinsila seems to have known Donald Swanson, the man in charge of the Jack the Ripper murders; Kinsila sent Swanson some papers in 1905, and his full name, Edward B. Kinsila, appears in Swanson's address book.

Letter from Sir Robert Anderson, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to Swanson:

"Dear Swanson      25:12:1905.

Mr. Kinsila asks me to send you the enclosed papers.

I want at the same time to ask yr acceptance of the accompanying book.

I hope you are well. Yours faithfully

Anderson."

By 1910 Kinsila was heading a London property syndicate which bought the site of 117 West 42nd Street running through to 108-116 West 43rd Street, with plans to turn it into a music hall. It was previously a Shanley's Restaurant in 1905, and again in 1912.It later became the Hotel Dilano and then the Hotel Diplomat.

Included in the address: 108 West 43rd Street was Elks Lodge No. 1 from 1911-1934.

Kinsila became a cinema and film studio architect in the US. In his book Modern Theater Construction he claimed to have designed the general layout of the auditorium of the Nollendorf, whose entrances are at the front at either side of the projection screen, rather than at the rear. "The author employed, for the first time, the same idea in constructing the Nollendorf Theatre in Berlin, Germany, said to be, when completed, the finest theatre in the world devoted to motion pictures." The chapter continues with a full description of the interior of the Nollendorf.

Kinsila designed Peerless's new studios in Fort Lee, NJ but his design for Universal Studios not so successful: "Despite Carl Laemmle's assurances, the studio was nowhere ready by February or March 1915. In fact, construction had ground to a halt, with Universal suing the architect, Edward Kinsila, and turning the project over to Ernest Flagg, designer of the Singer Building. Kinsila was a theatre architect associated with the Shuberts, but had also designed the Peerless and Gaumont (Flushing) studios. What went wrong was still unclear, but Flagg's completed design did omit the Italian gardens [a la Kleine studios near Turin], waterfall, and Tudor decoration."

"After I had completed the Nollendorf Theater in Berlin, Germany, I was besieged with inquiries covering the whole field of the motion picture industry. Accompanying the inquiries were several commissions for studio construction. Before undertaking the erection of a studio I thought it wise to thoroughly inform myself about their requirements. With that thought in view I visited all the prominent studios in Europe, and carefully studied their equipment and arrangement. A personal acquaintance with Bacon Facine (sic, probably Baron Fassini), director general of the Cines, and Mons. Gaumont, proved of valuable assistance.

"The finest studio I saw at that time in Europe was built by an American, Joseph Minchen (sic), near Paris. I had given Minchen his first ideas of the business and naturally rejoiced over his accomplishment. This studio contained every facility known at that time for making pictures and was a fine tribute to the American painstaking mind of the builder. My visit to this remarkable studio impressed me more fully with the possibilities of proper studio construction in America. In any event. I firmly resolved to absorb all the ideas obtainable for future use in my native land."

Oskar Kaufmann

Excellent pictures to demonstrate arch. development at de:Hebbel-Theater and de:Stadttheater Bremerhaven. Lolissimo - Kaufmann was Hungarian! Thus the appearance of Al. Woods, another well-known Hungarian vaudeville promoter in New York, who had bought the US rights to The Miracle. Woods replaced Godsol's previous business partner, the slimy toad Edward Kinsila (son of a respected judge, and they are the worst).

Kaufmann may have had something to with the Bielefeld Opera (Theater Bielefeld ), (opened 1904) while working for the firm of de:Bernhard Sehring. He designed the de:Hebbel-Theater in Berlin in 1906-8 and the façades and interior spaces of the Stadttheaters in Bremerhaven (1909-11). He converted the Ufa-Palast am Zoo (Hardenbergstr. 29) to a cinema in 1913-15, and also the Volksbühne Berlin, (Bülowplatz, now Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz) (1913-14) (where the director from 1915 to 1918 was Max Reinhardt, whose The Miracle (play) was filmed as The Miracle (1912 film), which didn't show at the Nollendorf in 1912); and later the de:Renaissance-Theater (Berlin) (1926-7).

In 1926 Kaufmann restored the Bechstein-Saal concert hall (dating from 1892) in Linkstraße, Berlin. On the opening night Julia Culp sang Lieder by Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms.

Trireme?

Buildings designed by Oscar Kaufmann

• 
  Bielefeld Opera (1904) (possibly?)
• 
  de:Hebbel-Theater, Berlin (1907-8)
• 
  de:Stadttheater Bremerhaven Theatre with additional wing (r.) (1910–1915)
• 
  Cines Nollendorf-Theater portico
• 
  Cines Nollendorf-Theater, artwork by Kaufmann (1911-12)
• 
  Cines Nollendorf-Theater (1911-1912)
• 
  Volksbühne, Berlin (1913-14)
• 
  Habima Theater, Tel Aviv
• 
  Stadttheater Bremerhaven, with the top of the foof removed

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Abel, Richard (1998). The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520079366.
• Birmingham, Stephen (1999). "The Rest of Us": The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews. Syracuse University Press. pp. 198–202. ISBN 9780815606147.
• Hansen, Antje (2001). Oskar Kaufmann. Ein Theaterarchitekt zwischen Tradition und Moderne (in German). Berlin: Gebr. Mann. pp. 222–229. ISBN 9783786123750.
• Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Eric Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781785330100.
• Henry, Marc (1918). Beyond the Rhine; memories of art and life in Germany before the war. London: Constable and Company.
• Kinsila, Edward Bernard (1917). Modern theatre construction. New York: Chalmers.
• Koszarski, Richard (2004). Fort Lee: The Film Town. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780861966530.
• Lewis, Kevin; Lewis, Arnold (1988). "Include Me out: Samuel Goldwyn and Joe Godsol". Film History, June-July 1988. 2 (2). Indiana University Press: 133–153. JSTOR 3815031.
• Redi, Riccardo (2009). La Cines: storia di una casa di produzione italiana (in Italian). Persiani Editore. ISBN 9788896013045.
• Schliepmann, Hans (1915). "Oskar Kaufmanns Stadttheater in Bremerhaven". Berliner Architekturwelt (in German). 17 (2): 45–84. urn:nbn:de:kobv:109-opus-5427