Gaumont-Palace
In 1931, Gaumont reconstructed the cinema, with a new Art Deco exterior. The largest cinema in France, it was used to premiere major productions from both France and abroad. With a capacity of 6,000, it commonly attracted between fifty and sixty thousand spectators a week in the early 1930s. The size of the cinema meant that it rarely held films over for more than two weeks before they were switched to smaller venues in the city such as the Caméo cinema.
In 1952, the cinema featured in the comedy film Holiday for Henrietta. In 1962, it was converted for the use of Cinerama widescreen format. Increasingly, its large size was considered a disadvantage, due to poor audio quality. Plans were made for a further reconstruction but these were abandoned. In 1972, Gaumont sold off the site and it was demolished in 1973 and redeveloped. The money the company received from its sale allowed it to renovate other parts of its cinema chain, including in Lille, Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Reims, Nice and Toulouse.
References
Bibliography
- Abel, Richard. The Cine Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914. University of California Press, 1998.
- Crisp, Colin. Genre, Myth and Convention in the French Cinema, 1929-1939. Indiana University Press, 2002.