A Golden Age of Belarusian Cinemas.
1911-1914
Vitebsk, Part I
The old cinema journals give us rich descriptions of Vitebsk’s houses of wonder. The descriptions are so long that we have to report them in three different articles.
Early reports say that Vitebsk had four theaters in early 1911, the Illusion, the Giant, the Odeon, and the Original-Bioscope.1 A Vitebsk Courier online article named the fourth theater as the Vulcan, instead of the Odeon.2 Cine-Phono implies there was a fifth, the Grand-Electro, which was closed.3 Yet another online article claims there were six theaters in Vitebsk in 1910: Record, Odeon, Kino-Ars, Illusion, Art and the Giant.4 Elkin, who closed down the Grand-Electro, also owned the Giant (although they could have been one and the same), which received a great deal of praise for its beauty:
The theater has 350 seats, and “In terms of luxury, this theater occupies the first place in Vitebsk: a chic entrance, 2 luxurious foyers, a fountain, an abundance of tropical plants and everything else form an artistic corner in the full sense of the word, — A distinctive feature of the Giant is also the accompaniment of the films by a string troupe of 8 people under the direction of an experienced conductor.”5
Сine-Phono Magazine
On February 1, 1911, Cine-Phono reported that the Original Bioscope was located in the center of the city, provided no description of the Illusion and said that the Odeon was in a wooden building. (This report came just days before the Bologoye theater fire, which occurred on February 20, 1911, which resulted in 64 deaths.).6 The Odeon was owned by Mr. Goldman.7
Vitebsk, Beginning of the XX century
Source: https://www.sb.by/articles/film-film-film855.html
On May 1, 1911, Cine-Phono reported that there were five theaters in Vitebsk: The Vulcan, Odeon, Illusion, Giant and Grand-electro. Soon, there would be two less: The Grand-Electro closed and, as we note in the next paragraph the Odeon burned down.8
On April 29, 1911, Kine-Zhurnal reported that a wooden theater owned by Frumkin was destroyed by fire.9 Months later, Cine-Phono wrote the Odeon that burned.10 (Note Cine-Phono had said the Odeon was owned by Goldman, not Frumkin.) While Cine-Phono was late on reporting the fire, it provided more detail: “The losses amounted to more than 10,000 (presumably rubles).” The theater was not insured because no one would insure it. And, most telling, “arson is assumed.” Goldman, who had just purchased the theater from Frumkin, “immediately began to build a new theater on the same site — a stone one.” 11
The speed with which Goldman began building the new theater may indicate that he thought he could make back his losses with the new theater, and so it was worth losing the old one. In the same issue, in another story, Cine-Phono wrote that the theater burned on the night of April 30, at two in the morning. “Due to the carelessness of the watchman and two ticket collectors who stayed overnight in the theatre, a kerosene lamp placed on a chair fell to the floor and broke. Unfortunately, there were old posters and flyers lying nearby, which immediately caught fire.” So, one writer indicated that arson was suspected, the other treated the blaze as an unfortunate accident.12
In January of 1913, Kine-Zhurnal reported that there were still 3 theaters in the city: the Giant, the Vulcan, and the Original-Bioscope. The correspondent loved the way Elkin did business.
“…[H]is theaters Giant and Vulcan are in excellent condition. Both of them are located in the lively, crowded central points of the city, in spacious halls, which are adjacent to wide corridors and extensive foyers, decorated with expensive mirrors, fresh flowers and paintings, and furnished with decent and comfortable living room furniture.
Every evening, the front entrances of the theaters of Elkin are illuminated by a multitude of symmetrically and beautifully arranged electric bulbs, the light of which is visible from afar and attracts visitors. Through a wide door opened by the doorman, they enter the entree, and climb the main staircase to the theater, located on the second floor of the house. Before the start of the session, while waiting for their turn, some visitors stroll along the corridor and foyer, others read newspapers and magazines, lying in abundance on small, elegant tables, still others enjoy looking at the spectacular setting: an aquarium, flowers, paintings, etc. Rationally arranged ventilation provides a constant supply of fresh air. Clean, warm and cozy. Order is never violated, there are never disputes and bickering with visitors. The servants, prompted by the example of the owner of the theater and his wife, treat the audience politely and attentively.
Among the visitors who visit the electro-theaters of I.A. Elkin, we see local intellectuals, officials of all departments and different ranks, merchants, craftsmen, students in local educational institutions, in a word, people of all classes of the urban population spend rare hours of rest and always find useful entertainment. During the screenings, all the spectators who fill the hall with uninterrupted attention and, so to speak, with bated breath, follow the vast and varied program performed on the screen. Usually, during each session, one large picture is shown, and before and after it a whole series of small pictures of a historical, every day and scientific nature is shown. The most deserved success was the historical films highlighting the great episodes of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Mr. Elkin treats his work with love and enthusiasm, thanks to which he stands on solid ground. But the owner does not stop halfway, wanting to achieve even more brilliant results.
Sparing no expense, he acquires from the best factories well-executed and beautifully executed pictures and films, which affect the viewer in an irresistibly enchanting way; He always has sensational novelties, not surrogates, but high examples of cinematographic art.
In the near future, Mr. Elkin will open a third electro-theater called Illusion, which, as they say, will be even better equipped than Volcano and Giant. However, we will speak about it later, when its doors are opened to the public.
Sometimes Mr. Elkin donates all the day's earnings of his theaters to charitable purposes, for example, to the local orphanage and to the benefit of insufficient students of the local Alekseevskaya gymnasium.”13
Kine-Zhurnal Magazine
Vitebsk, Gogolevskaya street, 1910
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
1 Cine-Phono, February 1, 1911, Issue 9, p. 18.
2 Moskvina, Evgeniya, "Secrets of the Vitebsk House of Cinema.” Vitebsk Courier, December 17, 2015, https://vkurier.by/38828 Accessed March 8, 2025.
3 Cine-Phono, February 1, 1911, Issue 9, p. 18.
4 Veresek, Anastasia, “Where were 11 cinemas in Vitebsk and why were they special". June 22, 2020, Vitebsk Courier, https://vkurier.info/gde-v-vitebske-naxodilis-11-kinoteatrov-i-pochemu-oni-byli-osobennye/ Accessed March 8, 2025.
5 “10 cinemas in Vitebsk that you didn't know everything about: on the plane, with a winter garden and a musical fountain” Vitebsk Courier, November 13, 2018, https://vkurier.by/155045/ Accessed March 8, 2025.
6 “The historical path of the city of Bologoye from its beginnings to the present day”. https://web.archive.org/web/20130527182040/http://bologoecity.narod.ru/HTMLs/history.htm#par6 Accessed March 8, 2025.
7 Cine-Phono, March 15, 1911, Issue 12, p. 21.
8 Cine-Phono, May 1, 1911, Issue 15, p. 18.
9 Kine-Zhurnal, May 5, 1911, Issue 9, p. 14.
10 Cine-Phono, October 15, 1911, Issue 2, p. 48.
11 Cine-Phono, May 15, 1911, Issue 16, p. 10.
12 Ibid. p. 13.
13 Kine-Zhurnal, January 8, 1913, Issue 1, pp. 23-24.