A Golden Age of Belarusian Cinemas.
1911-1914
Vitebsk, Part II
The old cinema journals give us rich descriptions of Vitebsk theaters, and so we include them here. The descriptions are so long, we have to report them in three different articles.
Picking up where we left off in the first article, in January 1913, two theaters opened. Elkin opened the Illusion, and Messrs. Chizhovkin and Baranovsky opened the Record. A Kine-Zhurnal correspondent was effusive in praise of both:
A wide and not steep staircase leads to the second floor of the stone house, where the theater itself and two spacious halls that make up the foyer are located. The foyer is richly and tastefully furnished: in one room on the walls hang copies of good paintings, executed in oil paints and placed in beautiful, gilded frames, and in another the walls are upholstered with elegant tapestries with beautiful drawings; above them are small convex white sculptural images on a black velvet background; Statuettes are placed on the cornices. In one hall, comfortable upholstered chairs are placed for the public, and in the other, soft benches upholstered in the same plush stretch along the walls upholstered in red plush.
The floors are covered with linoleum of parquet pattern. Three doors lead from the foyer to the I, II, III seats of the auditorium, which can accommodate 350 people without crowding. During the sessions, pianists and four other musicians play. The screen is of considerable size.
The performances are held in perfect order. Silence reigns in the hall; All the audience with intense attention follows what is shown on the screen, does not violate the requirements of decency and decency in any way. However, sometimes phenomena and cases of a negative nature are observed. Some young people, having sat in the hall for the entire show, stay for the next one, until the employees at the theater, checking the tickets, find such lovers of the free spectacle and ask them to leave. The gross egoism of the public and the shameless disregard for the rights of their neighbors make themselves felt in cinema as well. Among the visitors, there are such male and female subjects who try to sit on two chairs during the session, not giving room to others.” 1
Kine-Zhurnal Magazine
Vitebsk, Bernardynski, M. Chagall, 1917
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
The same writer then praised the new Record:
"The Record Theater is located in the center of a crowded and wealthy part of the city. This is the youngest and at the same time the largest cinema in Vitebsk, which really broke the record in competition and left other electrotheaters behind the flag. The owners of this cinema, Mr. Chizhovkin and Baranovsky, spared no expense for its very elegant furnishings.
It is located on the second floor of a large stone house and has three entrances, two from the street (parade spare) and one from the courtyard. The extensive foyer is decorated with huge dressing tables in magnificent gilded frames, large wall mirrors, paintings of good workmanship, bronze sconces, comfortable and stylish upholstered furniture. Laurels (laurus nobilis), ficus trees (ficus elastica) and philodendras (filodenbron bipitifidum pertusum) in tubs and small flowers in pots add a lot of life and charm to the room.
The entrance fee to the first place is 50 k, to the II 35 k, to the III 20 k, and to the coupon boxes 75 k. The equipment chamber is very spacious, it is separated from the auditorium by a capital wall of 1 arshin thick and has a special entrance.
During the sessions, an orchestra of music consisting of 8 people plays and plays better than the orchestra of the local city theater.”2
Kine-Zhurnal Magazine
Vitebsk, Zamkovaya street. Beginning of the XXth century.
Source: https://www.romanovempire.org/media/viciebsk-zamkavaja-zviestavannia-vicebsk-zamkavaya-zvestavannya-1901-18-3-d26a3d
1 Kine-Zhurnal, February 23, 1913, Issue 4, pp. 17-20.
2 Ibid.