Cinema Dunia

Notes

Cinema Dunia was erected on the site of an existing building that used to serve as a Turkish Bath. Construction started in October 1944 and the building was inaugurated on 11 November 1946. Farid Trad was the author of the building in collaboration with Henri Shoucair. The movie theater had a mezzanine, larger than the orchestra. It may well be the first movie theater with air conditioning. It was inaugurated with the movie Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. De Mille) Some of the info comes from the memoirs of Gaby Rayess (1926-1999) p.4 (see Alburj) See also the article in La Revue du Liban, Easter 1946, p. 8 describing the building and the last touches before inauguration.

Sources

Gaby Rayes document posthume

Mohammad Soueid, Ya Fu'adi p. 51-52

La Revue du Liban, Easter 1946, p. 8

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