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Grand Theatre (Shanghai)

Coordinates: 31°14′06″N 121°28′00″E / 31.2349°N 121.4668°E / 31.2349; 121.4668
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Grand Cinema
大光明电影院
Grand Theatre
The building's exterior in 2010
Map
Full nameDàguāngmíng Diànyǐngyuàn
Address216 West Nanjing Road
LocationShanghai
Coordinates31°14′06″N 121°28′00″E / 31.2349°N 121.4668°E / 31.2349; 121.4668
TypeTheatre
Construction
Opened1933 (1933)
ArchitectLászló Hudec

The Grand Theatre[1] (Chinese: 大光明电影院; pinyin: Dàguāngmíng Diànyǐngyuàn), also known as the Grand Cinema,[2][1] is an historic theatre located at 216 West Nanjing Road in Shanghai's Huangpu District, in China.

Description and history

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The theatre was designed by Ladislav Hudec and completed in 1933.[1]

In 2013, Time Out Shanghai said of the venue: "Known to foreigners as 'the best cinema of the Far East', the Grand Cinema was frequented by Shanghai's glitterati in its 1930s heyday ... [It] was completed in 1933 and was the height of technological innovation – each seat had a translation system installed so that the Chinese audience could enjoy the foreign-language films through individual earpieces ... Now it's still great for getting a '20s and '30s Art Deco fix, from wrought iron railings to the up-lit stuccos, lashings of Italian marble and the signature font on the public signs. Though there are six screens, the biggest is Screen One (which you can enter through either 'odd' or 'even' entrances), split into two tiers of 1,554 seats."[1]

High resolution photograph of the building in 1994
The Grand Theatre

The cinema has a gallery (Chinese: 大剧院画廊; lit. 'grand cinema gallery') which shows the old photos and memorabilia of the cinema.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Grand Theatre". Time Out Shanghai. 18 July 2013. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  2. ^ a b Pitts, Christopher; McCrohan, Daniel (1 September 2010). Lonely Planet Shanghai. Lonely Planet. p. 41. ISBN 9781741792836.
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