Video48 is a great site for classic Filipino cinema. The site has lots of vintage local movie posters and newspaper clipping of stars. One thing that struck me the most was this nostalgic collection of classic and famous Philippine movie theater logos that I saw in their Facebook page.
The logos were mostly your typical 50’s and 60’s retro typography with letterpress-quality ‘jagged’ lines that were printing inadequacies at that time, but now, look awesome to me. If you didn’t know, I’m fond of classic cartoons, tech, toys, magazines, and other abubots, You may call me a nostalgic geek :)
As far as I can remember, most of the theaters above had those classy art-deco facades, reminiscent of the old Rizal Avenue “Avenida” area. Sometimes, I wish we still had preserved the old-Manila. Architecture design then was, in some way, better than what we have right now – especially movie theaters which are now mostly inside malls.
Photo courtesy of Video48 (top) and orngejuglr from Flickr
Pre-LRT, Rizal Avenue was bustling with business and shopping centers but as traffic worsened in the area and people were now taking the LRT (which meant less foot traffic) business and theaters eventually folded up along the avenue.
You can clearly see the Ideal theater (below) weather time since it started in 1933, unfortunately it was demolished in the 70’s to give way to a department store.
