| Abstract: | Kauno kino teatrai 1918–1940 m. buvo miesto veidą formuojanti kultūros erdvės dalis, apie kurią įprasta kalbėti su nostalgija ir prisimenant vieną kitą kino teatrą, be kurių buvo neįsivaizduojamas laikinosios sostinės gyvenimas. Poreikis iš kultūrinės erdvės fragmentų sudėlioti vientisą vaizdą apie kino teatrus Kaune, jų išlikusius ar neišlikusius pastatus, specifinius jų veikimo bruožus ir paskatino domėtis šia tematika. Kino teatrų raida Kaune gali būti analizuojama įvairiais aspektais: architektūriniu, ideologiniu (cenzūra, tam tikrų vertybių formavimas), meno (repertuaro politika, kinas kaip reiškinys), kultūrinės erdvės lokalizacijos ar kino teatrų kaip verslo objekto.
Cinemas inherited from tsarist Kaunas and those established up to 1925 operated in buildings not specially-built but adapted as movie theaters. These included the “Palas” cinema, the first movie theater opened in interwar Lithuania in April 1919 at Laisvės Alley No. 58, now No. 82. The first building built specifically as a movie theater in interwar Kaunas was the cinema “Odeon,” constructed at the end of 1925 as designed by J. Saleneko, and renamed “Gloria” after its 1935 reconstruction. The movie theater “Odeon” (“Gloria”) can be considered modern because of its technical equipment, repertory policy, advertising in periodicals, and comfortable audience hall. Other interwar Kaunas movie theaters could not afford such facilities and aesthetic environment as were found in “Gloria” and especially in the newly-established “Metropolitain” (4 December 1928), “Forum” (1931), “Kapitol” (1931), “Daina” (1936), “Aušra” (1939), “Pasaka” (1940), and “Romuva” (1940) movie theaters. Some cinemas did not have even basic amenities; these include the movie theater “Banga” and the Student Technical Society “STD” screening room, later called “Students”, which was a simple student canteen during the day and did not even have a ticket office or lobby. The movie theater “Hollywood”, which operated from 1932, and the movie theater “Rambynas”, later called “AT” (both theaters went bankrupt), which operated from 1930 to 1931, cannot be designated as modern movie theaters. Movie theaters located in the outskirts of the city (Žaliakalnis is not considered as the outskirts of the city) were not modern; however, they were local cultural centers (e.g., “Lyra”, “Saturnas” in Šančiai, “Aušra” in Panemunė, or “Union” in Vilijampolė). Only the movie theater “Aldona”, operating in Aleksotas, was modern and was a center of counterculture. The number of movie theaters rose from three to five in 1918–1922 to seventeen in 1937 (not including open air movie screenings and the cinema halls of associations, schools, and the army, where films were only periodically shown). In 1939, there were sixteen movie theaters in Kaunas. However, after “Vaidila” (in the Tilmans Cultural Club), ceased to exist that same year and two new movie theaters were opened in 1940, seventeen movie theaters again operated in 1940. |
