Vincent cool drinks were popular those days. Whiterose was one of their flavors. The prices were reasonable, and the factory was on Trichy road. Clients used to purchase crates from the company and each one would contain 24 bottles. The bottles were made up of glass and the crates were made up of wood. This was the time when ‘Goli Soda' was also being sold widely in the city.
Vincent cool drinks were popular those days. Whiterose was one of their flavors. The prices were reasonable, and the factory was on Trichy road. Clients used to purchase crates from the company and each one would contain 24 bottles. The bottles were made up of glass and the crates were made up of wood. This was the time when ‘Goli Soda' was also being sold widely in the city.
This ‘crush' (cool drink) company was located opposite to Rainbow Theatre. The theatre used to belong to Coimbatore club. It would show nice English movies and the matinee would be after 3pm. Members of Coimbatore Club would be seen in the theatre once in a way. The triangle samosas in were a delicacy. Hotel Aristo was in the vicinity. It would belong to the family of actor Raghuvaran.
Irudaya theatre was in Kottaimedu. The founder had been a hardworking person. They used to say that he would personally be present in the construction site. Arul theatre on Dr. Nanjappa road belonged to the same management. Those were times when the theatres were not air-conditioned. The evening shows would be with the doors open. All the neighbors would be able to listen to the movie dialogues. Balcony tickets were priced reasonably. The ground floor ticket was known as ‘Thara Ticket'. Some theatres had seat segregation for women.
Kavitha theatre and Geethalaya theatre were near the bus stop. Geethalaya was one of those theatres which showed Telugu movies on Saturday mornings. The theatre had a complete plaster of Paris décor. People used to enjoy the curtain, its lights, and the music in the theatre. A number of hit movies were shown here. Theatres used to display all the 100 days, 125 days, 150 days & Silver Jubilee (25 weeks) shields in a showcase. Palace theatre became ‘Naaz’ and was famous for its Hindi movies. Distributors and producers would want to release their movies in the lucky theatre.
Srinivas theatre on Krishnaswamy Mudaliar road was famous for its English movies. Long ago S. M. Sriramulu Naidu used to take the makeup team & stars to watch the movies here. Krishnaswamy Mudaliar was the second son of A. T. Thiruvengadaswami Mudaliar and had been the Chairman of Coimbatore Municipality.
Murugan theatre or Diamond theatre was built in 1937 by a group of people on a piece of land belonging to ‘Koopidu Vinayagar Temple'. The theatre flourished until the advent of the fly-over on Avinashi road. The movies shown in Raja Theatre would be carried on a vehicle to Murugan theatre. Sometimes the courier could go over the level-crossing by foot in order to hand over the movie reel.
Swami theatre on Variety Hall road had been known as Edison. This theatre belonged to Swamikannu Vincent. A number of plays were enacted in this old place. There were times when narrators would state the story while the ‘silent movie' was on those days. This was before the movies ‘spoke!’
Raja theatres on Nawab Hakim road was built in 1938. The Perur temple elephant, Janaki had participated in the foundation pooja. It was built by P. A. Raju Chettiar & he had a partner, A. Pattabirama Chettiar. He used to be known as ‘Pattu' Chettiar. The partners were once known as ‘Patti' & ‘Vikramaditya'. Pattabirama Chettiar lived on Vysial street and was known for his fine sense of humor. He once told his auditor that the income tax building could carry his name for he had contributed towards its construction! The theatre manager, Dhandayudham would always sport a coat on him. Several super-duper movies were released, ‘Raja' and ‘Nadodi Mannan' were a memorable hit here. The entire star cast including M. G. Ramachandran & B. Saroja Devi attended the felicitations. All of them were given silver ‘koojas' as gifts. Raja theatre was known for its fancy gold and silver gifts. P. A. R. Viswanathan Chettiar was a keen participant in these matters. He used to ensure that everything was taken care in a grand manner.
It was during the early days of this theatre that an International Table-Tennis Exhibition match was conducted in its premises on behalf of the Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club. The table had been made at the St. Joseph's ITI. This had been the first of its kind as an institution in the old town. All the P. A. Raju Chettiar family wedding receptions were conducted in Raja theatre. Kennedy or ‘Light House’ was a theatre built by the Vincent family. Even today we have a ‘Light House' road. This theatre was on Diwan Bahadur road in R. S. Puram. The old cinema ‘villain actor' P. S. Veerappa had managed this theatre for some time.
There was a total of seven cinema halls in the old town area and thousands could enjoy cost effective entertainment at any given point of time.
(to be continued…)