The Cinema

The first public cinema showing was held in 1909, in the gymnasium at the Heraklion High School - the precise location is under investigation, but it may have been on Idomeneos St., opposite the Esperia Hotel. The following year, films were shown there on a daily basis. From 1911 onwards, the lead role in public entertainment - both theatre and the cinema - was played by entrepreneur Alexandros Poulakakis, whose Poyltheama open air theatre opened on the site of what is now the Electra Building. He also rented the Kallithea Theatre, where he installed a cinema projector showing "films of dramas and images from real life".