The Tivoli Theatre. There are three venues - in Cape Town, Johannesburg and in Port Elizabeth - that at one time were all called The Tivoli Theatre.

The Tivoli Theatre of Varieties, Cape Town

The Tivoli Theatre of Varieties was a Cape Town theatre located at the corner of Darling Street and Plein Street.

Named after the famous theatre that had opened in the Strand, West London in 1890 [1], it was over the years also known, or referred to, as The Tivoli, the Tivoli Theatre and the Tivoli Music Hall.

It was designed by John Parker. It was opened by Arthur de Jong/Edgar Hyman/Logan in Cape Town in 1903. This building replaced the Masonic Hotel.

In 1906, the first film on sport was screened at the Tivoli Music Hall in Cape Town. It was of the England versus South Africa cricket match at Newlands, apparently shot by an amateur cameraman.

It was bought by Harry Stodel in 1910, and later owned by African Consolidated Theatres and converted to a cinema, though also still serving as a theatre on a few occasions as well, e.g. being used by by amateurs, such as the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society and the Garrick Club in the late 1920s and early 1930s. (e.g. Bird in Hand, Rope, What Every Woman Knows). It was demolished in about 1932 and replaced by the OK Bazaars.

The Tivoli Company

D.C. Boonzaier (1923, see Bosman, 1980, p.418) also mentions a Tivoli Company in 1904, presumably a reference to the resident company of this theatre at the time.

Productions

Productions staged at the venue include:

1905: Rumpelstiltskin

1908/1909: Love and the Hyphen

1910: The Dawn of Union, The Night of the Party, Smith, Mr Preedy and the Countess, Dr Wake's Patient

1911: Scrooge

1919: Pantomime Pie, The Funnier Face

1922: Little Red Riding Hood

1929: A Backveld Boer

Date unknown: A Bachelor's Dream

The Tivoli Theatre, Johannesburg

Originally started out as the Tivoli Music Hall in the old Jaggers warehouse on the site. The Tivoli Theatre (or Tivoli Pictures Palace as it was called on opening) in President Street between Joubert and Eloff Streets appears on the 1910 Goads map. It was opened on the 5th February 1910 by the Tivoli Theatres Company and was Johannesburg’s 5th cinema (the other four being Bijou in Jeppe Street, Bijou Fordsburg, Vaudette in the Royal Arcade Pritchard Street, and American Bioscope in Jeppestown). It held 600 people and had a few boxes. Vaudeville artists and an orchestra were added to the entertainment.

The current building was built in 1924 and designed by S. V. Mann. The films were shown continuously ("come when you like, leave when you like") and attracted 2000 people on the opening night.

The Tivoli building was refurbished in 1992 at a cost of R3.2 Million by Old Mutual for retail store Milady’s. The facade was retained, but the interior converted to retail space.

Other Tivoli cinemas opened in Boksburg, Germiston, and Pretoria.

The Tivoli Theatre, Port Elizabeth

The Tivoli Theatre opened for films and live entertainment in December 1911. It was situated in Palm Street and was run by Mr Grace, who was referred to as the "Grand Old Man of Cinema Entertainment". He showed the first "talkie," The Singing Fool starring Al Jolson.

Sources

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.418

P.J. du Toit. 1988. Amateurtoneel in Suid-Afrika. Pretoria: Academica

Jill Fletcher. 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg: p.

William Groom. 1899-1900. Drama in Cape Town. Cape Illustrated Magazine, 10(4): 478-481, 517-520, 547-552, 580-584, 640-643, 670-672, 706-708.

https://artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes_mob.php?bldgid=5962

https://johannesburg1912.com/2013/07/29/theatres-in-early-johannesburg/

https://sahistory.org.za/article/history-south-african-film-industry-timeline-1895-2003

Go to ESAT Bibliography