Tivoli Theatre
The Tivoli Theatre - there are two venues that at one time were called The Tivoli Theatre, one in Cape Town and one in Johannesburg.
Contents
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.
The venue
It was designed by John Parker. It was opened by Arthur de Jong/Hyman/Logan in Cape Town in 1903. This building replaced the Masonic Hotel.
It was bought by Harry Stodel in 1910.
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:
1908/1909: Love and the Hyphen
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.
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/
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