Historic Cinemas of Penang

Majestic Theatre, George Town (3 June 2012)


On this page, I describe the historic cinemas of Penang, particularly those that are no longer standing.

Capitol is one of these cinemas. I found an article about it in the Malayan Saturday Post dated 8 October, 1932. The article is archived by the National Library of Singapore here: https://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/malayansatpost19321008.2.24.aspx

That is before the cinema was built. It is interesting to note that the article refers to the cinema as "talkie house", a term referencing the screening of talking movies. In comparison, we now live in an age where all movies are assumed to be talkies, and in full colour, and those that aren't - The Artist being one - are more the exception than the expected. Also, today's Penang audience is now more accustomed to reading "cineplex" than "cinema".

From the article, I learn that Capitol, which was to be sited at the junction of Penang Road and Maxwell Road, between the Anglo-Chinese School and the Anglo-Chinese School Union. It was going to "eclipse all other talkie houses in Penang", and mention was made of the existing ones: Majestic, Queen's and King's.

By the way, Queen's was reincarnated as Cathay, but today's shoppers know it as Mydin.

Of these three, only Majestic Theatre retains its name, albeit as I write this (Nov 2013), the building is also undergoing restoration (or should I say, renovation), and the cinema itself isn't operating. Capitol holds the distinction of being the first theatre that is entirely a "talkie hall", as opposed to Majestic, Queen's and King's.

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.