The Academy was a cinema located at 165

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, at the junction of Poland Street. Films (in the shape of ''

Hale's Tours of the World ''Hale's Tours of the World '' were an attraction at amusement parks and similar venues in the early 20th century. They were specially constructed spaces designed to simulate a railway journey. Creation George C. Hale was born on October 28, 1849 ...

'') were shown at the address from at least 1906, and it opened in January 1913 as the Picture House to show '' The Miracle'', with the intention of becoming "the home of the world's most realistic films". The Picture House continued to show films throughout the 1920s. It re-opened in 1931 as the Academy, becoming London's pre-eminent art house cinema, and for over 50 years introduced British audiences to major films, beginning with ''

auteur An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...

s'' such as

Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...

and

Marcel Carné Marcel Albert Carné (; 18 August 1906 – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include '' Port of Shadows'' (1938), ''Le Jour Se Lève'' (1939), '' The Devil's Envoys ...

; in later years, the Academy largely established the reputations of

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...

Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the ...

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

Miklós Jancsó Miklós Jancsó (; 27 September 192131 January 2014) was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Jancsó achieved international prominence starting in the mid-1960s with works including '' The Round-Up'' (''Szegénylegények'', 1965), ''T ...

and others in Britain. The Academy's high standards were maintained by a succession of three managers:

Elsie Cohen Elsie Coh(e)n (later Elsie Kellner; 14 June 1895 – 26 January 1972) was a Dutch-born British entrepreneur who opened the first art cinema in the UK. She had a try at what is now the Windmill Theatre for six months before opening The Academy ci ...

George Hoellering George Michael Hoellering (20 July 1897 – 10 February 1980) was an Austrian film director, producer and cinema manager. He directed ''Hortobagy'' (1936) about the Puszta in Hungary, as well as the 1951 British film ''Murder in the Cathedral'', w ...

and Ivo Jarosy. The cinema was damaged during a bombing raid in 1940 and re-opened in 1944. The basement housed a ballroom from the early 1950s where the

Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed whe ...

held jazz sessions from 1958 to 1964 with musicians such as

Johnny Dankworth Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Variant ...

Chris Barber Donald Christopher "Chris" Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with " Petite Fl ...

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major in ...

and

Tubby Hayes Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes (30 January 1935 – 8 June 1973) was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. Early life H ...

. The

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

played their first gig there in 1962. The New Academy cinema expanded to two and then three screens in the 1960s to become the Academy 1-2-3, and closed in 1986 after operating almost continuously for 80 years.

Cinema history

Hale's Tours

From at least 1906 the building housed a ''

'', one of London's first dedicated cinemas. This was an early

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

attraction (often found in fairgrounds etc.), in which a projected film played during a simulated ride in a

railway carriage A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

. The owner may have been the American film producer and director

Charles Urban Charles Urban (April 15, 1867 – August 29, 1942) was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the documentary, educational, propag ...

, who had a franchise for Hale's Tours with main offices selling films and equipment a few hundred yards away on Wardour Street. The business seems to have been in liquidation by 1906, when the franchise for Hale's Tours was acquired by J. Henry Iles, and a company named Hales Tours of the World Ltd. was set up in December of that year to take over the running of 165 Oxford Street. ;Henry Iles and Joseph Menchen Iles was part of an Anglo-American syndicate, European Amusement Parks Ltd., which brought

Luna Park Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-sc ...

s to Britain and Europe from around 1907. His business partners were Frank C. Bostock, a circus owner; H. C. McGarvie, an experienced showman "who probably had more experience in international expositions than any other living human being"; and McGarvie's business partner Joseph Menchen, who had been in the seaside and

trolley park Trolley may refer to: Vehicles and components * Tram, or trolley or streetcar, a rail vehicle that runs on tramway tracks * Trolleybus, or trolley, an electric bus drawing power from overhead wires using trolley poles ** Trolleytruck, a trolleyb ...

entertainment business since 1899. He had constructed cycloramas based on the

Johnstown Flood The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylv ...

of 1889, and furnished the complex electrical lighting effects for the 'Trip to the Moon' and other cycloramas at

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

The Picture House

The premises were remodelled/rebuilt by the architects Gilbert & Constanduros The ''Picture House'' opened on Friday 24 January 1913 as a semi-permanent home for the world's first full-colour feature film, '' The Miracle''.

On Friday last the Picture House, Oxford Street, opened its doors for the reproduction of that extremely successful play, "The Miracle", as performed at
Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
. As most of our readers may be aware, the Picture House is in Oxford Street, at the junction of Poland Street, and exactly opposite to that long neglected playhouse, the
Princess's Theatre The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europ ...
. One steps from the street down a mosaic pavement straight into the stalls, which are fitted with tip-ups, upholstered in canary silk. Here and there the walls, in cream and gold, are relieved with exquisitely panelled paintings of seventeenth century figures, while the lower part of the walls are of solid mahogany. Lights branching from old-world vases are dotted about, and high overhead is a huge electrolier, beyond the crystal beads of which gleam and glow 500 lamps, bathing the hall in a soft, warm light. The circle — there is only one — is reached by a broad stairway of white and green marble, and there is never a pillar to obstruct the view. But even beyond an outward display science plays its part at the picture house, in that the heating and ventilating arrangements are on the most approved system, and fire is certainly considered to be next to impossible. The aim is to make this theatre the home of the world's most realistic films, and the start made on Friday with those wonderful pictures of "The Miracle" straight from
Covent Garden Theatre The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
has undoubtedly given the place a good send off. As at Covent Garden, "The Miracle" at the Picture House is portrayed to the accompaniment of Professor Humperdinck's beautiful music, which is rendered by an orchestra and a choir both under the guidance of Mr. Sydney Freedom, who was the leader of the orchestra when Professor Rheinhardt produced the play at Olympia. A special setting has been given to the picture by the erection of the convent and cathedral gates in uralite stone, extending across the entire circle. With its doors, steps, towers, and windows, this grey entrance, 60 feet wide and 45 feet high, looks as though it had been taken bodily from some mediaeval German city. That the popularity of this picture is by no means on the wane has been proved by the vast audiences which have thronged the Picture House since its opening with "The Miracle"."The Miracle at the Oxford Street Picture House"., 29 January 1913

A company named 'The Picture House (Oxford-Street) Limited' was due to be wound up on 17 October 1915. The Picture House continued to show films through the 1920s: the programme for October 1926 included ''

Lady Windermere's Fan ''Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman'' is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, 20 February 1892, at the St James's Theatre in London. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband i ...

'' with

Ronald Colman Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then immigrating to the United States and having a successful Hollywood film career. He wa ...

; '' The Sea Beast'' with

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly att ...

;

Ralph Ince Ralph Waldo Ince (January 16, 1887 – April 10, 1937) was an American pioneer film actor, director and screenwriter whose career began near the dawn of the silent film era. Ralph Ince was the brother of John E. Ince and Thomas H. Ince. Biogr ...

and the alluring

Olive Borden Olive Mary Borden (July 14, 1906 – October 1, 1947) was an American film and stage actress who began her career during the silent film era. She was nicknamed "the Joy Girl", after playing the lead in the 1927 film of that same title. Borden ...

in ''Yellow Fingers''; and '' The Sea Urchin'' with

Betty Balfour Betty Balfour (born Florence Lilian Woods; 27 March 1902 – 4 November 1977) was an English screen actress, popular during the silent era, and known as the "British Mary Pickford" and "Britain's Queen of Happiness". She was best known to aud ...

. ;'Unusual Films' The Davis brothers owned a chain of Pavilion cinemas in London. In April 1927 they sold them to the

Gaumont British The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was established as an offshoot of the Gaumont Film Company of France. Film production Gaumont-British was founded in 18 ...

Theatres Ltd. circuit, with a contract which allowed them to show their own choice of films. Stuart Davis dedicated the 750-seat Avenue Pavilion at 101

Shaftesbury Avenue Shaftesbury Avenue is a major road in the West End of London, named after The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It runs north-easterly from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus. From Piccadilly Cir ...

to 'continental' films and started the 'Unusual Film' movement, showing first German and Russian classics, then French avant-garde works by such as

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

. A number of showings were organised by The Film Society, whose supporters included

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

. In 1929 Davies's contract with Gaumont expired and, at Davis' suggestion, Gaumont turned the remodelled Avenue Pavilion into London's first

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...

cinema. This left the Film Society without a permanent venue. The highbrow literary film journal ''

Close Up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long s ...

'', published by the

Pool Group The Pool Group were a trio of filmmakers and poets consisting of Hilda Doolittle, Kenneth Macpherson and Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman). Their work has been studied by poetry and film historians as well as by scholars of mysticism, feminism and ...

from 1927 to 1933, played a significant part in promoting European and art-house films.

The Academy

Elsie Cohen

The Netherlands-born Elsie Cohen, who had worked on Dutch and German film productions, took over the

Windmill Theatre The Windmill Theatre in Great Windmill Street, London, was a variety and revue theatre best known for its nude ''tableaux vivants'', which began in 1932 and lasted until its reversion to a cinema in 1964. Many prominent British comedians of t ...

for six months in 1929 and successfully put on a highbrow season of recent Russian and German films. Stuart Davis had already approached Eric Hakim, the owner of the Picture House, but Hakim wanted too big a rent. However,

persuaded Hakim to let her manage the cinema, and it opened as The Academy in 1931 with

Alexander Dovzhenko Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko or Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko ( uk, Олександр Петрович Довженко, ''Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko''; russian: Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Довже́нко, ''Aleksandr Petro ...

's ''

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

'' ('Zemlya'), one of the last silent films before the 'talkies' took over. In order to encourage students and other film aficionados, a number of seats in the stalls were available at reduced prices.

Eric Hakim

The Academy had been bought at some point by Eric Hakim (1900–1967). His forebears were

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n, and he came to England from France with 'a wealthy relative' (possibly his mother). In 1913, Hakim (aged 13) played at a gathering in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

at the home of Claire Virenque, founder of the :fr:Prix de littérature spiritualiste: "The virtuoso Eric Hakim played a fugue by Bach, and other old tunes; admirably accompanied by his mother, Mme Hakim, this young artist obtained the stunning success to which he is accustomed." He came to England, and played as an orchestral violinist in cinemas run by the Davis brothers. Hakim may have modernised the Academy, which he owned by 1929, when he bemoaned the lot of the cinema owner (or exhibitor) during the transition from silent to sound films: "At the moment the renter is in the fortunate position of being able to hold the pistol at the head of the exhibitor because, not only is there a shortage of silent films, but also the exhibitor, having spent large sums of money in talking equipment, is forced to show talking films, which leaves the renter in the position of being able to dictate terms." In 1931, Hakim directed the dubbing in English of the original German version of '' M'' which had played in US theatres with subtitles with little success. The dubbing was made in England, where

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

was one of the few original cast to be re-recorded in English. He went on to produce several films, the first two with his Eric Hakim Productions. '' The Outsider'' did well in the US, being shown by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

in the US in its premier first-release circuit. Backed by the Rothschilds and with a 70% guarantee from MGM, he produced two more films both directed by

Fred Niblo Fred Niblo (born Frederick Liedtke; January 6, 1874 – November 11, 1948) was an American pioneer film actor, director and producer. Biography He was born Frederick Liedtke (several sources give "Frederico Nobile", apparently erroneously) in Yo ...

and starring

Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley Ku ...

. With the first, ''

Two White Arms ''Two White Arms'', also known as ''Wives Beware'', is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Fred Niblo and starring Adolphe Menjou, Margaret Bannerman and Claud Allister. It is adapted from a play by Harold Dearden. Produced by Eric Hakim Pro ...

'', Hakim brought

Margaret Bannerman Margaret Bannerman (born Marguerite Grand; December 15, 1896 – June 14, 1976) was a Canadian actress. She is known for her work in the English films '' The Gay Lord Quex'', '' Lady Audley's Secret'' and '' Hindle Wakes''. She had a successful c ...

into the talking era, and in 1932 he produced '' Diamond Cut Diamond'' (US:''Blame the Woman''). In 1932 he also produced ''

The Temperance Fête ''The Temperance Fête'' is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Graham Cutts and starring George Robey, Sydney Fairbrother, and Connie Ediss. The screenplay concerns a waiter at a temperance meeting who spikes the lemonade with alcohol. Pr ...

'', and ''

The Crooked Lady ''The Crooked Lady'' is a 1932 British drama film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring George Graves, Isobel Elsom, Ursula Jeans and Austin Trevor. A quota quickie, it was filmed at Twickenham Studios. Cast * George Graves as Sir Charle ...

'', distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with photography by

Basil Emmott Basil Emmott, BSC (5 July 1894 – 23 January 1976) was a prolific English cinematographer with 190 films to his credit, active from the 1920s to the 1960s. Emmott's career started in the silent era and continued through to the mid-1960s. His ...

. Hakim had hoped to secure the services of

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...

to star in ''Passion Hunger'', a story of a famous violinist and his amorous intrigues; but the deal fell through. He married

Nina Vanna Nina Kind Hakim Provatoroff, known by her stage name of Nina Vanna ( Yazykova; 27 September 1899 – 8 November 1953), was a Russian-born British film actress who appeared in a number of silent films during the 1920s. She sometimes played in ...

in September 1933, but was bankrupt by 1934 with declared liabilities of $195,000 and assets of $230. He remained legally bankrupt (although he had plenty of money) for at least 11 years with seven further petitions against him, and divorced Vanna after an affair with Norma Irene Zoe Plumby-Matthews ('Norma Dawn') in late 1945.

Art-house cinema

A typical press advertisement in April 1932 announced

G. W. Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

’s "great epic of the mines" ''

Kameradschaft ''Kameradschaft'' ( en, Comradeship, known in France as ''La Tragédie de la mine'') is a 1931 dramatic film directed by Austrian director G. W. Pabst. The French-German co-production drama is noted for combining expressionism and realism.Butle ...

''; ''

Mädchen in Uniform ' ("Girls in Uniform") is a 1931 German romantic drama film based on the play ' (''Yesterday and Today'') by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded the film. Winsloe also wrote ...

'', '' Mutter Krausen'', '' Road to Life'', and '' Alone'' by Trauberg and Kozintsev. The

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

was founded in 1933, and the moderne-style Curzon Cinema in Mayfair was built as a rival in 1934.

George Hoellering

was the director and producer of ''Hortobágy'', a film about rural life in a Hungarian village of the same name. He arrived in Britain with the film (his main possession), his baby and his wife in 1936. He had previously worked as production manager (with Robert Scharfenberg) for

Kuhle Wampe ''Kuhle Wampe'' (full title: ''Kuhle Wampe, oder: Wem gehört die Welt?'', translated in English as ''Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?'', and released in the USA as ''Whither Germany?'' by Kinematrade Inc.) is a 1932 German feature film abou ...

, which had been shown by The Film Society at the Academy in 1933. ''Hortobágy'' was shown at the New Gallery Cinema by The Film Club; Cohen liked it, and he joined her as director of the Academy cinema in 1937. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

a bomb badly damaged the Academy in 1940, and in the same year Hoellering was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

as an

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

. The Academy re-opened in 1944 with Hoellering as director, a position he held until his death in 1980. His right-hand man was his stepson Ivo Jarosy, who started as the Academy's publicist in 1938 and wrote carefully researched press releases. He worked closely with Peter Strausfeld (also interned with Hoellering on the Isle of Man) who created original

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

images for the Academy's distinctive posters since the cinema had a policy of not using any existing publicity material. Apart from European features and avant-garde or experimental films, the Academy programmed a range of documentary films such as ''The Way We Live'' by

Jill Craigie Jill Craigie (born Noreen Jean Craigie; 7 March 1911 – 13 December 1999) was a British documentary filmmaker, screenwriter and feminist. She was one of Britain's earliest female documentary makers. Her early films demonstrate Craigie's interest ...

, and ''Children On Trial'' by Jack Lee (shown with ''

Zéro de Conduite ''Zero for Conduct'' (french: Zéro de conduite) is a 1933 French featurette directed by Jean Vigo. It was first shown on 7 April 1933 and was subsequently banned in France until November 1945.Temple (2011), p. 145. The film draws extensively on ...

'' by

Jean Vigo Jean Vigo (; 26 April 1905 – 5 October 1934) was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Vigo was born to Emil ...

), and

Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...

conducting the St. Matthew Passion by

J. S. Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

(1949). A film which showed at The Academy after the war could obtain up to 1,000 bookings across the country, although the British commercial film industry had been slow to embrace documentaries. Hoellering was approached in 1965 by the writer and filmmaker Peter Whitehead, who was obsessed by

's '' Alphaville'' and wanted to publish the screenplay. Although there was no script as such (since Godard had just worked from a 'treatment') Godard, through Hoellering, agreed for £200, and Whitehead reverse-engineered the screenplay by analysing and transcribing the whole film almost frame by frame. Whitehead made a number of music videos for the

in 1966 and 1967 (see

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor *Bottom (disambiguation) Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...

Academy 1-2-3

Academy One opened in May 1964, the small Academy Two in March 1965, and Academy Three in April 1967 after some considerable strengthening and rebuilding in the basement. Hoellering died in 1980; the theatres closed permanently on 2 April 1986 and were demolished in 1989.

Basement

Institute of Contemporary Arts

In 1948, in order to remedy the lack of initiative shown by the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

(and other institutions) in informing the British public about contemporary artistic movements, the ICA (with offices in

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ''s ...

) mounted its first exhibition, ''40 Years of Modern Art: a Selection from British Collections''. The ICA signalled its new approach to the arts by choosing the basement of the Academy rather than an already sanctified ‘art space’. Organised by

Roland Penrose Sir Roland Algernon Penrose (14 October 1900 – 23 April 1984) was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom. During the Second World W ...

, this groundbreaking exhibition opened on 9 (or 10) February 1948 and included works by

Pierre Matisse Pierre Matisse (June 13, 1900 – August 10, 1989) was a French-American art dealer active in New York City. He was the youngest child of French painter Henri Matisse. Background and early years Pierre Matisse was born in Bohain-en-Vermandois on ...

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...

and

Vassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, as well as British contemporaries

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March 1 ...

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908. He ...

and

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

. The poet and literary critic

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read ...

, co-founder of the ICA, wrote about the exhibition:

"Such is our ideal – not another museum, another bleak exhibition gallery, another classical building in which insulated and classified specimens of a culture are displayed for instruction, but an adult play-centre, a workshop where work is a joy, a source of vitality and daring experiment. We may be mocked for our naive idealism, but at least it will not be possible to say that an expiring civilisation perished without a creative protest."

By 1954, the writer

John Berger John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism ''Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the ...

could accuse the ICA of being "no more than a jazz club", since it had been organizing a series of historical introductory lectures to jazz; with the involvement of

Elizabeth Lutyens Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (9 July 190614 April 1983) was an English composer. Early life and education Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 9 July 1906. She was one of the five children of Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964), a mem ...

and Eduardo Paolozzi jazz became part of the ICA culture; and even ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' began advertising in the ICA's monthly bulletin.

Marquee Club

The

opened in the basement (previously the Marquee Ballroom) on 19 April 1958. The Rollin' Stones played their first gig there on 12 July 1962. ;Mander Brothers Mander Brothers, varnish and colour manufacturers of Wolverhampton until 1998, had a warehouse at 165 Oxford Street in 1884. In December 1901 a partnership between Henry Clarke of 165 Oxford Street, and three Mander brothers (including Sir Charles Tertius Mander) was dissolved when Clarke retired.Mander, Nicholas
"A brief history of the Mander family".
Owlpen Manor Estate. Retrieved 2 March 2016.

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Sources

External links

* {{coord, 51.51566, N, 0.13767, W, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title Former cinemas in London British cinema articles by quality 1906 establishments in England 1913 establishments in England 1931 establishments in England 1986 disestablishments in England