Changes between Version 9 and Version 10 of Plaza (Bangalore)

Timestamp:

Jan 7, 2013, 7:08:09 PM (12 years ago)

Author:

Lawrence Liang

Comment:

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Plaza (Bangalore)

@@ -9 +9 @@
 [[Image(Arcot Narrain swamy.jpg)]]
 
-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcot_Narrainsawmy_Mudaliar|Arcot Narrain Swamy Mudaliar]] was born at Arcot on 14 May 1827, After his father Muniappa Mudaliar paased away when Narrainsawmy was ten years old, the youngster had to support his widowed mother and two younger brothers. He never had an opportunity to study English, but was well versed in his mother tongue - Tamil. During his formative years he studied and acquired a deep knowledge of ancient Tamil literature, which moulded his character and inspired his thoughts and outlook throughout his life. Mudaliar married Govindammal in 1850 when he was 23[[FootNote(This is a footnote)]]
-.
+[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcot_Narrainsawmy_Mudaliar|Arcot Narrain Swamy Mudaliar]] was born at Arcot on 14 May 1827, After his father Muniappa Mudaliar paased away when Narrainsawmy was ten years old, the youngster had to support his widowed mother and two younger brothers. He never had an opportunity to study English, but was well versed in his mother tongue - Tamil. During his formative years he studied and acquired a deep knowledge of ancient Tamil literature, which moulded his character and inspired his thoughts and outlook throughout his life. Mudaliar married Govindammal in 1850 when he was 23.
 
 
@@ -41 +40 @@
 At Plaza's opening ceremony, to seat the chief guest in style, a sofa was borrowed from the house next door, in which lived Mr. Jose Mariano Dias and his family. This house was demolished and, decades later, made way for the Blu Moon theatre complex, which was demolished to make way for a shopping complex. Mr. Dias, one of the earliest Goans to migrate to Bangalore, ran Dias Music Salon, a stone's throw from his house. He opened the shop, which sold musical instruments, in 1927, and was a violinist who played for silent movies at Globe (before the talkies arrived, every cinema had an orchestra in the pit which provided background music). After his death the shop was run by his daughter, Irene, and her husband, John Lemos, until it was sold and turned into a Zodiac tie showroom, which morphed into a snack shop.  Irene who, along with her sister, used to hop across next door to see movies for free because the kindly ushers would sneak the girls in after the paying crowd had entered.
 
+The second world war was the best time for the theatre when it did the best business with the influx of soldiers form many parts of the country but after independence the theatre struggled for a few years and it was only in the mid fifties with the popularity of Indian audiences for English films that the theatre started doing well again. For a long time the primary audience were anglo Indian  families. In the fifties going to Plaza was a major event for many families who treated it akin to going for a picnic with many preparing their trip, dressed in their best and a number of families would come from the other part of Bangalore- the old Bangalore.
+
+||= Table Header =|| Cell ||
+||||  ("My, you've awakened so many old memories," she tells me, while recounting the late '30s when as a pre-teen she began frequenting the then-grand theatre. "We were never allowed to go alone; in the beginning our father would take us, then male cousins would accompany us." It was full of "Tommies"; British soldiers, who were always looking to make friends with girls, she says. "But the soldiers were very polite, never bothered us." Young children would be given money to "go to the movies" and the boys would buy four anna tickets and save the rest for nuts, while the girls would sit in style in the eight anna seats, constantly watched by their worried brothers, checking on them. 
+"The seats got more expensive the further back you went, and we'd look at the box seats with such awe... we never even knew anyone there," Muriel laughs. 
+"But later, as an Army Officer's wife, I was sitting in those same seats! Lovely films came to Plaza and once you began watching films, the desire to keep going back just grew!"
+
+Muriel Texeira, 88)  ||
+