Han Chin Pet Soo is open! Book now at www.ipohworld.org/reservation
Han Chin Pet Soo is open! Book now at www.ipohworld.org/reservation

March 2019

‘Reel’ life

By |2019-03-12T16:07:52+08:00March 13th, 2019|Categories: Identify Photographs, movies|Tags: , , |

16 mm refers to the width of the film; other common film gauges include 8 and 35mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educational) film-making, or for low-budget motion pictures. It also existed as a popular amateur or home movie-making format for several decades, alongside 8mm film and later Super 8 film.” – Wikipedia

Have you ever seen or held such a reel? Tried to feed it through a projector? I’m sure someone out there can share a tale or two about this film reel 😉

April 2018

October 2016

January 2014

Famous Names – Run Run Shaw

By |2014-01-09T09:18:18+08:00January 8th, 2014|Categories: childhood, history, Identify Photographs, Memories, People, tourism|Tags: , , , |

runrunshaw(Picture 1: Run Run Shaw)

LOM-028(Picture 2: Runme Shaw)

We pay tribute to Run Run Shaw, of the famed Shaw Brothers, who passed away in Hong Kong yesterday.

The Shaw Organisation began in 1924, with operations in Singapore screening their own brand of silent movies. Frustrated by local distributors, they set up their own cinema, “The Empire”, to screen their movies. Led by brothers Run Run and Runme Shaw, they began to branch out into Malaysia building new cinemas and operating a mobile cinema for rural areas. However, it was only with the advent of sound that movies began to really launch themselves – by 1933 the Shaw’s had produced the Cantonese opera film ‘Normal Dragon’ which proved a breakthrough for them in both Singapore and Hong Kong. [more can be found at –  http://www.hkcinema.co.uk/Articles/shawbronews.html ]

I’m sure many movie-lovers out there remember these famous brothers and their contribution to the cinematic industry. I was not born in that era, but from what I’ve read (and heard) the Shaw Brothers always had interesting ways of advertising the up-and-coming movies. (see sample below)

20080125-014

September 2013

MORE Scenes from Brewster Road

By |2013-09-18T14:45:48+08:00September 18th, 2013|Categories: Identify Photographs, Ipoh Town, Memories, Natural Heritage|Tags: , , |

john macauley005i

One look and most of you can already guess what this iconic building is. Of course, so much has changed now: the small field in front of this cinema is no longer there; instead there’s a row of food stalls. Also, right next to the cinema is one of the entrances of Sam Tet School. Lately, I did notice that there seems to be some construction going on at this very site. Are they restoring/renovating Odeon?

Photograph courtesy of John McAuley, a former serviceman who worked in Malaya in the 1950s.

April 2013

The Cowan Street/Brewster Road Landmark

By |2013-04-19T09:15:30+08:00April 19th, 2013|Categories: childhood, history, Memories, movies, Natural Heritage, Restoration, tourism|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

grand

This is none other than the Grand Theater & Jubilee Park – before the Shaw Brothers renovated it. From the clues in the picture, some of you may be able to roughly guess the year this was taken. What was YOUR early memory of this famous landmark? Were you a patron of the Cabaret? Did you frequent the amusement park? Or, were you one of the many movie-goers?

We thank Edwin Seibel for this picture.

August 2012

‘Sing Kong’ (Star Cinema), Ipoh

By |2012-08-08T10:30:48+08:00August 8th, 2012|Categories: history, ipoh, Memories, movies|Tags: , |

Keith Nelson, an ex British National serviceman stationed in Ipoh (1959-1960), sent us some pictures of Ipoh recently. Today, we’re featuring the Star Cinema.

For those who don’t know, this cinema was built below the road access (and in an ex graveyard!) sometime in the late 50s. The Star Cinema was a single-screen cinema and could house up to 1150 movie-lovers. It started off screening English films and then progressed to Chinese films later. To what we know, a fire broke out around 1970.

By late 1989 the cinema closed and a nightclub opened instead. The premise closed for good in the late 1990s and is currently ‘playing house’ to rats. It is said that the former cinema is now up for sale.

On another note,  we noticed some similarities between the Star Cinema and other cinema halls designed by Iversen……could this building be an Iversen design too?

July 2012

‘Lights, Camera, Action’!

By |2012-07-27T11:56:12+08:00July 27th, 2012|Categories: celebrities, childhood, history, Identify Photographs, Memories, movies, People, tourism|Tags: , , , , |

This is Mano, with part of the cast from the movie ‘Anna and the King’. (Mano played ‘Moonshi’ in the movie)

This picture was taken on location, back in 1999, and we were wondering: WHERE are the ‘Royal Children’ now? Recognise any of them? Or maybe you recognise yourself here?

We’d love to hear from you!

December 2011

A Unique Wedding Photograph!

By |2011-12-21T12:14:58+08:00December 21st, 2011|Categories: Identify Photographs, Memories, People|Tags: , , |

Fancy having your wedding picture taken in front of a cinema hall! That’s what these people seem to have done 🙂

Notice the sign above the entrance which says ‘Malayan Talkies’. To what we know, the former Sun Cinema was the first in Ipoh to screen ‘talkies’ (movies with sound) – which was way back in 1929. On the far right, there is a poster advertising the movie ‘South of Pago Pago’, which was released in the US in July 1940….and that would mean that the movie only made it to our shores towards the end of that year or in the early half of 1941.

Now that we’ve roughly established the year this picture was taken. what we’d like to know is: WHICH cinema this is and WHERE it is?

A special thanks to Charlie Choong for this picture 😉

September 2011

3 Friends at the Grand Theatre

By |2011-09-30T10:40:45+08:00September 30th, 2011|Categories: Identify Photographs, Ipoh Town, Memories, People|Tags: , , , , , |

The quality of the picture may not be that good….but I’m pretty sure that the building in the far right is the back portion of the Grand Theatre (which once stood at Brewster Road and Cowan Street).

Of course many of us remember that the Grand Theatre was also part of Jubilee Park; with that in mind….I’m taking a wild guess as to the date of this picture – perhaps 1930/1931? Keeping in mind that the Shaw Brothers began Jubilee Park around 1932, hence I feel that this picture was before the Jubilee Park was built.

Anyone with other theories? Perhaps someone out there could tell us MORE!

July 2011

Rex, Ipoh – Movie Advertisement

By |2011-07-22T13:53:54+08:00July 22nd, 2011|Categories: Identify Photographs, Ipoh Town, movies|Tags: , , , |

Yes, it was WAY BACK in 1957…..when we saw Gregory Peck play the role of Captain Ahab!

They don’t make movie posters like they used to…..same can be said for the ‘cinema-experience’ that made cinema halls like Rex, Ruby, Lido, etc. favourite haunts.

The poster we have here is from Edwin Siebel.

June 2011

May 2011

February 2011

November 2010

What’s Happened to Lido?

By |2010-11-27T15:40:33+08:00November 27th, 2010|Categories: Identify Photographs, ipoh, Ipoh Town, Memories, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , |

This picture was sent to us by Ruth Rollit, the daughter of the Danish architect B M Iversen.

Familiar? No? This is what the interior of the Lido Cinema looks like today – as you can see, it’s not longer a cinema. Lido has now been converted into Florex Restaurant.

In this picture, the raised level shown was where the bar used to be. Has much of the interior changed? I noticed that the original floor tiles are still there. What about the rest of the place?

Cathay Opens in Ipoh!

By |2010-11-26T08:49:28+08:00November 26th, 2010|Categories: Identify Photographs, ipoh, Ipoh Town, Memories, Natural Heritage|Tags: , , , , |

At that time, this $ 600,000 cinema was considered luxurious. It was declared open by His Highness Raja Sir Izzudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Jalil (the Sultan of Perak), on the eve of Chinese New Year. Designed by B M Iversen, this fully air-conditioned cinema (with its ‘colossal 75-foot tower of jade tiles’), stood proud along Cockman Street – the same area which was once ‘home’ to rubber trees!

This picture was taken on the opening night; after the grand ceremony, the patrons were treated to Darryl F Zanuck’s ‘CinemaScope 55’ production of – you guessed it – The King and I. How many of you out there were at the opening ceremony? How many of you ‘fell in love’ with the movie?

We’d like to thank Ruth Rollit (the daugther of B M Iversen) for sending us this precious photograph.

Cycling Along Cockman Street

By |2010-11-12T08:43:16+08:00November 12th, 2010|Categories: Identify Photographs, ipoh, Ipoh Town, Memories|Tags: , , |

Those were the days: when the traffic in Ipoh was rather scarce, and riding around the town on a bicycle was SAFE! Here we have some youngsters riding past the Lido Cinema. This Iversen building is no longer a cinema now; if I’m not mistaken it’s been turned into Florex Restaurant.

Playing in the cinema at that time (1958) was ‘Rock, Pretty Baby’. This movie starred Sal Mineo, John Saxon Shelley Fabares, Luana Patten and Edward Platt. It was a simple story about a teenager who, despite his father’s objections, formed a rock and roll band with his friends. He later tried his best to obtain bookings.

Did anyone out there watch this movie? Did the movie start a trend among the younger generation – as in starting their own band? Or, perhaps it started a fashion trend?

June 2010

Ipoh My Home Town

By |2010-10-12T22:31:40+08:00June 20th, 2010|Categories: Heritage Books, ipoh, Memories, People|Tags: , , , , , , |

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Above is the first draft cover of a new book that will be published as soon as we can fill the blank pages with your reminiscences of growing up in Ipoh. Text will be in the English language.

ipohWorld will take on the task of collating, editing and dealing with the publishing and printing aspects, but the contents must come from you, as I grew up in UK. Now of course we do have some excellent articles on this blog already but much more is needed if we are to be able to produce the quality book we seek.

We need much more about your schooldays, going to the movies (or storytellers street), Jubilee Park, the hawkers, the sounds they made (tock tock, ting ting etc), where they congregated (Convent rear entrance and Theatre Street for example), the food they sold (and more. Let us not forget the ice cream potong man and his gambling game, or the Milo man on his bicycle, the roti man and the Indian milk seller. Then of course there is home life, your parents, your neighbour’s profession, street games, rickshaws, trishaws, marketing with mum, local day trips, happy or sad times, festivals etc etc. Since I have lived in Ipoh I have heard so many stories and it is time you wrote them down for following generations. 

But please understand that the work must come from YOU. All races, creeds are welcome to take part as long as you spent some time in Ipoh and have a story to tell.

Every contributor who has a story published will be presented with a personal copy. WE look forward to your support.

Please send all articles and high resolution (600dpi is perfect) scanned photographs to us at info@ipohworld.org and don’t worry about your spelling or grammar, we can soon sort those out. But don’t forget, no contributions means no book! Articles may be between 500 and 1750 words and more than one article reflecting different aspects of your young life are welcome.

And please understand that regard to content and selection of stories, the Editor’s decision is FINAL.

My Dad Forever.

By |2010-07-03T08:27:17+08:00June 19th, 2010|Categories: ipoh, Memories, People|Tags: , , , , , , , |

  

Dad, as I kept a lonely vigil beside your hospital bed

Stroking your soft white hair, caressing your fatigued face

Holding your wrinkled hands, never wanting to let you go

I could hear your pale lips murmuring my name softly

My heart bled to see your body so weak and frail

Tears rolling down as I watched you slowly fading away

And memories of us together just came rushing back

 

When I was just a boisterous little girl of five or six

You took me to ride on the carousel at Jubilee Park

And you cheered me on as I got onto the giant wheel

We went for white man movies together all over town

I ate peanuts on your laps in front of Rex Cinema

Rain or shine you took me to school on your old bicycle

You taught me how to read, write, draw and color

 

At times you and Mom ate little so that I can eat more

You toiled from day till night without a whimper

Your feet swollen from many hours of standing

Your hands numbed from working without a rest

And back ached from bending over the work table

It was like this all the years until I grew up

By then it put a severe toll on your health

 

When I finally blossomed into a pretty young lady

We fought over my choices of boyfriends and suitors

Even the best in my eyes is not good enough for you

They were given the boot and shown the door

At last you gave your blessing but very reluctantly

However your heart melted when you held my babies

I saw you embracing them so tenderly, so lovingly

 

Every morning I brew your favorite thick Chinese tea

I loved the smell of your cheroot and green color hair gel

I watched you put on your white hat and dark glasses

Humming softly your favorite tunes in the bathroom

But roaring in a thunderous voice whenever you speaks

You are a very strict disciplinarian with a heart of gold

Many people feared and avoided you but I knew better

 

Our endless trips to the hospital together all the years

I am exhausted from arguing with the doctors and nurses

Whether I should let you know about the prostate cancer

They said nothing can be done to stop the metastasis

That you are actually just buying time in this world

I really wanted to spare you from the painful truth

In the end I chose not to tell you, please do forgive me

 

When Mom suddenly left us without a word years ago

We comforted each other in those sad and lonely days

You only trusted me, and no one else, to take care of you

It is a privilege I valued and cherished very much

On this Father’s Day, I wanted to let you know again

That I am very grateful and proud to be your daughter

I loved you with all my heart and I still missed you badly

Note: Dad in his vintage dark glasses. Can you spot his white cowboy hat?  He was flanked by my two kids whom he adored. Later, Dad passed on from pneumonia when the cancer metastasized to his lung. He was 87.

Happy Father’s Day to all the guys who played a part in bringing us into the world, then slogged to bring us up and finally released us to spread our wings!

“HAPPY FATHER’S DAY” 父亲,我爱您!祝父亲快乐.
 

February 2010

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