The onomastics of cinema

The cinema signboard – it truly shows a word that engraves itself on the mind, and the word should be appealing as well as related to the mentality and aesthetic demands of the viewer.

This is what Wiktor Ostrowski, editor of the Kinotechnik trade monthly, wrote in 1957. And how did onomastics – the study of proper names – work out in the case of the Jezuicka cinema?

It started off in a cosmopolitan fashion: in the autumn of 1957, Mr Makowski’s theatre welcomed the Théâtre Optique Parisien. Soon, other names appeared: the Lublin Bioscope, theatres: Miniatur [The Miniatures Theatre] and Powszechny [The Common or Universal Theatre], the cinema-theatre Panteon. The 1920s and 1930s belonged to the cinemas Adria, Gwiazda [Star], Polonia, Wiedza [Knowledge], and finally Rialto. That last name endured a little longer and lost out only to the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the Polish People’s Republic. Between 22 July 1954 and the closing of the cinema on 3 December 1981, the cinema was known as Staromiejskie – The Old Town Cinema. This local and extraordinarily neutral name persists in the memories of the less young residents of Lublin. Many also remember the signboard of wrought iron positioned on the corner of the building. Unfortunately, exactly when it was taken down and what became of it is a mystery.

Since 11 March 2012, things have become simple. All events, including film screenings, take place under one and the same name: The Old Theatre in Lublin.