Thursday, August 28, 2008
HISTORIC WASTELAND
The photograph above of the parking lot on Avenida Rizal was taken a couple of days ago. This is the site where the historic Avenue Theater & Hotel building once stood, designed by one of the country's great architects, Juan Nakpil. Built more than 70 years ago, it was completely demolished two years ago.
The photo at the bottom of Avenida Rizal was taken immediately after the war. The tall building in the middle was one of the few buildings that remained standing and unscathed after the intense carpet bombing during the Battle for Manila. It was the Avenue Theater & Hotel building. (Photo courtesy of UW Digital Collections)
The photo at the bottom of Avenida Rizal was taken immediately after the war. The tall building in the middle was one of the few buildings that remained standing and unscathed after the intense carpet bombing during the Battle for Manila. It was the Avenue Theater & Hotel building. (Photo courtesy of UW Digital Collections)
RELATED LINKS:
Avenue Theater: End of an Era
Capitol Theater on Escolta
Sigh-Sigh-Sigh - Walk This Way
Avenue Theater: End of an Era
Capitol Theater on Escolta
Sigh-Sigh-Sigh - Walk This Way
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Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
Labels: Avenue Theater, Manila history, Manila movie theater, Rizal Avenue
posted by Señor Enrique at 7:27 AM
| 8 comments
Sunday, March 04, 2007
A PLACE TO CHILL
This puddle from a broken water pipe appears to be a popular "cold spot" for the street kids of Rizal Avenue; some can be seen bathing in it during muggy afternoons. Interestingly, the structure that was recently demolished right in front of this puddle was once a major cold spot for the people of Manila -- The Avenue Theater. With its air-conditioning system blasting nonstop, many folks were enticed to shell out a couple of pesos to enjoy a cushioned seat, a Hollywood flick, and most of all, a comfortable place to cool off.
Nowadays, people don't have to pay anything to spend an hour or two in an air-conditioned place; any mall in Metro Manila offers such amenity. However, it doesn't come with any comfortable seating area; unless, of course, one opts to spend a few pesos to get something to eat. The food court, or in one of the eateries that abound, are the only places (besides the cinemas) where one may get a comfortable seat to rest his weary feet.
As for those with their laptops who prefer to surf the Net while they sip their lattes or frappucinos, there is Starbucks with WI-FI access, but for a fee, though. Which makes me wonder if Starbucks and other eateries that offer WI-FI will one day take a cue from the movie theaters of the past -- offer such online access service free of charge.
You see, in New York, WI-FI service has become the air-conditioning of the Internet age, enticing customers into restaurants and other public spaces in the same way that cold air blasted out the open doors of air-conditioned theaters in the early 20th century to help sell tickets.
Just a thought, though.
Labels: Avenue Theater, Rizal Avenue, street kids, WI-FI
posted by Señor Enrique at 10:26 PM
| 37 comments
Sunday, September 17, 2006
AVENIDA RIZAL
The proverbial "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" may have caused the eventual decline of this strip once agrind with bustling commerce.
Imelda Marcos’ original intention was to have a modern mass transit system — Light Rail Transit — to alleviate the gridlocks that paralyzed Manila’s main arteries, especially Rizal Avenue. Cursed with excessive delays, the project lingered for many years; leaving Rizal Avenue virtually impossible to traverse. Thus, many people were unable to continue patronizing the establishments on either side of it.
By the time the Light Rail Transit system was finished and began its regular operations, the fully air-conditioned SM shopping malls had sprouted throughout the metropolitan area and have earned the city shoppers' return visits. Regrettably, many of Rizal Avenue’s emporiums had lost too many of their regular customers; left with no other option but to shut their doors for good.
It took Mayor Lito Atienza’s tireless efforts to once again infuse life into to this area through a series of revitalization projects. From Carriedo Street to Claro M. Recto Avenue, Rizal Avenue has now become a colorful pedestrian’s haven.
Subsequently, more shops reopened to serve the public and all the facades of the buildings along the avenue were repainted. The ornamentations selected by the mayor to adorn the pillars that hold the overhead railway system were inspired by those he had seen during his visit to Spain.
The two new National Bookstore buildings flank Soler Street. I remember the time when I hurriedly finished off a hamburger and a cup of vanilla ice cream bought from a food shop next door to National Bookstore. General MacArthur had returned to Manila for a visit and his motorcade was supposed to pass by at any minute. I ate so fast that I felt nauseous afterwards. My father had to take me home immediately as soon as it was all over.
New Year’s Eve in the afternoon was the time of the year I enjoyed the most in this avenue. There were myriad vendors boisterously hawking various kinds of colorful noisemakers and firecrackers. Except for firecrackers which my mother had forbidden us to fool around with, my father and I would buy as many noisemakers as we could manage to carry for everyone in the household, as well as for cousins and friends in the neighborhood.
Sadly, the movie theaters along this avenue that brightened the night with their glorious neon lights — from Galaxy to Ideal — have ceased to exist. More recently, Avenue Theater, designed by National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil was torn down (read Carlos Celdran’s entry about the chance meeting he had with the owner of Avenue Theater who had it demolished).
I enjoyed many movies in Avenue Theater. A favorite, which got me riveted to my seat, was Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn. She played the role of a blind housewife being terrorized by an intruder in her ground floor brownstone apartment.
Also, in this very same building, up in the banquet hall of Avenue Hotel was where my father’s business association held their annual soiree. He took me along on a couple of occasions. The most memorable was the night I sang some Beatle tunes accompanied by the band hired to provide the evening’s musical entertainment; a delightful experience, indeed.
The old Odeon Theater was also demolished and replaced with a shopping mall, which was recently opened for business. It was in this theater I saw the Beatle’s Help, Steve McQueen’s The Great Escape, and Sean Connery’s Goldfinger.
The overhead rail system in front of the now Odeon shopping mall is the new MRT (Recto to Antipolo line) which has an interconnecting walkway with LRT that serves the Rizal Avenue route.
From this corner of Rizal Avenue and Recto (formerly Azcarraga), a couple of blocks to the left was where my father’s office was at Florentino Torres Street; whereas, a couple of blocks down the avenue is Doroteo Jose Street where MIT’s high school division was located. Ironically, when I started high school, not once did I walk over to my father’s office during recess or after school; I was already growing up and thought it uncool for my high school friends to take notice that I was still a papa’s boy. But nonetheless, I still went to the office with him on Saturdays.
* * *
Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
Labels: life in Manila, Manila, Manila history, Rizal Avenue
posted by Señor Enrique at 9:57 AM
| 49 comments
