Portland~Victory~New East Asia / 砵崙~勝利~新東亞 [1931-1952]

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Submitted by OldTimer on Fri, 2017-05-05 03:52

Current condition:

Demolished / No longer exists

Date Place completed:

1931-07-13

Date Place demolished:

1952-08-01

Address: 625 Nathan Road, Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Ritz Theatre (see separate place-page listed below) operated from March 30, 1953 to June 1, 1972 and soon after that the site was re-developed for commercial purposes. For simplicity, the discussion on this page covers several cinemas that used the same building prior to the re-development for Ritz. The write-up is a blend of information from several sources including the place-page for the Ritz Theatre.

According to the Wikipedia and other sources, Portland Theatre (砵崙戲院) was the first to operate at the site. Cinema Treasures gives its opening date sometime before July 13, 1931, which is adopted for this page. Portland Theatre closed in late 1940 for refurbishment and when the theatre re-opened on January 1, 1941, it was renamed Victory Theatre (勝利戲院).

During Hong Kong's WWII years, the theatre operated using the name New East Asia Theatre (新東亞劇場), and likely intermittently. After the war, the theatre re-opened and operated on a continuous basis at an unknown date (source: Cinema Treasures), and resumed using its prior name Victory Theatre. Victory Theatre closed its door on August 1, 1952.

Next, a new building was built at the site for Ritz Theatre which was opened on March 20, 1953

Ritz Theatre page - https://gwulo.com/node/3029#15/22.3179/114.1659/Map_by_ESRI-Markers/100

Sources: