MEMORIA
ABRIL DE 2017
John Balabrega Miller
Gabriel Veyré
C inema in
C asco A ntiguo
“On a huge screen are projected the life-size views, which
represent the movements of the actors. The effect is highly
realistic and proves the advances made by science in our day”.
T
he Colon Telegram, published in
English, refers to the presenta-
tion, on April 14, 1897, of Tomás
Alva Edison’s vitascope, installed by the
American prestidigitator John Balabre-
ga Miller in Colon, inside a tent on a lot
where shows were organized, next to the
building of A. James & Co., on the corner
of the Front and Sixth streets.
The company of Balabrega arrived
in the steam Str. Holstia, coming from
Jamaica. He had in his program the pre-
sentation of magic numbers, canaries,
shooting and to Mademoiselle Elvira in
the dance of the serpentine.
On April 19, Balabrega continued his
trip to Panama City to exhibit his films.
A commentator on The Isthmus of Pana-
ma wrote on April 20 that “The work of
the vitascope, although not quite correct,
perhaps because the apparatus at first
cannot function with due precision, noth-
ing left to be desired.”
The functions (in an open field next to
the Barracks of the Nuns, today Paseo de
las Bóvedas) were crowded, although the
time was not the most propitious, since
the wealthy families were on vacation
and the yellow fever had many mourning.
The Colon Telegram on May 3, 1897
reports the departure for Limón (Costa
Rica) from the Universal Novelty Co .;
We believe that it is the same Universal
Company of Varieties, trying to flee Pan-
ama before the paralysis of the transit of
vapors by the yellow fever epidemic that
decimated the Caribbean that year.
From August 1896 to May 8, 1897,
Gabriel Veyre, a French citizen, intro-
duced the apparatus of the Lumière
brothers in Mexico and Cuba. That day,
he embarked in Santiago de Cuba to
Venezuela, but the steamer was forced to
return for a case of smallpox on board.
The quarantine was the first setback
of the trip. Before disembarking in Vene-
zuela, it passes through the port of Colón,
then Colombian territory. There he visits
the works of the French Canal: “Every-
thing is abandoned and deserted. How
many ruins heaped up and rotten. Hous-
es, machines, wagons, all lost ».
On June 13, 1897, he returns to ex-
hibit the cinematograph. On Tuesday,
Thursday and Sunday in June, their func-
tions took place in Panama City, which
according to the press “left satisfied the
numerous spectators who have attended
in the last few nights such a rare specta-
cle.”
On July 2, Veyre embarked for Ven-
ezuela. In September of 1897, returns to
Colombia. In this second season, he part-
nered with the Comic-Dramatic Compa-
ny of Sánchez Pozo. At the point of dying
of fever in Cartagena, decides to return to
France, diseased and ruined.
In November, Salvador Negra and
Pagés, a businessman from Cartagena,
bought him the Mexican film and equip-
ment in Colon, where Veyre was trying to
finance his return.
Cascoantiguo_news
Casco Antiguo News
Teatro Aurora. El primer espacio cinematográfico en Panamá. Foto: cortesía de César del vasto
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