AFTER some 70 years in the movie business in Guyana, Astor Cinema, the last one standing at Lot 189 Waterloo and Church Streets in Georgetown, has finally decided to close its doors in the last week of May.

The sad news was announced via a ‘For Sale or Rent’ sign on the Astor building, erected last Friday. There was nothing more than a contact email address for interested persons wishing to buy or rent the building.
Apparently, Managing Director at the cinema, Mr. Desmond Woon, is emotional about the subject, having served in that capacity for decades. Why else would he request the press to contact the other owners in Trinidad for comments? And we definitely understand how he feels about the situation!
Despite many cinemas in Guyana choosing to shut their doors several years ago, the Astor Cinema stood out for its perseverance against the impossible odds. It stood its ground and managed to last many years more than the rest.
It was truly a unique experience being in the Astor Cinema with its full stereo surround sound and its convenient little canteen that always featured a hot puri and egg ball with sour. A diligent effort was also made to keep the surroundings clean and tidy.
Veteran Entertainer Cyril Shaw, in an article published in this newspaper back in 2000, made a few observations about the Astor. Among the things he mentioned were that this cinema carried ‘full houses’ on opening nights, and managed to attract diverse audiences.
Astor opened its doors with the premiere boxing movie ‘Golden Boy’, starring William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck, which ran with a full house for four days!
Astor not only provided the best in movie entertainment, it also carried news from the outside as well as local news on film clips; and gave us vaudeville shows wherein some of the world’s top performers made their early performances. These included the Mighty Sparrow, Madame O’Lindy, Lord Kitchener, and Small Island Pride.
The first known Broadway star to come to Guyana, Lawrence Winters, performed at the Astor in the last 1940s.
“Whenever you go to a video store and rent a pirated movie, stop and think…about the booming cinema industry in other countries, and the good old days when you lined up for hours to purchase a ticket to see ‘Jaws’ or ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at the same time as the rest of the world,” Shaw advised in the article.
Other popular cinemas, all closed now, included the Star Cinema, formerly located at La Penitence Street, Albouystown; The Globe, formerly located on Church Street, opposite the Astor Cinema; Metropole, formerly located at Wellington and Robb Street; Plaza, formerly at Camp Street; Strand, formerly at Charlotte Street, and the once most popular Liberty, located on Vlissengen Road and Garnett Street in Newtown.