Pongrácz Erzsébet: The Cinemas of Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

The Vörös Csillag in 1974

Apolló (1915)

45 Erzsébet körút, district VII

The Apolló - originally called Royal Apolló, later Nemzeti (National) Apolló, then Vörös Csillag (Red Star) - has had a curious history.

The café, banqueting and concert halls of the most famous hotel on the körút (or Great Boulevard) of the pre- 1914 Franz Joseph period had a large variety of entertainment to offer the smart Pest public. Film screenings were held here as early as 1896, and, while the country was bracing up for the Great War, the banqueting hall of the Hotel Royal was turned into a cinema. This new attraction, seating a thousand people, opened on 31 October 1915 with the release of the Hungarian film Tetemrehívás (The Ordeal of the Bier). Then came a period of changes in name and ownership, but the establishment maintained its function as a cinema showing quality films. On 25 September 1931 the fashionable crowds of novelty seekers all turned up for the premiere of the first Hungarian talking film, Kék báluány (The Blue Idol), which was being released in the by-then very popular cinema.

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