Telecinema
The Telecinema was a small cinema built specially for the Festival of Britain's London South Bank Exhibition in the summer of 1951.
The Telecinema (or Telekinema) was the first cinema in the world specially designed and built to show both films and television.[1]. It was designed by Wells Coates. Although the Festival literature and British Film Institute press releases called it the "Telecinema", the name on the outside of the building was "Telekinema".[2]
The Programme and presentation were by J.D. Ralph and R.J. Spottiswoode. The Telecinema created a heightened sense of realism by special effects that involved the audience more closely in what was shown. Among the techniques employed were a borderless screen and film with multiple sound tracks whose sound was reproduced through a series of loudspeakers behind the screen and in the auditorium - an early use of stereophonic sound. The progamme included documentary films produced specially for the Festival[1] Situated between Waterloo Station and the Royal Festival Hall, the Telecinema proved to be one of the most popular attractions of the South Bank Exhibition.[citation needed] It was operated and programmed by the British Film Institute. In October 1952, a year after the closure of the Festival, it re-opened as the National Film Theatre (NFT). It remained until 1957, when the NFT relocated to a cinema under Waterloo Bridge.