[Collection of Playbills from the Gran Teatro Payret in Cuba]

[Havana]: Moises V. Codina, 1908. Good plus.. Seven broadsides, each approximately 22 x 7.25 inches, plus one double bill, measuring about 22 x 15 inches. One broadside printed in red and black. Previously folded. Scattered , shallow tears from edges, not affecting text, with some tape repairs on blank versos. A group of eight playbills spanning eight consecutive days in July 1908 that advertise performances and events at the Gran Teatro Payret in Havana. The theater was built by its namesake, Jaoquin Payret in 1877 on a corner across from the Villanueva Railway Station (now the Capitolio Nacional de la Habana), and initially focused on opera and high-class (truncated) performing arts to compete directly with other established theaters in the Cuban capital. The building had five floors and a capacity of 2,300, but the upper balconies collapsed in 1882, after which the theater changed hands and began to showcase more varied, popular offerings.

These playbills publicize an array of performers, including the ballet dancer Millas; a cabaret artist, Eline Oreo; a magician and telepath, Sidney Richards; Troupe Montrose, a group of acrobats, an Italian dance troupe, Les Casettas; two clowns named Pito and Chocolate; and many others. Notably, the programming also includes a heavy rotation of short and feature films, such as La Electricidad Liquida (1907); El Inagarrables Pick Pocket (1908); Victima de la Ciencia (1907); En Chine: Voyage sur le Canal Impérial (1908); and Venganza del Dervich (1907). The playbill for Thursday, July 16, with its headline and date in red, proclaims the debut of Trouppe Merodia, a seven-person group of acrobats and cyclists, as well as the Cuban premiere of a film titled La Caza de Oso (The Bear Hunt).

The theater was closed by hurricane damage in 1926, but reopened as a cinema in 1935, and in the following years became known as the "Cathedral of Spanish Cinema." The building again fell into disuse and disrepair in the decades following the Cuban Revolution, but was restored in 2008. A very interesting group that gives a great sense of day-to-day operations at one of Cuba's most important and historic theaters. (Inventory #: 5578)