MADRID, Spain.- In January 1897, less than two years after the Lumière brothers, inventors of the cinematograph, presented their first film, Exit of the factory workersCubans enjoyed a film projection for the first time.
The first film performance in Havana took place in a small place located to the right of the Tacón theater, today Great Theater of Havana Alicia Alonseither. According to the press of the time, the spectators were amazed by one of the great inventions of the century.
Four films were screened on the opening day: The funny hat, The sprinkler and the boy, The train Y Card game.
The arrival of cinema in Cuba was possible thanks to the Frenchman Gabriel Veyre, representative of the Lumière brothers and who popularized cinematography in Latin America, mainly in Mexico, where he filmed about thirty films.
From then on, the performances for the Cuban public occurred in half-hour batches from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The entrance had a cost of 50 cents for the elderly and twenty for children and soldiers without graduation.
Thanks to the success of the performances, the Island authorities allowed Gabriel Veyre to produce Fire drill, which would be the first film filmed in Cuba, and which had the Havana firefighters as protagonists.
The first Cuban who screened and filmed films in Cuba was José E. Casasús, also a pioneer in bringing cinema to the provinces through an electricity plant. He was also a precursor of advertising cinema in the country, because through Hatuey beer he directed and acted in the film the missing witchmade in 1898.
