Abstract
Cinema has entered Ottoman lands shortly after its invention and after II. Constitutional Monarchy Period, the very first movie theatre have been started to open throughout country, primarily in İstanbul. Beginning from these years and with the cinema becoming popular in Anatolia, city of Bursa has met cinema as well and the first movie theatre stop has been Setbaşı district.
Despite the fact that there are so few information and documentation about the early years of cinema in Bursa, in consideration of knowledge gained from existing documents and researches, it is possible to determine the very first movie theatres in the city.
In this study, Setbaşı district which hosted the first movie theatre in this era (1896-1923) and the movie theatres around this neighborhood has been examined in the context of the scope and limitations mentioned above and the early years of cinema in Bursa have been referred. Hereunder, the first movie theatre opened in Bursa is determined as “Cinema Pathe”. “Cinema Pathe” has been opened in Setbaşı, the prominent district of the city’s entertainment life, in winter and in summer, as well as other movie theatres such as “Cinema Olympos Palace” and “Cinema Orient”.
It can be stated that, the reason of first movie theatres being opened in district Setbaşı is relevant to the multicultural structure of the district, hotels in the neighborhood offering a more western style entertainment, being very close to the center of the city and the districts night life. On the other hand, it can be said that having district “İpekçilik” (Sericulture) as a neighbor and workers of silk industry living in that district has supported this structure by mainly creating a big cinemagoer potential.