Thursday, July 4, 2013

  Smallest cinema: Reginald Harding breaks Guinness world record (VIDEO)

SHELDON, UK -- Reginald Harding, 73, has converted a spare bedroom to accommodate the four-seater cinema in his house in Sheldon, Birmingham; he has created a makeshift movie theatre with big screens, cinema seats and classic projectors, setting the new world record for the Smallest cinema, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/ .

  Photo: Pensioner Reginald Harding has built the world's smallest cinema in his bedroom. Photo: Mathew Growcoot ( enlarge photo )

 The Guinness world record for the smallest cinema by seat capacity to operate as a regular commercial venture has 9 seats. The Palastkino on Bahnhofstraße, Radebeul, Germany, owned by Johannes Gerhardt (Germany), opened on 30 October 2006 with the film Smoke (Germany/ USA/ Japan, 1995).

  Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the smallest purpose-built cinema; it is the Cabiria Cine-Cafe which measures 24 m² (258.3 ft²) and has a seating capacity of 18. The cinema has a retractable projection screen of 2.5 m by 3 m, air conditioning, two rows of four chairs, two rows of three chairs, one row of two chiars and a two person sofa.

   Mr Harding, 73, from Sheldon, Birmingham, said: 'I call it the minimum cinema because it is probably the smallest cinema in the world that uses all professional equipment.

  'When I stand by the projector when it's running and I am looking through the small port hole which is only five foot down to the screen it's just like sitting in a full size projection room looking at the real thing.'

  Mr Harding knocked a hole in a wall of his three-bedroom semi-detached home to make space for the huge professional projector and converted a spare bedroom to accommodate the four-seater cinema.

  He also has another projector is in his living room to get the full movie effect as well as scores of large film reels adorning the walls of his home.

  Despite being in a tiny converted bedroom, the cinema boasts four original cinema seats he salvaged when a local cinema closed down, with the projector showing films to the scale they were originally screened to large audiences.

  No tickets are needed when friends and fellow cinema enthusiasts come to see the historic equipment in action, which he picked up for a bargain when commercial cinemas closed.