What's Gone - Thanks For The Memories!
Places -
Great World Amusement Park

|
Source: Shaw
Organisation |
The Great
World Amusement Park, called "Tua Seh
Kai" in Hokkien, began its career with
some 150 shacks in the 1920s and was developed by
one of its landholders, LEE Choon Yung, into an
amusement park aimed at lower-income families.
Shortly before World War II, it was sold to Shaw
Brothers. During the Japanese Occupation, it
served as a camp for Australian POWs; after the
war, it declined. (1)
|
Great
World Amusement Park reopened in grand style in
1958. There were four movie theatres at the centre
- the smaller Atlantic and Canton cinemas, facing
Zion Road, and the larger and more luxurious,
Globe and Sky cinemas, looking out to Kim Seng
Road. Their heyday included the visit of Elizabeth
Taylor, who attended the premiere of Michael
Anderson's Around The World In 80 Days
presented at the Sky. (1)
|
The
park closed at the end of March 1964 but the
cinemas continued to play till 1978. Shaw sold it
in 1979 to the Malaysian sugar magnate Robert KUOK.
In 1986, Midpoint Properties, a member of the Kuok
Group, drew up plans for a large S$600 million
shopping arcade. Great World City shopping centre
was inaugurated in 1997. (1)
|
|
|
|
|
Credits: |
(1) Page 177, Latent Images: Film In Singapore by Jan Uhde &
Yvonne Uhde. Published by Ngee Ann Polytechnic 2000.
ISBN 0 19 588714 X |
|
|