GC Open #35 Traditional Cache

Viktor Ponrepo, real name Dismas Šlambor (16 June 1858 Prague – 3 December 1926 Prague) was a Czech magician and pioneer of cinematography, film director and owner of the first permanent cinema in Prague.

He obtained a permit from the Austrian authorities to practice magic and began to tour the Czech countryside with his show. Feeling that his name was not appealing to the audience, he decided to change it. He chose his pseudonym after the castle Bon Repos near Lysá nad Labem, for which he chose a triumphant first name (Viktor = winner in Latin). After the performance Ponrepo's magic theater, he stayed with his audience and told them about Prague, which many had not seen before. He constantly added and improved his program.

At the Jubilee Exhibition of 1891 in Prague, Viktor Ponrepo was fascinated by Edison's phonograph on display and the screening of the first film footage.

Four years later, his first cinema presentation took place. He enlivened his performances with a phonograph, and later bought a projection device. Eventually, instead of performing magic tricks, he started running his own traveling cinema. His permanent cinema opened in Prague on 15 September 1907, had 56 seats and played every day except Friday. Ponrepo personally greeted each viewer before the screening. As the audience grew, he had an opening theme song filmed, in which he bowed to the audience on the screen.

Even after the founder's death, the Ponrepo cinema continued to show for the next twenty years, starting in the 1930s as the only cinema in Prague showing silent films.