Elsie Cohen worked in film journalism, publicity and sales before managing some of the first art cinemas in the UK.
23 Facts About Elsie Cohen
1.
2.
Elsie Cohen was born Elsa Cohn in Amsterdam in 1895, the daughter of Polish-Jews Joseph and Jenny Cohn.
3.
Elsie Cohen is said to have been educated at Queens College, London.
4.
Elsie Cohen entered the cinema industry as a journalist in 1915 when she joined British film journal Kinematograph Weekly as junior subeditor.
5.
Elsie Cohen changed her name around this time to Elsie Cohen.
6.
Elsie Cohen was promoted to associate editor the same year while serving as film critic and fashion writer for weekly newspaper The National News.
7.
Elsie Cohen promoted the company's films to overseas film journalists and edited the Anglo-Hollandia News.
8.
Elsie Cohen took six of the company's films to the USA and gained an American distribution deal with Producers Security Corporation.
9.
Elsie Cohen had bit parts in two Anglo-Hollandia films, Kitty Tailleur and Sister Brown.
10.
Elsie Cohen took over the company when Binger died in 1923, but Dutch bankers did not like the idea of a young woman running the business and chose instead to close down the company.
11.
Elsie Cohen worked for a time at UFA studios in Germany before returning to the UK to be a floor manager for the Ideal Film Company in 1928.
12.
Elsie Cohen rented the cinema for six months before building took place, screening recent American, Russian and German films.
13.
Elsie Cohen persuaded Hakim to let her manage the cinema, and it opened as The Academy in March 1931.
14.
Elsie Cohen ensured that all foreign films had subtitles, developed an educational programme, and provided support for film societies and filmmakers.
15.
In 1931 Hakim leased another London cinema, the Cambridge Theatre, which Elsie Cohen managed, and in 1932 the Cinema House Theatre, in Oxford Street, which she managed.
16.
Elsie Cohen managed the Leeds Academy Cinema which opened in 1933 and lasted two year, the only one of a planned network of regional Academies to see the light of day.
17.
Hakim became bankrupt in 1934 and a new company took over ownership of The Academy in 1937, Academy Cinema Ltd, with Elsie Cohen remaining as manager.
18.
Elsie Cohen took on Austrian film director George Hoellering as her deputy.
19.
Elsie Cohen joined the Entertainments National Service Association as manager of its Overseas Recorded Broadcasting Service, making and distributing entertainment recordings for British forces overseas.
20.
The Academy re-opened in March 1944, but Elsie Cohen found that she had been forced out, with Hoellering replacing her as manager.
21.
Elsie Cohen remained with the ORBS until 1948, worked for a time at a commercial sound studio, then left the audiovisual industry.
22.
Elsie Cohen married a Hungarian homeopathic doctor named Endre Kellner in 1933.
23.
Elsie Cohen died at her home in Saltdean in 1972 after a long illness.