Since its inception on July 18, 1935, when it was incorporated as Associated Theatres Ltd, The Cathay has been in the business of making movie magic. As it celebrate its 80th birthday this month, we look at just some of the things you might not have known about the grand dame of Singapore cinema. Who knew 80-year-olds could remain this much fun?

1. As a cinema, Cathay has had many Singapore firsts. It opened its doors as Singapore’s first air-conditioned cinema housed in The Cathay Building in 1939 (at 16 storeys high, it was Singapore’s first skyscraper). It was also the first cinema in Singapore to screen American and British pictures, not to mention open a drive-in cinema in Jurong (in 1971) and launch the island’s first arthouse cinema, The Picturehouse, in 1990. It was also the first to offer double midnight screenings, with one film screened at midnight, followed by another at 2am; and the first to have 24-hour movie screenings, as well as a PDA ticketing service in 2005. In 2009, it became the first Singapore company to open and manage a multiplex in the Middle East. More than a cinema, Cathay made the first locally produced colour film, Buloh Perin, under Cathay-Keris Studios in 1953.

2. In 1939, Cathay Cinema opened with much pomp and fanfare, premiering Sir Alexander Korda’s The Four Feathers. But in 1942, as the Japanese military made its sweep throughout South-east Asia during World War II, the cinema was converted to a Red Cross casualty station. It re-opened in 1945 with the first post-World World II screening: The Tunisian Victory.

3. In 2012, Cathay launched The Cathay Motion Picture Awards, an annual short film competition aimed at helping develop Singapore’s local film industry. It is the first and only movie exhibitor in Singapore to organise an annual short-film competition, which still boasts the biggest cash prize for a film-making competition in Singapore.

4. When The Picturehouse underwent a major revamp, the number of seats was reduced from 350 to 272 in order to boast the widest leg room a cinema could offer in Singapore at the time. Leveraging on the fact that Cathay was the only cinema operator in Singapore to have an arthouse cinema, a regular newsletter called the Picturehouse Page was created to inform and educate customers.

5. In 1959, Associated Theatres Ltd was renamed Cathay Organisation Private Limited. In 1964, Jackie’s Bowl was established, with major shareholding by Cathay Organisation Private Limited, and by 1965, Orchard Cinema was opened, along with the 24-lane Jackie’s Bowl (which was later renamed Orchard Bowl).

6. Cathay Organisation’s managing director, Ms Choo Meileen, is Cathay founder Dato Loke Wan Tho’s niece. The late Dato Loke was killed in an air crash in 1964.

7. Our Sister Mambo, Cathay’s 80th anniversary celebratory film, is the first local film in 15 years to be produced by Cathay. A tribute to the 1957 Cathay classic, Our Sister Hedy, and the 1961 family hit drama, The Greatest Civil War On Earth, local veterans Moses Lim and Michelle Chong star in the dramedy directed by Taiwan-based Malaysian director Ho Wi Ding and written by Michael Chiang. The last movie produced by Cathay was Jack Neo’s That One No Enough in 1999.

8. Today, Cathay Organisation Holdings Ltd has interests not just in cinemas and film distribution but also in advertising and events management, as well as property and hotel management, such as hangout @ mt emily.