On Thursday February 2nd 1911, Trinidadians got their first taste of the new-fangled technology of moving pictures. The London Electric Theatre was constructed at the corner of Baden Powell St. and French St. in Woodbrook. Built by Marcus and Reginal Davis, the opening was eagerly anticipated as crowds braved a rainy evening to see the first show, entitled “The World Before Your Eyes” . The matinée was a series of stills, rapidly flipped before a projector to give the illusion of motion. The rates charged for admission were for the gender and age classes, and not for house or balcony as with later cinemas.
 

Another pioneer in the local cinema industry was Gokool Meah. Born in 1848 in Kashmir, he came as a child to Trinidad, and was subsequently orphaned with the deaths of his parents, Caulloo and Puddoo. Adopted by a childless Hindu couple, who did not mind the waif’s Islamic heritage, he grew up in labour on Concord Estate, near Pointe-a-Pierre, then owned by Dr. J.B Phillippe, a prominent coloured medical man and well-known public figure.
 

By 1870 he was driving a mule cart, and later bought one of his own with which he did a thriving trade, carting canes to the refinery at Usine Ste. Madeline. His career as a carter abruptly ended when the mule kicked him, and using his savings, Gokool opened a small shop near the estate.

In 1878 he married a young Punjabi woman, Rojan, who gave him 11 surviving children. The shop prospered and in 1892, Gokool was able to purchase Diamond, Greenhill and River Estates, comprising almost the whole Diego Martin valley, which he developed as cocoa plantations. He moved there with his family and lived in a large wooden house. His children were educated in the local R.C School, with the boys going on to prestige secondary schools in POS.
 

By 1918, Gokool was buying up properties in POS which were going cheap in the post WWI recession. Although known as a hard commercial man, he was a charitable, pious Muslim, who fed children at his home daily and gave a piece of land to be used as an Indian cemetery in Diego Martin.

In 1922 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca with his son Noor, and became known as Haji Gokool Meah. In 1927 he built a Masjid in St. James which bears his name. In 1933, Gokool dived feet first into the cinema business, where fellow Indians, Timothy Roodal and Sarran Teelucksingh had already made a fortune. He was particularly convinced when the first movie with sound, a ‘talkie’ was shown in 1930. Gokool, supported by his son Noor (business manager of the vast empire his father owned and a QRC grad) forged an alliance with the American film producer, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, MGM. The contract was so planned that Gokool could only show films produced by MGM.
 

In 1933 , he constructed at the corner of St. Vincent and Park Sts. the Metro Cinema. It opened on March 19th 1933 to huge fanfare and for good reason. The ornate classical building could seat over 1,000 patrons in balcony and pit, and cost over $80,000 to construct. By comparison, almost the whole of modern-day Aranguez was for sale at the time for $22,000.00 The Globe was also the first building in Trinidad to be air-conditioned, and the largest cinema in the Caribbean. It also had a stage for live theatrical performances.

In 1938, Gokool breached his contract with MGM by showing films from rival outfits like RKO and Paramount. MGM withdrew and signed with George Rosenthal, another cinema pioneer. Gokool changed the name of his cinema to Globe, which name it still carries today. He also opened other Globe cinemas in Princes Town and Chaguanas. Not above a little bobol from time to time, Gokool tried to burn down one of his properties for insurance, sending his son Anware to do the deed… the boy was caught and fined. “Insuranburn”, as Sir V.S Naipaul called it, was a popular crooked business practice at the time.