... venues in Surabaya, the theatre was also the setting for the weddings of Seeng Tee’s two oldest daughters. Over the years the Sampoerna Theatre hosted a variety of acts, including Chinese acrobatic troupes from Shanghai and dramatic productions from Beijing and Hong Kong.
A picture of the founder and his key staff taken in front of the Taman Sampoerna in 1935
The theatre also had a modern projector for the screening of movies with westerns being the most popular genre in East Java. Charlie Chaplin visited the theatre in 1932 when he came to Surabaya. The theatre was also used by the aspiring politician and eventual first President of Indonesia, Bpk. Sukarno to make a series of speeches in 1938 supporting the Indonesian resistance movement. The Sampoerna Theatre operated almost continuously until 1961 when the space was needed by the cigarette rolling operation.
