John de Mol more or less named his media company after himself — ‘talpa’ is Latin for ‘mole’ — but Joop van den Ende doesn’t want to take that too far in his case.
TV and musical billionaire Joop van den Ende has consciously decided not to call the DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam, which he renovated, the Joop van den Ende theater. Even though it took blood, sweat and tears. “It didn’t just happen. It was built in two years, but the preparations for it took six years.”
Blood, sweat, tears
Joop tells in the Party that the renovation really caused unrest. “We have had all the opposition you can have and in the end it happened. Since the day we started, 4.5 million people have been to the DeLaMar Theater and they give the theater a 9.6, 9.7 rating.”
He continues: “It is of course very nice if you can entertain the audience, move the audience. That they are received in the DeLaMar Theater, where they are welcome. That it always looks immaculate. Good maintenance, good staff, good management, that has been the goal of the VandenEnde Foundation.”
After the war
After the war, the theater was founded by cabaret artist Fien de la Mar. Amsterdam approached Joop in 2005 with the question if he wanted to revive the DeLaMar Theater. “When the municipality asked if I wanted to do it with the VandenEnde Foundation, together with my wife and the board, the DeLaMar Theater was on the verge of collapse.”
“It had never really been a professional theater. It was an old school that had been converted into a theater. I am very proud of the renovated DeLaMar Theater. That I have achieved this and was able to donate it to the city where I was born, as a very simple, poor boy.”
Joop theater
Why did Joop choose to call the renovated theater the DeLaMar? “That was never the intention. I have had 29 theaters. Now I only have one. Not one of them bears my name.”
He concludes: “It does happen in America. And also in other places in the world, but that is not a Dutch thing.”