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The original Cine Royal was located in a building next to the University gardens, a place that was initially occupied between 1897 and 1899 by the Mundo Velocipedo (Cycling World) club, a meeting place for fans of cycling sports, where they could buy and sell all kinds of bicycles and accessories related to the world of cycling.
In 1884, Claudi de Rialp and Manuel Duran had opened a meeting center for excursions on velocipedes (bicycles) from Barcelona to nearby places, such as Gavà, Rubí and Castelldefels, as well as races in the Ciudadela park. They also had a facility to care for their members’ bikes.
Later, after a restructuring at the beginning of 1899, it became one of the pioneering venues for the exhibition of the new art of moving image projection, inaugurated on October 6, 1899, as the Great Cinematographer and Mechanical Theater of the University .
The venue was the embryo of the future Cine Royal which, apart from presenting film projections, offered puppet shows and musical auditions through the Melotrop phonograph.
The Cine Royal was the first cinema to be installed on the premises, whose inauguration took place on May 18, 1912, with a series of films by meters: The wings that betray, 700 meters long; Leo Chapperlotte, 500 meters; The Miracle of the Flowers, The Russian Peasant, The Jamttard Falls, Capture of the Terrible Bandit Garnier, Lucrezia Borgia and Deserted Islet.
In the same ad they communicated for those spectators who wanted to go with time: “Splendid waiting garden, with an artistic fountain. Venue, the most elegant, comfortable and cool in Barcelona. Admission, 30 cents; general.
With the intention of following the fashion of other venues in magnifying its name, on Friday June 14, 1912, it appeared on billboards as the Gran Salón Royal Cine, announcing itself as “The most comfortable and cool recreation room in Barcelona”, with the premiere of The son of Carlos V, in color with 800 meters; Moritz student, East and West, La Guísela.
As then you could only see still images, when there was an event that interested the spectators, in the cinemas they made some projections a few days after its celebration, that day The Great Royal Hall projected the film of the Charity Bullfight and announced for Monday the premiere of the Boxing Championship between Willie against Lewis, of 1,100 meters.
After carrying out a small reform, it reappeared on Saturday, September 21, 1912 with a new name change, Salón Royal Cine. At that time, he began negotiations with the Diana Cinema company. On January 1, 1913, the two appeared together on billboards announcing an impressive number of films.
With the start of talkies, it became part of the distribution firm Cinaes, they installed the new ERKO apparatus and began programming with the Walkyria cinema, on Thursday, October 22, 1931, with the screening of El presidio, spoken in Spanish and Performed by José Crespo, Juan de Landa and Conchita Montenegro.
On the Saturday of the coup, it screened: Revista, Sangre en la nieve, Caravan de bellezas and El crimen del Casino, maintaining the same programming on Sunday 19. Once collectivized by the CNT, it began programming on Monday, August 17 with the films : Let’s live tonight, A blond Carmen and The one dressed in red.
After the civil war, it opened again on Thursday, February 8, with the usual obligatory greetings to Franco and Spain, with the programming of El secreto de Charlie Chan and Una noche de amor, including in the intermissions the obligatory ordinance of playing the national anthem. This carelessness by not doing it the first day cost him the imposition of a fine of 2,000 pesetas.
The students, aware of the obligation for the hymn to be played at the end of the film, were attentive and went out to the service, because the norm forced them to get up from their seats and listen to it standing up (this produced a massive exit from the room).
The idea came to the command of the Spanish Falange, whose leaders decided to give a lesson to the students, to serve as an example, and in the middle of a session they went to the toilets to get them out of there with a clean smack.
With the construction of an annex on the University grounds, the cinema changed its local numbering, becoming Aribau 8.
The decree of the names of the premises in Spanish caused it to close as a Royal Cinema, on Sunday, October 8, 1939, with the projection of the films: The Secret of Living, by Gary Cooper, and Between Wife and Secretary, by Clark Gable , Jean Harlow and Mvrna Loy.
On Monday the 9th, complying with the decree of the new government, it became a Central cinema, programming: The Man and the Monster, by Fredérich March, and One Way Trip, by W. Powell and Kay Francls, and drawings by Popeye.
The Cine Central remained open until 1972. It was replaced by the Aribau mini theaters.
