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The history of Astor cinemas begins when Alfred Borràs i Castells, owner of a lot located on Paseo de Fabra y Puig 141, between Velia and Malgrat streets, above Avenida Meridiana (at that time a promenade with trees).
The area was still in the process of urbanization and Avenida Meridiana still had many urban deficiencies. The metro to Fabra i Puig had not arrived until 1954.
Alfred Borrà s, seeing the progression of the neighborhood, decided to apply on July 12, 1956 for a permit to build a theater. He contacted the architect José MarÃa Jordán Casaseca to build a cinema.
Jordán Casaseca designed a place with a modern façade in a medium brownish tone, in which two vertical glass windows stood out, which gave light to the stairs that led to the amphitheater and a beige upper central front, with two four-leaf side windows that served to ventilate the upper vestibule.
On the ground floor, the façade on both sides of the entrance doors to the lobby had two showcases framed at the ends in beige color in which the photographs with scenes from the movies were displayed and two ceiling lights with the posters.
The lobby, not very large, housed two ticket offices, two stairs at the ends to go up to the amphitheatre, a small cafeteria and an exit onto Malgrat street. The stalls were decorated without too many frills, although with some comfortable seats. The floor had a slight inclination to favor the viewer’s vision.
The screen took up almost the entire width of the theater where Cinemascope movies could be shown with sound that was not the envy of first-run theaters. The stalls services were located on each side of the screen.
The place had the installation of a heating and cooling system that made it comfortable. It had a total capacity of 1,200 spectators distributed between the stalls and the amphitheatre.
Like the vast majority of neighborhood cinemas, it had a weekly schedule from Thursday to Sunday and holidays.
It was inaugurated on December 20, 1959, with a double program that included: the obligatory NO-DO, the films Francisca, in Afgacolor, and I fell in love with a witch, with James Stewart, Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon, and a documentary in color.
On Saturday, May 16, 1964, he announced to great fanfare the Celebration of a Great Jazz Festival for the following day, Sunday, with the projection of the film Jazz on a Summer Day and the performance of magnificent orchestras of electric and jazz instruments.
In February 1976, Alfred Borràs changed from Skay armchairs to others upholstered in fabric. To get rid of the old ones and alleviate the cost of the new ones, on the 7th of the same month he inserted an advertisement in La Vanguardia, announcing the sale of 1,300 seats.
Although since the end of the war, since there were no political parties, rallies or union assemblies were not held in cinemas, nevertheless, on October 27, 1974, a round table was held at the Astor to discuss the situation of High School in the District.
After the death of Alfred Borrà s, in 1991, his daughter Gisela took over the direction of the cinema, going on to program, with several cinemas in Barcelona: Texas, Ducal, Céntrico, Provence, Rialto, Arenas, etc.
It was one of the neighborhood cinemas that endured the massive closure of rerun venues for the longest time, which occurred in the 1980s.
The rise of video and new forms of leisure eventually arrived and the Astor cinema finally closed on Sunday, August 1, 1993, with the screening of Sister Act and Los cerros de desierto. The next day, Monday August 2, on the billboard of La Vanguardia it appeared as “Closed for Holidays”.
Later, after a few years of neglect, the building was demolished and a luxury nursing home was built on its site.
