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One of the Delicias cinemas that were open in Barcelona was located at Travesera de Gracia, 224, between Bailén Street and Paseo de San Juan.
The primitive cinema was built in an old warehouse whose owner, seeing the effervescence that the birth of cinema had produced in the population, contacted the cabinetmaker Francisco Benaiges to decorate the old warehouse and build some seats.
Benaiges carried out a simple adaptation of the warehouse, managing to establish a capacity of 900 spectators and basic toilet services that left the premises suitable for the projection of films, which were silent at that time.
Without an advertisement or propaganda announcing its premiere, the cinema was inaugurated in 1925. The lack of knowledge in the development of a film business and inadequate programming caused it to fail to take off.
In this period of time, Benaiges, who had seen the projection that the cinematography business had taken in the city, had begun to make his first steps as a film businessman and, tired of the delays given to him by the owner of the cinema in Travesera de Grace for the collection of his fees, in 1931, he seized the premises.
The interest and dedication he had given to cinema made him abandon cabinetmaking and dedicate himself completely to filmmaking. This is how Benaiges created his own distributor, Empresa Delicias, which in January 1933 already controlled the programming of several cinemas: Select, Arnau, Mundial, Fregoli, Bailén, Rovira and Delicias itself.
On July 18, 1936, the company carried out several programs while in the Arnau, Florida and Broadway cinemas, it announced A Woman from Beyond the Grave and A Woman Dressed in Red, in Spanish. The Fregoli cinema with Under Pressure, Parade of Redheads and Luponini, in Spanish. Delights with Who loves me in Spanish, Charlot evadido and Charlot inoportuno and La hyena in Spanish. In all of them with the corresponding drawings.
During the civil war the entire group of cinemas was seized by the CNT, each continuing to program different programming, since the distribution company had disappeared.
After the war, the premises were acquired by Ramón Riba Martorell (father of the brothers Ramón and Antonio Riba, entrepreneurs of the now-defunct Scala show restaurant). Ramón Riba tried to expand the amphitheater of the old cinema in 1947.
The age of the property did not recommend expanding the amphitheater, so the expansion permit was denied. Faced with the refusal, Ramón Riba decided to sell the premises to Luis Cabeza Puzo, another filmmaker who, upon encountering the same problem in authorizing the works, sold it again at the end of 1949 to Ramón Riba.
In 1961, Ramón Riba partnered with Pedro Balañá and together they decided to demolish the old premises and build a new building designed by Ramón Paradell Rossich, in keeping with the new times.
The building was built with a stall with 780 spectators and the Amphitheater, with only 31, which meant a total capacity of 811 spectators, a quantity notably lower than that requested by the company.
It was inaugurated on September 8, 1962, late, because the intention was to open it in August, but the delay in installing the refrigeration and the delay in finishing the new decoration disrupted the initial plans. The films offered that day were Two Frescoes in Orbit and Guns Against the Law.
The next day, La Vanguardia, on page 23, made a gloss on cinema in which it evoked the professionals who had decorated the premises.
From the modest neighborhood cinema that it was before, it became an elegant, sumptuous place with the best good taste. The works and decoration were carried out by Ramón Tomás and Antonio Bonamusa. Some beautiful panneaux (wooden paneling) were made by the sculptor Aulesia. Pedro Balañá and Jaime Tarazón attended the opening ceremony.
Like so many cinemas of the time, the Delicias suffered the loss of spectators. This and the harassment of architects eager to build new residential buildings, led both Pedro Balañá and Jaime Tarazón to decide to close the premises on December 31, 1987, with the screening of The Jungle Book and Crazy Man on the Loose in Hollywood.
