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The history of the Excelsior music-hall cabaret, located on Rambla del Centro 34 (not to be confused with the Excelsior cinema on Cortes Street), begins when a group of billiards fans decide to acquire the old Salón Proyecciones.
The now-defunct Projection Room had great pretensions. At the beginning of the 20th century it offered silent films and personal performances, later known as variety shows. The lack of effectiveness on the part of its owners determined their abandonment of the business in the middle of the second decade of the century.
At that time, in Barcelona, ??billiards fever had broken out and, in all the important cafes, they had opened rooms not only to practice it but to learn how to play it. A group of billiards enthusiasts, who held their games in the basement with bets included, decided to demolish the premises and build the new Excelsior Billar.
In June 1915 it was already advertised in La Vanguardia as América Bar, proposing a series of performances and not commenting on the billiard games.
The place was renovated, becoming one of the most famous cabarets in the city, where politicians, aristocrats, bullfighters, painters and writers passed by.
Rectangular in plan, first of all you found a small hall in which the cloakroom was located and in front of it was a large mirror that served clients to check their clothing.
Inside, a ground floor housed the dance floor in the center surrounded by a series of columns that supported the box area on the first floor. Between the columns were the tables and their corresponding chairs that surrounded the track and, in the background, the bar counter.
On the first floor were those reserved for those clients who did not wish to be observed or who came in small groups.
The Excelsior, in those times, achieved great international prestige thanks to its clients and its artists. We have proof of this from the writer Màrius Carol who, in his novel An Evening at the Excelsior, set the story of a night at the venue.
Other important artists who also participated in making references to the place were the cartoonist Opisso and the painter Josep Mompou, who in their works also knew how to reflect the nights of the Excelsior.
In April 1916 it hosted a press conference prior to the boxing match between Arthur Cravan and Jack Johnson at the Monumental. The two fighters challenged each other on the cabaret tables by squeezing their hands and performing a pulse test.
In 1931, in the basements that had housed the billiards room, they converted it into an 18-hole minigolf, in which the Barcelona aristocracy practiced the new sport of golf in its lounge style. After a period of closure, in 1934, Antonio Astell converted it into a music hall.
In 1936, part of the premises was acquired by the Cine Mar, which was open until 1992.
After the war, with the prohibitions of the dictatorship, it went into decline. On October 12, 1946, after some works, it reopened as Club Excélsior.
In the 1950s it opened as the Folies directed by maestro Demon, also known as Chez Demon, nom de guerre of Llorens Torres Nin, a musician who began to stand out at the Café Catalán on the Rambla in Santa Mónica.
In 1955, it became Cabaret Tabú. In 1978, the singer Loquillo made his presentation in this place.
But these are three stories with their own history that we will explain another day…
