To know the history of the disappeared National Theater of Barcelona Calderón de la Barca we will have to go back to October 1968, but to know the history of the site where it was built we will have to go to the beginning of the 20th century, when the first venue intended for the world of theater was built. show.
Located at Ronda de San Antonio 38, the Valkiria cinema opened on Monday, April 18, 1911, although the advertisement appeared on Tuesday. On that date, newspapers were not published on Mondays and it appeared in a brief advertisement that said: “Big Premieres, The best and most comfortable Cinema for the public.”
At that time, most cinemas did not communicate the title of the films to be shown and some only listed their meters: the more meters, the better the film.
With the end of the war, although it appeared again on the billboard on February 7, 1939, screening The Crusades, in Spanish by Loreta Young, and Wings in the Night, in Spanish by Myrna Loy and Garl Grant.
On July 23, 1939, it was run by Francisco Javier Xicota, who continued programming as the Walkyria cinema, until the new ordinances of the Franco regime forced him to change its name to another in Spanish, since at that time it was he prohibited any name that was not in Spanish.
Its name change took place on Monday, June 17, 1940, adopting Cine Rondas, as it was located on the Ronda de San Antonio, screening: The Hell of Verdun, Horizons of Glory and Shanghai.
The Rondas Cinema never took off, so Xicota decided to close it on Sunday, March 2, 1967, screening: My song is for you and Abbot and Costello against the cops.
Later, he transferred it to the theater businessman Matías Colsada, who decided to carry out a comprehensive restructuring to turn it into the new City Comedy Theater.
Matías Colsada, famous for the revue shows that he ran the Teatro Apolo, was aware that the city had lost the Teatro Calderón on the Rambla de Catalunya at the corner of Diputació and wanted to take over by building a venue that would be a substitute.
The conversion of the old cinema to become the National Theater of Barcelona was celebrated by the Catalan authorities who had been thinking about building it for a long time and it was inaugurated on October 30, 1968, with the play Pedro de Urdemalas, by Miguel de Cervantes, directed by José Mª Loperena.
The theater was built upon authorization by an Order of the Ministry of Information and Tourism directed by Manuel Fraga on February 26, 1968, since the project was endorsed from Madrid with a public allocation of 9 million pesetas, which was distributed between the Government and Barcelona City Council.
After a total restructuring of the premises, it was inaugurated as the National Theater of Barcelona “Calderón de la Barca”, on October 30, 1968. In attendance were the civil governor Tomás Garlcano; the general director of Popular Culture and Entertainment, Carlos Roblas Piquer and other personalities from the city. La Vanguardia on November 1, among other things, commented on what its premiere represented for the city.
Memorable evening. The old Encendida dream has come true. In Barcelona, ??a new theater has been inaugurated, the Calderón de la Barca, and the National Theater has established its headquarters there, through a competition, subsidized by the Ministry of Information and Tourism, in collaboration with the City Council, which the city had been demanding several years. The new theater is a beautiful room, of sober elegance. All the demands of modern comfort have been taken into account. Its construction is due to the architect Amardo Rodríguez Rosselló.
In its first years, the new location was especially well received by the public. On Saturdays and Sundays, there were puppet matinees and other theatrical performances aimed at children, organized by the Women’s Section.
But desires are one thing and realities are quite another. The theater was built in a difficult environment, without good parking and with other inconveniences to achieve attendance that would consolidate it.
The National Theater of Barcelona Calderón de la Barca closed its doors on January 6, 1975. A few days before it appeared on the billboard of La Vanguardia announcing the play La Cocina by Arnold Werker.
When the premises were adopted by the company Cinesa, it became Cine Calderón, which for ten years turned it into a premiere theater that was unnoticed until the premiere on Friday, October 27, in an afternoon session, of the Catalan film L’orgia, directed by Francesc Bellmunt, which remained on the billboard until April 1979.
It was the first “S” film (qualification that was then given to erotic films) in the Catalan language, with the actors Juanjo Puigcorbé and Alicia Orozco, among others. In the advertising it said: “Tender as beef with mushrooms, sweet as figs”. It was the story of a group of boys and girls on vacation in a house that, little by little, a party they hold turns into an orgy.
The Calderón cinema closed its doors screening Rufianes y Trampos with Jean Paul Belmondo, on Sunday, April 28, 1985.
