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The missing Salón Guinardó cinematograph was built on the site where the former headquarters of the Catalan Athenaeum of Guinardó was located, located at 43 Escornalbou Street, corner with Renacimiento (currently Renaixença), very close to number 30, where the missing Casa was located. Nice to meet you.
The birth of the Catalan Athenaeum of the Working Class took place on February 2, 1862 in Barcelona with the purpose of providing training to the city’s workers by giving general culture classes to its members in their free time for a fee of 4 reales. monthly.
Subsequently, the Catalan Athenaeum in the Guinardó district was inaugurated in 1931. It belonged to the Catalan League, which had allocated part of the premises to have its own purchasing cooperative and another space used as an assembly hall, where activities were held. typical of society and other Athenaeums of the City, especially those dedicated to children, clown and puppet festivals and distribution of toys.
In 1934, on the occasion of the Three Kings’ Day, the women’s section, together with members of the steering committee, was in charge of organizing the distribution to a group of 250 boys and girls.
The Women’s Section decided not only to organize events for children, but also extended it to needy people in the district by distributing food vouchers.
Given the growth in subscribers, in February 1935, the decision was made to renovate the premises and convert it into a new, more modern one. The first stone was laid by Ramón d’Abadal, president of the Catalan League.
The works were inaugurated on the day of the San Juan festival on June 23, 1935, whose event was attended by Francesc Cambó.
During the Civil War, the premises were confiscated by the CNT union until its completion, when the Ateneo became managed (a softer word than confiscated) by the Spanish Falange, until its abandonment.
As the premises were large, the part that had its entrance on Renacimiento Street was managed by the Marín Cinematographic Studios, a company dedicated to the dubbing, sale and rental of films and film projectors.
The part of the premises facing Escornalbou, acquired by Antonio Serralla, was converted in 1940 by him and his family into the new cinema Salón Guinardó.
The old assembly hall of the Ateneo was small, so the Serralla family converted it into a cinema with a small audience and a four-row amphitheater and a small stage to be able to perform performances by variety artists, which in those times was dominated by illusionists and artists performing Spanish songs.
The Serrallas took advantage of the old terrace and the previous open-air bar to use during breaks so that the spectators could have a drink or smoke a cigarette.
The first film screened was the North American production Test Pilot, starring Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and Myrna Loy and directed by Victor Fleming.
It was a film that, in 1938, was nominated for the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Story and Best Editing and told the story of a test pilot.
The first problem that the Serralla had was financial, so at first they only acquired a single projector from their neighbor Cinematografía Marín. In those days each film was divided into several rolls, this forced companies to have a minimum of two projectors, so that when a roll finished the other projector would automatically jump, offering continuity of projection.
Having originally purchased a single projector from the Serralla family, the operator was forced, when a roll ran out, to turn off the projector and change the reel. This meant that when this moment arrived, the projection was cut off and the lights in the room were turned on and there was a short break while the reels were changed.
This operation meant that, during the time the change was being made, the spectators spent the time whistling and stamping their feet.
This problem made Antonio Serralla look for a solution, who decided to close the doors of the old Guinardó Hall and look for another place with more capacity and projection in the area. This is how he found a nearby location, located at Paseo Maragall 83 – 85, where he moved the cinema.
On the new site, Antonio Serralla had a new cinema built by the architect Carlos Martínez, with a capacity initially of about 700 spectators and which was inaugurated on February 23, 1946. But that belongs to another story…
