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The second Odeón cinema that Barcelona had was in Sant Andreu, located at calle Nadal 2, on the corner of Paseo de Fabra and Puig, although its beginnings were theater.
The Odeón was next to Recreo and the Atlántida cinema, one of the three venues with the largest capacity in the Sant Andreu neighborhood. Formerly, before being annexed to the city of Barcelona, it was the independent municipality of San Andrés del Palomar.
Considered one of the largest cinemas in the city, it was inaugurated at the beginning of 1921. Its beginnings were like that of almost all suburban venues of the time: a theater in which amateur companies performed on weekends, representing plays theatrical and zarzuela.
Although it was not normal to see it on the billboards of the newspapers at the time, it appeared in La Vanguardia on Tuesday, August 15, 1925, as one of the companies that had made a donation to help the mutilated of the war in Africa.
In February 1927, on the occasion of the Carnival festivities, he had the honor of seeing the company of the Gran Teatro del Liceo perform on his stage, which appeared at the venue with the performance of the baritone Joan Fonoll, leading La Africana. which was a spectacular success.
On Saturday, April 2, 1927, he starred in another important event, with the performance of the opera Tosca, as a farewell tribute to the tenor Felipe Sanagustín, one of his illustrious neighbors. He said goodbye to the Spanish public, since he was leaving for American lands to fulfill a series of contracts.
The rise of the cinema at that time and the difficulty of keeping the premises open during the week only with theater performances, made its owner, little by little, forget about the theater and began to opt for the cinema (this art required less dedication , although it also had its problems, for example, that the copies of the films were scarce and each cinema had to hire a cyclist who moved the reels of the films).
In order to reward the long-suffering cyclists for their arduous task of bringing the reels quickly and avoiding the consequent stoppage in the premises and the kicking of the spectators, it was established to hold a race every year among the cyclists of the cinemas.
On Sunday, October 14, 1928, the representative of the Odeón cinema, José Tey, was one of those who received awards.
On Sunday, February 3, 1929, the constitution of the San Andrés Homeowners Association was celebrated, which was chaired by the provincial deputy and president of the Union of Homeowners Associations of Barcelona, Román Traval, and councilor Nadal Delhom.
With the arrival of the Republic, it was consolidated as a cinema, it began to appear on the billboards, announcing the projections of the week that it complemented by distributing the old hand programs and posters to hang in the windows of the neighborhood stores.
In January 1931, the company Cinematográfica Astrea, S.A. included him in a corporate advertisement among the cinemas that had acquired Orpheo-Sincronic sound devices.
At that time it was managed by the Capitol Company. For this reason, it began to program together with the Capitol, Excelsior, Alianza del Pueblo Nuevo, Condal and Walkyria cinemas.
In 1935 the Spanish Film Yearbook listed it as a cinema owned by the Rovira Company and with a capacity of 1,800 spectators.
Due to the declaration of the civil war, like all the cinemas that continued to offer programming, it was collectivized by the CNT. It did not appear on the billboard until Monday, December 1, 1936, with the films: Sombrero de Copa, Secreto de Ana María and Toma de Sietamo.
On November 28, 1944, on the occasion of the Sant Andreu neighborhood festival, there was a performance of El Barbero de Sevilla, in which, as almost always, it had the collaboration of the Gran Teatro Liceo, which on special days ceded to the Odeón the tenor Luis Pasqui, the baritone Juan Gual and the bass Luis Corbella, who under the direction of maestro José Sabater and the orchestra teachers and with the choirs of the Gran Teatro del Liceo, achieved an excellent performance.
At that time, the civil governor, Antonio Correa, chose the place as a reference for the acts that were held in the neighborhood of exaltation of the national movement. Very first stars of the moment came to perform, among which was Carmen de Lirio, who gave the public so much to talk about and the singer Antonio Amaya.
In 1952, José Coll Navarra hired the architect Joan Pujadas to carry out some improvements that, although they would reduce the capacity of the premises, would give it greater comfort, making a slope to achieve a better view of the stage or screen, which left the cinema with a capacity of 1,600 spectators.
In the 1970s, like all major cinemas, it had problems surviving and the Odeon was no less than others, it closed its doors on June 14, 1981, showing: The Human Factor and Cabaret Women. The premises were acquired to build a market, for which part of its structure was used. It kept its name and currently serves the neighborhood.
