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This is the story of the Imperial room, later the Gran Cine Imperial, which ended up being the Cibeles Room. We are located at 363 Córcega street, in a premises owned by Salvador Casas, who decided, in the first decade of the 20th century, to dedicate it to the world of cinematography, without any knowledge of the seventh art.
He only knows that it is a new system for projecting moving images and that large venue owners are getting into the business.
In the advertisement that he published on page 7 of La Vanguardia on June 3, 1911, one can verify the lack of claim and knowledge of the publicity that was in the ad: "Selected film program."
However, luck was not with him in the business either, since on July 3, 1912 he suffered a fire that was reflected in history with an announcement from the Minimax company, on July 24 of that same year.
Said company made a corporate announcement in which it communicated the companies that had had fires during the year 1912 and, thanks to its efficiency, had come out of the fire well.
Minimax offered its services with installments of 2 pesetas per week and made available to companies and small businesses certificates accrediting the data related to how many requested them to carry out the subscription.
The owner of the Imperial made an effort to highlight the local's bonanzas in his advertisements: a cinema known as "La Perla del Eixample", "Colossal success due to its quality and detail of the images", but he rarely communicated the titles or themes of the films. Of the many programs reviewed, the most explanatory were: "Premiere of an exciting bullfight" and "Taunts of girls."
In the middle of 1914, he began to announce the titles of the films. On Sunday, October 18: For the sake of love, The agony of Byzantium, The stalking, The teller and others.
In 1916 he took over the management of the Martin Herrero store, which kept it open until 1917, when it disappeared from the billboards, leaving the store unused.
Given its size and location, it was rented for 20 years by a soft drink factory, which used it as a warehouse and garage.
In 1939 Ramón Dora, owner of La Paloma, seeing the acceptance of this dance hall on Calle del Tigre, carried out a comprehensive restructuring of it, converting it in 1940 into the new Salón Cibeles dance hall.
The place had a diaphanous surface of 300 square meters, Ramón Dora decorated it with small boxes around it with chairs so that the ladies who did not dance could be seated waiting for some gentleman to ask them to dance.
He had built a mezzanine that was accessed by two side stairs at the back of the room, from which you could see the dance floor from above and couples could have a little more privacy and also people who wanted to go unnoticed .
At the back of the room was the orchestra stage that was decorated with several decorative paintings, the central one - the one that was left behind the orchestra - was an allegorical painting of the Cibeles fountain in Madrid, from which it had taken its name. .
The place attracted people from the middle and working classes, it was open on Thursdays and Sundays. This fact had made it popular with the domestic servants, who at that time had parties on Thursday afternoons.
This led to the assumption, at that time, that most of the ladies who attended the venue were domestic workers, for this reason, a popular saying soon caught on among the people of Barcelona who, when they had to talk about the venue, always said: "The dance of the maids". .
The censorship that existed at that time led to a person being placed in the attic to make sure that the couples did not dance too close together and that the young people did not get too smart with their hands.
The irruption of the Beatles in the 60s and that of other Anglo-Saxon groups brought local bands that covered those songs by the long-haired men from Liverpool.
When Ramón Dora died, Carlos Pazos and Manuel Valls took charge of the premises, which changed the orientation of the business, seeking a more rock-oriented public, which changed the habits of the clientele.
At that time the hall was open from Thursday to Sunday, with famous singers offering their performances on stage: Gato Pérez, Raúl del Castillo, the Platería Orchestra, Caco Senante...
It was then very common for many night owls to start the night in Cibeles until two in the morning. Then they would go down to Ciutat Vella to end the night in one of the fashionable places at that time.
The end of the dictatorship led to the beginning of one of the most glorious stages of Cibeles, which brought together a mixture of intellectuals, progressives and theater people.
In 1979, Narcís Serra, candidate for mayor of Barcelona for the PSC, held the first inaugural campaign rally for the municipal elections there.
In its last stage, Cibeles was encouraged by various orchestras and groups of various types of music. It was one of the favorite places to organize bachelor parties. On Friday nights the room was managed by the Mond Club company, which offered only disco music.
This new focus on the business led to the first complaints from the neighbors and consequently the first complaints. The place lacked good soundproofing and the noise deeply disturbed the neighbors.
But this was not the most serious thing, the outings at the wee hours of the morning with people excited by music and alcohol caused continuous fights between clients, for which, after several complaints, they ended with the governmental closure of the premises, which it was closed as a dance hall.
The owner of the local Pau Solé Ribas, who in turn was the owner of the local La Paloma, did not want to assume more responsibilities and decided, in 2005, to sell the premises to the City Council, to use it for public facilities. It was demolished in 2009.
