Cinemas taken away by time

The first cinemas in Alicante in those years were Avenida., ideal and sometimes the Teatro Director, all in a small and central urban environment: Rambla, Constitución and Plaza de Chapí.

The Avenida cinema was the only cinema with a very comfortable, large capacity and central air conditioning. Since it was adjacent to Calle Bailén, the seats on the patio and counters could be reached from La Rambla through a long hall. settlements of the last floor. Important films such as “The Holy Robe” and “The Bridge on the River Kway” or “Ben-Hur” were screened in this cinema in 1953.

The ideal cinema was smaller and more uncomfortable, retaining the character of its past as a theater even with the boxes, forcing the cinemascope setup to eliminate those closest to the screen. Its main entrance for the patio seats and benches was at what is now called Avenida de la Constitución. Among the many important premieres at Ideal, I highlight “West Side Story” and “Smiles and Tears”. And as the only place still standing, how many proposals have come to transform it! The last thing I remember was a large dental clinic and another was a luxury hotel. But nothing. Of course, it is an imperative need to find a solution to the sad state of destruction that the Ideal is in. And perhaps a luxury hotel project could be less bad if we don’t want it, as the official initiative excludes any action to turn the only big cinema we have left in Alicante into a cultural centre. losing even its guarded front.

While the same has happened in other cities with movie theaters due to changes in leisure conditions, reviewing the sad end of the great Alicante cinemas can be an interesting exercise in the sociological memory of urban speculation, new forms of entertainment and modern technologies. Combine other different factors that motivated the destruction of cinemas such as the Avenida, the Capitol, the Rialto, the old Monumental (oh, what a crime it was to demolish its artistic main façade!) and the Monumental that replaced it; Arcadia, Chapi, Alameda, Calderón became commercial areas. And so, it is now possible to buy clothes, detergents, preserves, fruit, beverages or frozen food in places where we dreamed of the magic of the seventh art in the past. The last major cinema to succumb in the center is Navas, which has been converted into a restaurant. Only three Main rooms on Pascual Pérez street are active. Because Panoramis multiplexes no longer exist.

The different summer cinemas where it was so pleasant to spend the heatwave evenings in my childhood also disappeared: it premiered at Iris Park on Pascual Pérez street, on the corner of Ángel Lozano. . Almost in reverse, again in Ángel Lozano there was Casablanca, where the indoor cinema was built over the summer, now demolished to make the building with an eye clinic on the ground floor. On Vicente Inglada street was the long and narrow Cinema Río, which was replaced by the Carlos III, the first indoor cinema with an entrance, also on San Vicente street. For several summers, the Rex cinema operated on Gravina Street, where in 1956 the great film “The Ten Commandments” by Cecil B. DeMille was premiered. Even the bullfight was used as a summer movie theater.

But new ways of living and entertainment have swept away, and not only in Alicante, all those city cinemas will be replaced by unique multiplexes in suburban shopping centers, following foreign fashion, with Ana, where we can enjoy the latest cinematographic images. a big screen is something that sadly seems less fashionable now.