Bahía Cinema

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1947 · Authors: José Luis Jiménez Domínguez, Antonio Cardona Aragón

This was one of the most popular cinemas in the area around Parque Santa Catalina. The Bahía Cinema was located at the corner of Secretario Artiles Street and Isla de Cuba Street.

It was designed in 1944 by the architect José Luis Jiménez Domínguez for the businessman Alfredo Wood Caballero, a figure who, together with his brother Francisco, specialised in the cinema business in the city.

The Bahía Cinema originally featured a façade of a restrained international style with some vernacular aspects in the openings. Inside, the auditorium could accommodate a total of 532 spectators divided into two levels: stalls and balcony.

It was inaugurated on 12 April 1947 with the screening of the film Union Pacific by Cecil B. de Mille, from 1939. Tickets cost 7 pesetas and it had a projection system from the brand O.S.S.A.

In 1968 the cinema was completely renovated by the architect Antonio Cardona Aragón. Its exterior appearance changed considerably, unifying openings and highlights; and inside, the number of seats increased to 679 across the two sections. Its projection screen was also enlarged, now adapted to the new times.

The Bahía Cinema did not escape the deep crisis that affected the cinema sector in the mid-1980s, closing permanently on 30 June 1986. From that date it became an amusement arcade and was eventually demolished. Today, a residential building stands in its place.

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