This is how cinema began in the Islands
125 years ago, the Balearic Cinema was inaugurated in the Huerto del Rey in Palma, the first cinema in the archipelago with a constant program.
PalmIt hadn't even been five years since the first screening in history, on December 28, 1895, at the Grand Café de Paris, when the first movie theater on the islands opened its doors to offer regular film screenings. The Balearic Cinematograph began its journey 125 years ago, on June 28, 1900, in the Huerto del Rey in Palma, raising expectations and even fear among the islanders of the time.
Moving images! That was something never seen before. The new invention of the Lumière brothers—who certainly seemed predestined by their lineage—was greeted everywhere with surprise by viewers, who even fled the theaters, frightened, when they thought a train would come out of the screen and hit them. But it was still just a fairground attraction. In the Dracula In Coppola's novel, the Count and young Mina attend one of those first exhibitions: he expresses his admiration for the progress of science, while she asks him how it can be called "science" at all.
Curiously, the first film screening in the Islands was a failure. Already in November 1896, there was an application to hold it at the La Constancia Theater in Palma. But it was still a fledgling invention, and technical failures ruined the audience's expectations.
Thus, the honor of introducing cinema to the islanders for the first time falls to the Teatro Principal de Ciudad, on January 27, 1897. The posters announced the "great novelty: representation of the new invention never seen before in this capital and applauded in all the theaters of Europe. The cinematograph." Animated photographs.
The Palma public responded to the call, but as the ten scheduled days of screenings passed, the attendance dwindled. Apparently, the initial impact had worn off. One of the screenings, dedicated to the death of the Cuban independence leader Antonio Maceo—yes, the one with the famous chair that ended up in Mallorca—was described by the chronicler asBreaking News "disastrous." "The scene was terrible, the lighting was incomplete, and the scene was vulgar," he added.
Viewers' reactions
One of the pioneers of cinema in Mallorca, Fructuoso Gelabert, recorded the reactions of Mallorcans to the new marvel: "They didn't understand how that could be done." Open-mouthed at a film featuring a multitude of characters, they commented: "I don't know how the ship could have carried so many people." One viewer asserted that "it's probably the devil's doing." Soon, the Catholic weekly Mallorca Sunday He described the new show as a "center of corruption and scandal."
But there were, of course, those who saw the business opportunities this offered, despite initial hesitation. We're talking about Josep Tous Ferrer, what we would now call an entrepreneur: bookseller, printer, founder ofBreaking NewsA driving force behind tram and air navigation companies—back in the day!—he obtained a concession for the land of Huerto del Rey in Palma, which at the time was not gardens, but building plots of land, and built the Cinematógrafo Balear (Balearic Cinematography)—named, of course, in Spanish, as was customary with cinema names.
It seems that, very recently, a facility for the same activity had already existed on this site. There is evidence of an inspection order from the provincial governor, dated June 20, 1899, to verify whether it met the required safety standards. According to Aguiló, "still-view and magic lantern sessions" were held here, i.e., the immediate antecedents of cinema. We don't have much more news about this pioneering cinema.
As for Tous Ferrer's brand new Cinematograph, the fact is that it was a shack made of wood, and the press of the time was worried it would stand up. "Before opening to the public," it warned The Roqueta, "it wouldn't hurt if the provincial engineer gave it a little smack to avoid any misfortunes, because, honestly, it seems to be made of cards" - that is, playing cards. But it held up, and held up well, until 1904. Afterwards, Tous himself moved the film screenings to the new Lyric Theatre, also located in Hort del Rei. The entrepreneur must have been very busy with his other many activities, since it is known that he took over the management of the Ricard Rosich Cinematograph, which had come from Barcelona.
Titles such as Cinderella either The one man band, both by Georges Méliès. He was an illusionist, and was the first to recognize the incredible possibilities of the new invention: in his films, characters appeared and disappeared, or transformed before the astonished spectator. He also achieved color images by hand-painting the negatives. Another film shown was Aladdin and the Magic LampGeorge Smith's show, whose advertising for the venue emphasized its spectacular nature: "Transformations, magic, dancing, parades." The goal was to leave the audience amazed. The Roqueta He records how images recorded on Passeig del Born were also projected, "with a great buzz of people."
The writer Màrius Verdaguer, then a high school student, has left us an account of what those sessions at the Cinematógrafo Balear were like. Before each film—all of them short films at the time—a young man was in charge of expressing its content aloud: "Horse bath." And indeed, those animals appeared throwing themselves into a large washing basin: "I held on to the chair, fearing that one of those fiery horses would throw itself at me." Someone would get up and go look behind the screen, to see if the horses were there. The first production with a plot that Verdaguer saw at this venue was The assassination of the Duke of Guise, a historic episode.
Cinema in Menorca and the Pitiusas
In the Part Forana region, the first encounter with the new invention dates back to August 1901, in Alaró. Another visionary, the Perelló brothers, who had shortly before created the first electricity-producing factory in Mallorca, opened a cinema exhibition space in the Can Baraiol garage. This generated such excitement that, according to Aguiló, people arrived by train from the rest of Mallorca to attend the screenings. However, the surprise effect gradually faded, and the Perelló brothers had to close the business.
The next town to open a cinema in Mallorca was Montuïri, in 1907, at the initiative of Bartomeu Pomar, who seems to have been a man of progressive ideas for his time. A second cinema, the Sala Mariana, was opened in the same town, promoted by the priest Joan Baptista Munar. There was also a traveling cinema, run by entrepreneur Diego Nicolás, which opened in Inca that same year.
In contrast to its apparent extra-peripheral location, being the island furthest from the Peninsula, it is surprising that cinema did not take long to arrive in Menorca. It was only two weeks after its presentation in Palma, when, on February 15, 1897, the Lumière invention was unveiled at the Casino Menorquí in Maó, then the headquarters of the Conservative Party and later the Post Office.
The newspaper The Public Good It had announced two days earlier the arrival of businessmen Fogués and Calvo, "bringers of the cinematograph, a marvelous discovery" and who intended "to make known in that city such a marvelous scientific achievement." It seems that the experience was a complete success, since a few days later the newspaper itself expressed "unanimous praise" from the spectators for these screenings.
According to Martín, the first exhibition venue in Menorca was also a wooden shack, the 'Nicolás Pavilion' (named after its promoter, the aforementioned Diego Nicolás) on the esplanade of Maó in 1905. Later, the screenings moved to the Teatro Principal. In Ciutadella, the Cinematógrafo del Círculo Artístico was launched in 1908, and in Alaior, the Cinematógrafo del Círculo Democrático Republicano, the following year.
In Ibiza, the first mention of cinema dates back to 1899. According to Enric Fajarnés, the construction of the Pereyra Theatre in Vila was just finishing in those years, and plans were already underway to install a projector for film screenings. However, this equipment didn't become a reality until 1904. The Ibizan press expressed its satisfaction at the fact that the island could "enjoy a spectacle still unknown to most of its inhabitants, of whom it is certain that there will be none left who won't come to experience this new discovery."
Small (compared to its neighbors) Formentera was the last to encounter the Lumière invention, when it was already a veteran, complete with color and sound. Fabregat and Herranz date the first recorded projection on the island to December 25, 1953, at the San Francisco Javier nunnery; Which isn't surprising, because parish halls were, in those years and until recently, common exhibition spaces. Although, before that, a few screenings had already taken place at the Can Plater bar. Now, the entire archipelago was immersed in the magic of cinema.
In 1903, a second cinema opened in Palma. And, curiously, in the same location: the current Huerto del Rey, probably because it was a centrally located and available space. It was the Truyol Cinematograph, created by photographer Josep Truyol, perhaps the most prominent figure among the pioneers of cinema on the islands, who made a number of recordings that captured excursions around Mallorca, public events, and family scenes.
Competition from the new Lyric Theater, which offered its performances at lower prices, led to the venue's closure seven years later. Although Truyol continued his professional career until his death in 1949, he apparently never recovered from that failure. According to Aguiló, the financial problems generated by the failed business, as well as the prospects of bringing his films to Madrid, which never materialized, led him to a drastic decision: to burn all the footage in his garden. Only a small portion was saved.
Information prepared from the studies of Catalina Aguiló and Josep Antoni Pérez de Mendiola, Cristóbal-Miquel Sbert, Margalida Pujals and Manel Santana, Carlos Fabregat and Julio Herranz, Jean-Claude Seguin and Jon Letamendi, Ignacio Martín and the Old Photos of Mallorca collective.