Gloria

Gloria was a cinema that was operating between 1938-1960. It was located at Folkkungagatan 105 in Stockholm, Sweden. The cinema premiered on the 4th March 1938 with the film “The Hurricane” (John Ford, 1937) (Olle Waltå, Waltåsamlingarna, donated by Göran O. Waltå 2009) and had its last documented screening on June 12th 1960 with the film “A King in New York” (Charles Chaplin, 1957) (“Stockholms alla biografer”, Kurt Berglund, 1993). Gloria contained 722 seats (Biografbladet, nr: 3, March 1938; Dagens Nyheter, 4/3 1938; Svenska Dagbladet 4/3 1938; Social-Demokraten, 4/3 1938), which were a red brick colour and the space between the rows were above the legal standard of 80 centimetres (Stockholms Tidning, sign. Larz, 4/3 1938). Biografägaren nr: 5 12th March 1938, claimed there was “room to both sit and move around”.

Gloria had two different owners, J. Algot Myrgren between 4th March 1938 to 21st November 1940 and Karl Axel Wiktorin 22nd November 1940 to 12th June 1960 (Olle Waltå, Waltåsamlingarna, donated by Göran O. Waltå 2009). The architect of the project was G.W. Olin who previously built several larger cinemas in Chicago (Biografbladet, nr: 4, April 1938). Its artistic decorations were overseen by Beril Damm (Biografbladet, nr: 3, March 1938). Gloria was under the cooperative authority of Europafilm and Wivefilm (Svenska Dagbladet 4/3 1938).

Gloria had four double doors framed by a long canopy with the cinema name in tall neon lights on top. The ticket booth was located by the entrance and three doors at the first floor led to the theatre as well as a stair, which led to the balcony. Its walls were dark brown and bright yellow; the curtain was made out of blood red French velvet. (“Stockholms alla biografer”, Kurt Berglund, 1993). The air conditioning was complimented for its modern and innovative technology; it renewed the air every ten minutes (Biografbladet, nr: 3, March 1938). The sound was evenly distributed throughout the room and you could hear well from any seat no matter the size of the audience.

After its final closing, Gloria was reconstructed and turned into a curtain store, “Ivans Gardiner”, and in 1989 it was turned both into a supermarket “Sparlivs” and a musical instrument store “Södra Bergens Balalaikor” (Olle Waltå, Waltåsamlingarna, donated by Göran O. Waltå 2009). It became a bar and restaurant called “The Bishops Arms” which had closed by early-2018.

Sources cited: Waltå, Olle. Waltåsamlingarna, donated by Göran O. Waltå, 2009. All other texts were found in Waltåsamlingarna (research by Olle Waltå); Berglund, Kurt. “Stockholms alla biografer”, 1993. Biografägaren nr: 5 12/3 1938. Biografbladet, nr: 4, April 1938. Biografbladet, nr: 3, March 1938. Dagens Nyheter, 4/3 1938. Social-Demokraten, 4/3 1938. Stockholms Tidning, sign. Larz, 4/3 1938. Svenska Dagbladet 4/3 1938.

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