In Mexico City we had our own Chinese palace, and although it was only a movie theater, its name did justice to the lavish décor of its building, inspired by the Far East. The interiors were fantastic replicas of Burmese (Myanmar) pagodas and Chinese temples, and it is said that in its heyday going to the movies there was like entering a dream: "All the corridors were decorated in Chinese style, vases, masks, even streams with bridges and everything; and beautiful lanterns, it was a totally different world! Inside there were, according to another testimony, "pagodas, a golden and immense eight-armed god, reminiscent of the temples of Burma, and when the light was turned off to start the movie, the temples glowed in the dark"....
Unfortunately, the decorations and murals were dismantled, and not even photographs of the interiors remain (or at least I still can't find them). But part of the facade, much simpler than the interiors, still survives on Calle de Iturbide, in the Centro Historico. It is a deco building painted in wine color, with Chinese-style ironwork windows, two neon signs that say its name in "Chinese" typography, small Buddhas on the walls and a canopy, now empty, where they announced the billboard of the day.
Originally this property measured 6,000 square meters and reached Bucareli Street. At first it was the site of the Frontón Nacional and later, in 1933, it became the Arena Nacional, where wrestlers of the stature of Chango Casanova, Kid Azteca and Maravilla Enmascarada made their debuts. However, in 1937, the arena caught fire and the owners, Lavergne and Fitten, were forced to sell the property. The lot sat vacant for three years until businessman Luis Castro, owner of several movie theaters, bought it.
Mr. Castro's vision was to build a monumental 4,000-seat, oriental-style movie theater on this site. He hired architects Luis de la Mora and Alfredo Olagaray to construct the building, and artists Juan Campos and Humberto Ramírez to create the murals and decoration. Thus was born the Palacio Chino, whose name responded to the decoration of the façade and interiors and its proximity to Dolores' Chinatown.
The theater opened on March 29, 1940 with the film Honeymoon by English director Alexander Korda. It was a great event. Even the actors Charles Chaplin and Gary Cooper sent congratulations by telegram. The ticket that day cost only 4 pesos.
Since then, the Palacio Chino became an emblematic movie theater, both for its concept and its technology. It was considered a premier (or luxury) cinema because it had carpeting, cushioned seats, cinemascope sound and a panoramic screen. In addition, it had a family atmosphere. As was customary in the movie theaters of that time, only one movie was shown at a time and there was one premiere a week. You didn't have to reserve a seat, you had to wait in line and sit wherever you could.
During the following two decades, the Palacio Chino exhibited many films from the golden age of Mexican cinema. For example, Viviré otra vez and Allá en el trópico were premiered there, and La feria de las flores, the first film starring Pedro Infante, was shown there. They also organized morning music concerts for a long time.
In the fifties, the Palacio Chino was put up for sale and bought by Carlos Amador, a businessman related to the cinema and husband of Marga López. It was then that the size of the theater was reduced by half, it was divided into several theaters and became known as the Palacio Chino Tele-Cinema. Although it had a super luxury theater, by 1965 it was already considered a second-rate movie theater.
At this time they had matinees and young people would go there to watch movies like the Star Wars saga or Walt Disney classics. There were 2×1 Wednesdays. I also remember the ad for the Chinese Palace on the Excelsior billboard and Tío Gamboín giving away tickets to go to the Chinese Palace on TV.
In the 90's it was put up for sale again and bought by Cinemex. Then the Palacio Chino went from being a tele-cinema to a multi-cinema: its four theaters became 11 digital exhibition rooms, two of which had the necessary characteristics to project 3D movies. The fact is that Cinemex's monopoly transformed it into just another product among its hundreds of theaters, taking away the little identity and personality that the place still had left. This is how it worked for two decades until 2016, when Cinemex announced its closure due to "ticket sales by pirate vendors" and for other reasons that no longer represented business for them. Neighbors remember the company's workers dismantling the facilities and taking away seats, projectors and logos.
Since then, the Chinese Palace has been closed and abandoned for almost three years. The metal curtains are painted with graffiti, there are holes where Buddhas once stood, the neon sign is missing letters and homeless people are sleeping at the foot of its entrances. Yet there it stands, after providing entertainment for nearly 77 years.
The Palacio Chino is part of a whole era of monumental movie theaters. And curiously, it is one of the ones that operated for the longest time, even longer than the Teresa and Opera theaters, which were also inaugurated in the 40's. Only the Metropólitan Theater survives, which is just around the corner and also dates from that era, although it mainly functions as a concert hall.
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