The Scania Teatern opened on 11th January 1925 with a Harold Lloyd comedy as part of the programme. It was designed by architect Arnold Salomon Sorenson from Helsingborg and had a seating capacity of 699. There is a long corridor that leads to the foyer and auditorium at the rear. The corridor has an arched ceiling and is decorated with unusual painted frescos representing life and customs from around the world by artist Einar Forseth. The auditorium was designed by interior designer Karl Norberg and had the majority of its seating on the main floor, with only a shallow, three rows, horse-shoe balcony at the rear.
The exterior of the Scania Teatern was re-modeled in 1943 and a new stylish canopy was erected, that is still to be seen on the building today.
The beautiful auditorium decorations were completely destroyed in an insensitive redecoration scheme in 1959. Only the entrance corridor with its 1925 decoration was retained. The Scania became a Roadshow cinema, equipped with Todd-AO it screened "South Pacific" from 5th October 1959. In 1979, a second screen seating 93 was created from a former cloakroom, off the foyer. Svensks Filmindustri(SF) stopped showing films at the Scania in 1988, the final film in the main auditorium was Luc Besson's "The Big Blue" on 13th October 1988.
After a while, the auditorium was demolished and a new 6-screen multiplex was built onto the existing facade and entrance corridor, which was re-furbished back to its 1925 appearance. Opened by the Sandrews group as the Biopalatset on 8th December 1994. Jim Carey in "The Mask" was the opening film in the largest screen, which had seating for 251, and was THX certified. Seating capacities in the five screens were: 101, 140, 164, 94 and 60.
The Biopalatset was closed in late-2006, and is empty and unused when seen in September 2008.
Contributed by Ken Roe
|
|
Note: Please read our comment policy before posting. Comments which are off-topic, obscene, spam, or personal attacks will be removed. Help us keep the discussion productive!
|
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/2951487059/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/2951488169/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/2952342180/