The History of Luengo Coliseum: A Landmark of Entertainment in Guadalajara

The terrace belonged to the Luengo family, who also ran the Teatro Liceo, together with other partners. Once the land of the Liceo theater was sold to Banco Castellano in Valladolid, Salustiano Luengo proposed to build a cinema and theater room on the old terrace of España, which became a benchmark for entertainment over time, both in the city of Guadalajara as in the rest of Spain.

After works that lasted a little more than a year, on July 28, 1968, the Luengo Coliseum was inaugurated with a film projection and great anticipation in the world of entertainment. The Luengo Coliseum hall had 1,370 seats and what surprised everyone was that there were no columns that obstructed the view of the spectators, due to the metal structures placed on top of the roof.

Three years after its opening, Salustiano Luengo handed over the management of the room to local businessman Julián Peinado Ayala, who already ran the Ruffus cafe on Marqués de Santillana street. This was the time when the Luengo Coliseum was the best with the projection of the best movies of the moment such as: Fiddler on the roof, cabaret, the film collection The Father and many others that filled the entire room.

During the Guadalajara Fairs and Festivals celebration, the best comedy and reenactment companies in Spain paraded on the stage of the Luengo Coliseum. The companies of the comedian Quique Camoiras, Rafaela Aparicio, Juanito Navarro, Paco Martínez Soria and the inseparable Zori and Santos, among many others, were very successful.

The movie’s dance scenes were filmed inside the Luengo Coliseum hall. The Green Envelope,” in 1970, directed by director Rafael Gil and starring Tony Leblanc and Esperanza Roy. An unusual news about the Coliseo Luengo room happened in 1973 when the band played on their stage. “From Santurce to Bilbao Blues Band” directed by Moncho Alpuente. They presented their full album: Special Animalswhich introduced the subject The 600 man, which was a song in the summer of that year 1973. During the concert, representatives of the National Police appeared in the room who received an order to arrest a member of the music group to be searched and capture The company manager assured the authorities not to stop the concert and it was at the end of the concert that the police arrested the band member for whom the arrest warrant was issued to send out.

In the mid-1980s, the cinema and theater were again run by Don Salustiano Luengo, who chose to show the latest film releases of the moment. It was one of the films that caused a sensation among viewers Superman in 1978. The crowd that entered the room was so great that some of the glass in the entrance doors was broken by the weight of the spectators. Due to the death of the founder of the Luengo Coliseum, Salustiano Luengo, on October 14, 1994 and the arrival of multiplex theaters to the city of Guadalajara, the theater was definitively closed on February 1, 1996, leaving a mark inevitable on the city. Currently there is a large underground parking lot on his land.