On 4 June 1924, Vilnius Magistrate established a popular 1,200-seat movie theater in the city hall, which in Polish was called ''Miejski kinematograf'' (). The purpose of this cinema was to provide cultural education for students and adults. The popularity of this cinema is evidenced by the numbers of viewers in 1926: 502 261 tickets were sold, 24 242 tickets were given free to boarding children, 778 to Vilnius guests and 8385 to soldiers. In 1939, the Lithuanian authorities renamed it to ''Milda''. In 1940, the last city government handed over the premises to the People's Commissariat of Education, which established the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society there.