Here at The Chronicle, we love it when readers share their memories of Chester with us, especially in the form of pictures we can feature on our Nostalgia page.
This week, David A. Ellis, who has done much of the co-writing on the fascinating Chesterwalls website which features some excellent old pictures of the city, was kind enough to send me some photographs of the Odeon in the 1950s.
Designed by Robert Bullivant, who was part of a team of Birmingham-based architects, the Odeon first opened to an invited audience on October 3 1936. Not only did it feature impressive interior, but there was also a live orchestra pit and decorative ventilation grilles, as well as contemporary lighting features.
The opening night of the Odeon was a glittering affair with attendees including Mr and Mrs Oscar Deutsch, the founder of Odeon Cinemas, film star Douglas Fairbanks Junior, The Jack Payne Band, the Mayor of Chester as well as the architects.
These pictures were part of a collection belonging to the late Gordon Potter, who was the chief projectionist at Chester’s Odeon for many years. The images are to be included in a definitive book about the history of Chester cinemas and theatres, which David is writing with Roger Shone and the Odeon’s last chief projectionist Peter Davies.
With the imminent opening of Broughton’s new Cineworld cinema this month , and it coming up to the eight year anniversary of the Odeon’s closure Odeon in June 2007, there seems no better time to look back at the Odeon in a golden age.
David is also working on another book about cinema - In Conversation with Cinematographers which is his second book for American publisher Rowman and Littlefield. It will be published in August by the cinema Theatre Association and can be purchased through this link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442251090/In-Conversation-with-Cinematographers
