I took an almost identical photograph of the light box and canopy on the night of the “Oliver!” premiere. I had been to the London Casino cinema and was heading home as the premiere audience were about to leave the Odeon.
Nice to see the name signs on tower and new canopy in their 1967 colours. From 1937 to 1967, the signs on the tower and original canopy were red – each character carrying four veins of neon. From reopening in late 1967, following Anthony Sharp’s modernisation, the neon had been replaced by two veins of red and two of blue, creating the magenta effect seen above. All other Odeons had signage with either one or two veins of red neon and the two colour combination for name signage remained unique to the flagship until removal during the 1998 “Fanatical” refurbishment/partial reconstruction/rebranding exercise.
AMC have said the Odeon’s refurbishment/restoration is part of a renovation programme for all their European sites which will begin later this year. Given the plans and budget for OLS and the desire for it to be “…our number one site in Europe” and their statement “We are moving quickly”, suggests sooner rather than later though, understandably, no starting date has been announced.
Ambak, The medication’s gone in the bin!
Really good to have the accurate details now. Ten weeks in 70mm. in Victoria was indeed modest, even after twenty in the West End/Marble Arch – especially as “South Pacific” in Todd-AO was still packing out the huge Dominion (even without the Upper Circle) after over a year by the time “Oklahoma!” was seen in 70mm.
I do recall that, even as late as the early ‘seventies, Rank regarded OLS more as a showcase for their weekly release films (naturally most ran for more than a week but programmes changed pretty regularly) than a roadshow house. As detailed above, charity openings,special events and premieres always punctuated the Odeon’s calendar but continuous performances outnumbered roadshows – I saw “Diamonds are Forever” there twice one Sunday in the mid 'seventies during its typically continuous policy. Even after the success of “Lawrence”, John Davis, our chairman, had never liked committing OLS to a “special season”, preferring these to occupy other Rank West End venues. When continuous performances finally ceased virtually everywhere, the OLS’s policy was normally to have Harlands of Hull’s “theatre style” advance booking tickets for specific seats at every performance but these were costly for such a high capacity and were soon restricted to evenings and weekends with Automatickets and unreserved seating for earlier performances.
Since 1998, the foyer and circle lounge walls have been painted white. Along with the double-height glazing, various projected signs and raising of the circle lounge, the concept was apparently to create an impression of light and spaciousness but the result was chilly.
The auditorium walls and ceiling were painted in soft grey in 1998 and this was to maximise the effect of the fibre optic lighting in the coving in splay walls, side walls and ceilings. Sadly the restored concealed lighting was never as effective as intended and the light sources were installed in the most inaccessible of nooks and crannies thus today very little of the scheme works.
A great deal will change in the forthcoming refurbishment – hopefully for the better!
AMC have announced plans for their £10 to £15 million “total refurbishment” of the Odeon Leicester Square. C.E.O. of the new parent company, Adam Aron, revealed a detailed awareness of both the theatre and its “global importance within the industry”. Despite AMC being a huge operator of multiplexes, he says the Odeon’s size and traditional configuration are now unique in the West End and will be preserved and enhanced. I understand the organ was mentioned specifically and that the Odeon will retain a large screen (not IMAX to avoid competition with the Cineworld Empire across the Square – possibly Odeon’s own isense)whilst having a new sound system installed. Greater leg room is also planned and reclining seats (remember Empire One?). He acknowledged the number of refurbishments the Odeon has had over the years and promises that this one really will recover the iconic venue’s former glory.
It’s early days of course and we’ve yet to see the finished product but it has to be positive news, given so many of us feared at least a degree of sub-division.
It also makes sense when the neighbouring five Odeon Studios, two subterranean Odeons in the former Leicester Square Theatre’s footprint, the four screen Odeon Panton Street (which just might go, I suspect) and four screen Odeon Covent Garden will give the Company an unparalleled film offer in the West End.
The reason for the huge gap of £5 million in the initial budget parameters is mostly down to plans being at a very early stage – don’t know which companies will be tendering for the works but AMC will be making further announcements when decisions are made.
Must be good news and that of a kind Oscar himself would welcome for his flagship.
Oops! “Oliver!” in 70mm. was in 1968 not 1971. Now, where’s that medication?
Absolutely correct. This tired old brain was thinking of “Oklahoma!’s” next day’s transfer to the Metroplole in 70mm. after opening in 35mm. at the Odeon.
The cinemas themselves are somewhat clinical, technically state-of-the-art but lacking atmosphere.
As David has said, really nice décor and furnishing is pretty much limited to the foyer/bar/restaurant areas.
Just to add to the fascinating list of films/events provided above by Steffan Laugherne and Ken Roe, “West Side Story” had its premiere/Royal Film Performance at the Odeon during 1962 and was the first presentation here in 70mm. 70mm. came surprisingly late to the Odeon (“South Pacific” was, by this time, over three years into its mammoth run of four years and twenty two weeks at the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road). “West Side Story” transferred the following day to the 70mm. equipped Metropole, Victoria and “Lawrence of Arabia” began its West End run in 70mm. at the Odeon.
Many films made in 70mm. or “blown up” into the format have since been presented on the Odeon’s vast and handsome 70mm. screen and I feel lucky to have been around to enjoy many of them, beginning with the “blow up” of “Oliver!” in 1971.
The proscenium arch itself appears no wider than before, the visible tabs seem exactly the same. It’s hard to see how the installation of a CinemaScope screen frame had been accommodated and what was achieved by rebuilding the pros'.
Some conversions involved putting in the more sophisticated screen frame with variable masking which resulted in a correct ratio CinemaScope image but one which actually occupied a smaller area of screen. I wonder if this was one such.
Certainly an attractive and comfortable cinema with a reputation for long, premiere runs. Thought to be small when opened – would now be thought a large capacity.
I was lucky, never found any flood or air conditioning problems. Fond memories of seeing “Mary Poppins”, “The Virgin and the Gypsy”, “Fantasia”, “The Lion in Winter”, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and “On Golden Pond” here, during their very successful runs, among others.
Presentation was top notch – two festoon curtains lit by both footlights and from above by colour spots. Both light distribution and focus on the Odeon’s big screen were always perfect in my experience.
As a Rank cinema manager myself, I heard about the maintenance problems but wouldn’t have known from having enjoyed the splendid cinema on numerous occasions.
That’s a thought. The Casino at the Cineworld doesn’t have the same ring, even were it to be allowed! Perhaps “The Casino in Leicester Square” now that “Casino” has lost its link with Cinerama and the Prince Edward Theatre!
Sadly, the 1,300+ Empire One will never return so, as you say, neither will I.
Don’t think Cineworld could make the Empire Leicester Square any worse than it is now. I’ve certainly seen my last film there – one visit since twinning Empire One was more than enough.
Given that Picturehouse Central ultimately belongs to Cineworld and that the largest auditorium there is most impressive with its extremely comfortable seats, strikingly colourful curtains and huge screen, perhaps the Empire/Cineworld Leicester Square is in relatively safe hands.
Almost as intriguing as recent politics! Certainly slimming down the Empire circuit somewhat. Looks like Bromley is to acquire a Picturehouse then while, doubtless, Empire will be working out how to turn the tripled erstwhile Carlton Haymarket into a ten screen multihash!
Understand 70mm. was installed in Screen 2 in order to show “The Hateful Eight”. If this is the case, the Parkway team deserve both congratulations and support. I enjoyed the film at a packed Odeon Leicester Square and, at the time, it was thought Filmhouse Edinburgh would the only other cinema to show the Ultra Panavision 70 film once it ended its successful run in Leicester Square. Bradford Pictureville weren’t able to share the roadshow treatment as PictureHouse Cinemas book the films there and their parent, Cineworld, refused to show it in any of their locations in spite at Mr Tarantino and the distributors granting OLS four weeks West End exclusivity (barring PictureHouse Central in Shaftesbury Avenue until the huge Odeon’s run had clocked up four very successful weeks).
By 1971, the Caley had installed 70mm screen frame, multi-speaker sound system and projectors. I saw a blow-up of “The Jolson Story” there and the huge screen was most impressive. Less so were the totally unsuitable festoon curtains, sections of which continued all around the walls up to the rear of the auditorium. Footlights filtered Red/Blue/Green (which would have lit the new tabs beautifully from their rightful place) were oddly placed along the back wall above the projection portholes thereby giving a rainbow glow to the backs of heads in the circle and leaving the stage end dark.
CF100 I’m also amazed at how many people are unaware of their environment generally. To a greater or lesser extent, lighting, screen curtains and décor/design of cinemas will, I believe, be noticed subliminally i.e. all elements that contribute to a cinema being thought of as a nice one, and secondary to things like the comfort of seats, leg room, climate, toilet provision etc. Having said that, I’ve heard audience members at OLS commenting on the vastness and splendour of the place even before the screen has appeared and during the run of “The Hateful Eight”, many people applauded and/or whistled when the tabs first opened and that was only to reveal the Odeon “O” current logo which runs constantly in other Odeons in place of tabs and before the ads. begin! Undeniably, when curtains part, everybody knows something’s about to happen – it’s “theatre”, it’s potentially exciting, it’s probably best summed up by saying it all adds to the magic which is conspicuously absent when you’ve been faced with a blank, naked screen for ten minutes beforehand.
The re-stepping of the circle echelons some years back was a big job and was not confined to the Royal Circle, it was the entire balcony. The new steppings do not just sit above the original ones except for those in the front row, either side of the cross gangway and the back row. All seating became higher than before and this meant the wall at the front of the balcony had to be increased in height (and that those in the back row who put items on the floor often found them nicked as the floor is now at waist height of anyone walking along the rear promenade). The leg-room was increased by the new steppings being designed so that seat standards could be installed slightly further back than conventionally. The exercise was costly (new seats were fitted to the new steppings – and those seats have since been replaced themselves) and overall the balcony capacity was reduced by almost two hundred seats – mainly in the rear circle – and this was when the theatres’s capacity fell from 1,9XX seats to 1,7XX. A number of seats in the back row of the stalls was also lost in the 1998 restructering. The carpet in the rows of the Royal Circle was replaced by flooring last year and I believe the plan is to extend this to the rear circle. Bearing in mind the carpet being replaced was also new at the time of the re-stepping and the price of high-end cinema seats and we begin to see how costly it is to keep the Odeon up to scratch.
The “major refurbishment” first mentioned well over a year ago, and with it the opportunity to replace tabs, repair the broken house tabs track and upgrade the decorative lighting – all non-essential of course and, with further seating replacement, foyer and lounge refurbishment etc., likely to cost £millions, looks increasingly likely not to happen until the Odeon circuit has a new parent. The rolling maintenance/replacement budget continues to be made available but every four week accounting period brings with it fiscal demands for things more essential (or likely to improve footfall) than the finer elements of presentation.
It also appears that Odeon’s reluctance to install Dolby Atmos, when Dolby wanted it at the Odeon first, may well have been due to the pending sale of the circuit
although I imagine Dolby would have borne much of the cost as has happened for many years when technical improvements, including new digital projectors, have taken place – it’s quite a cache when your industry advertising can include the words: “…as installed at
the Odeon Leicester Square” and suppliers happily pay highly for such value.
The Cannon/MGM/Virgin/UGC/Cineworld (!) in Southampton’s Harbourside Leisure area opened in 1989 as a five screen multiplex and all screens then had tabs which were out of use by the time Virgin’s brief sojourn into the cinema business took place.
All Odeon’s multiplexes, when new, were fitted out with tabs until just a few years ago when the Circuit’s new-builds began to appear with just naked screens for the first time.
CF100 Warner Village Cinemas U.K. multiplexes were all fitted out from new with gold screen tabs – side opening in their larger auditoria and festoon in the smaller ones. This included the “new” Warner, Leicester Square. I believe all tabs in their multiplexes were out of use within a few years although not usually removed for several more years.
With regard to tabs and attendant lighting, I ought to credit other West End cinemas where such features are alive and well. NFT One was originally designed with solid panels moving across the screen in place of tabs but these were replaced some years ago with silver satin tabs lit by footlights and very nice they look too. The present Curzon Mayfair’s main screen was designed to be exposed all the time with spotlights projecting spheres of coloured light on the screen, here, too, within a few years tabs were installed and effectively lit by the existing spotlights. The same thing happened at the erstwhile Odeon, St. Martin’s Lane which opened with a “floating” or suspended screen and frame while the wall behind the screen was floodlit before and after performances and during intermissions – about the time the Odeon ceased being “Odeon Disney” and reverted to more traditional, if selective, programming, a track and neutrally coloured tabs lit by spotlights were installed. The recently and beautifully restored Regent Street cinema has silver tabs lit by footlights from day one. The largest screen at the brand new PictureHouse Central has exquisite tabs in turquoise, orange and silver reflective fabric.
All is not lost therefore and, if the will, the budget and the space were there at the Empire, Leicester Square to retro-fit tabs, it would be far from the first cinema to do so.
Undoubtedly there is a generational aspect with regard to the finer, more peripheral points of “film” presentation. Youngsters who have grown up knowing nothing other that the average multiplex will, naturally, wonder what we’re talking about. Alongside this, I’m often taken aback at how little most people do actually notice. I’ve been with friends to performances where various things have gone seriously wrong – lengthy loss of focus, unexplained periods of complete darkness and silence and periods of green screen. A friend with grandchildren at Odeon Bournemouth – Screen 1 had to find a member of staff to turn off the cleaners' lights – these were apparently being used in place of what was left of the auditorium lighting! By the same token, those same people wouldn’t normally notice tabs or lighting effects or specially selected non-sync music helping to set the mood. All this doesn’t mean we should cater to the lowest common denominator so full marks to Plaza, Stockport; Rex, Berkhamsted; Odyssey, St. Albans; Alhambra, Keswick and all those other cinemas where proprietors know how to create magic. Odeon, Leicester Square still use screen tabs and pageant lighting (the house tabs are there but the track was damaged by the flown 3D screen). It’s generally subliminal – except to nuts like us – but it can enhance a show no end.
It’s not that such accessories are in any way out-of-date, it’s more a case of accountants running things and thinking these things are not necessary to show a film, which they’re not, of course, worse still, they might malfunction and cancel a show – refunds equal anathema!
With one, maybe two people responsible for say twelve screens the concerns are, sadly, not unjustified.
In my home cinema, children are captivated when colours change and dim as silver tabs open and the trade mark appears to magically show through. Numerous guests, many younger than myself and far from dinosaurs, also say “This is how cinemas used to be – they’re not the same these days” or words to that effect. I used to manage the erstwhile Scarborough Odeon and the projection team there would have found it hard to believe the errors Ian was faced with in the little cinema at the rear of our old circle.
Nothing wrong with the things I miss in many modern cinemas but employing/training sufficient staff to check all equipment regularly to guard against failure, as in the past, would be as alien today as advertising in newspapers when they assume – wrongly – that everyone has a computer or access to one. That may one day become much nearer the case but it hasn’t happened yet. Even quad posters could be an endangered species!
I vote with my feet these days and select my cinemas very carefully indeed.
I wouldn’t assume every “man in the street” was aware multiplexes, or sub-divided cinemas like the Empire, only ever have one IMAX screen and, if they must have anything other that “EMPIRE” on the canopy, doesn’t the generic term “cinema” more truthfully describe what’s on offer? By all means have “IMAX” on the front-of-house but not instead of “CINEMA”. Now that IMAX installations are becoming common across the U.K., like Cinerama before it, the name is already becoming diluted – especially as presenting feature films in the format, spectacular though it undoubtedly is, in my experience, reminds the less initiated that it’s far from what they once experienced in Bradford, the Trocadero or BFI IMAX in London. Also akin to Cinerama, travelogue/documentary films can’t sustain a format for ever – at least digital product doesn’t have to be made especially for the system – but I’ve been asked more than once why “Gravity” and “Star Wars – the Force Awakens” had strips of blank screen above and below the actual picture. “Clinical and soulless” comes down to something much simpler i.e. the lack of anything remotely theatrical to subliminally create atmosphere and a sense of occasion – be it screen curtains, artistic lighting (ultra-bright, dimmable LEDs can be used with colour gels – they don’t have to be the three primaries constantly rising, fading and blending “Christmas tree” fashion through the single and secondary hues) or internal architecture offering something other than variations on the black box principle. Look at George Cole’s Empire cinema of 1962 where the arcing ceiling sections and random gold coloured tiles breaking up the monotony of such vast spaces – was it such a dreadful place to watch and hear films? Not in my experience.
Terry, it is! The “façade” is an architectural jumble sale – upper part of the original façade visible but only when not hidden by all-over film banner, an open glazed area sits on the canopy attempting to imitate, without success, the Odeon’s 1998 external balcony over on the Square’s east side, while the uninspiring canopy no longer says “CINEMA” it now says “IMAX” even though only one screen in the complex justifies the brand.
A mess.
I took an almost identical photograph of the light box and canopy on the night of the “Oliver!” premiere. I had been to the London Casino cinema and was heading home as the premiere audience were about to leave the Odeon.
Nice to see the name signs on tower and new canopy in their 1967 colours. From 1937 to 1967, the signs on the tower and original canopy were red – each character carrying four veins of neon. From reopening in late 1967, following Anthony Sharp’s modernisation, the neon had been replaced by two veins of red and two of blue, creating the magenta effect seen above. All other Odeons had signage with either one or two veins of red neon and the two colour combination for name signage remained unique to the flagship until removal during the 1998 “Fanatical” refurbishment/partial reconstruction/rebranding exercise.
AMC have said the Odeon’s refurbishment/restoration is part of a renovation programme for all their European sites which will begin later this year. Given the plans and budget for OLS and the desire for it to be “…our number one site in Europe” and their statement “We are moving quickly”, suggests sooner rather than later though, understandably, no starting date has been announced.
Ambak, The medication’s gone in the bin! Really good to have the accurate details now. Ten weeks in 70mm. in Victoria was indeed modest, even after twenty in the West End/Marble Arch – especially as “South Pacific” in Todd-AO was still packing out the huge Dominion (even without the Upper Circle) after over a year by the time “Oklahoma!” was seen in 70mm.
I do recall that, even as late as the early ‘seventies, Rank regarded OLS more as a showcase for their weekly release films (naturally most ran for more than a week but programmes changed pretty regularly) than a roadshow house. As detailed above, charity openings,special events and premieres always punctuated the Odeon’s calendar but continuous performances outnumbered roadshows – I saw “Diamonds are Forever” there twice one Sunday in the mid 'seventies during its typically continuous policy. Even after the success of “Lawrence”, John Davis, our chairman, had never liked committing OLS to a “special season”, preferring these to occupy other Rank West End venues. When continuous performances finally ceased virtually everywhere, the OLS’s policy was normally to have Harlands of Hull’s “theatre style” advance booking tickets for specific seats at every performance but these were costly for such a high capacity and were soon restricted to evenings and weekends with Automatickets and unreserved seating for earlier performances.
Since 1998, the foyer and circle lounge walls have been painted white. Along with the double-height glazing, various projected signs and raising of the circle lounge, the concept was apparently to create an impression of light and spaciousness but the result was chilly. The auditorium walls and ceiling were painted in soft grey in 1998 and this was to maximise the effect of the fibre optic lighting in the coving in splay walls, side walls and ceilings. Sadly the restored concealed lighting was never as effective as intended and the light sources were installed in the most inaccessible of nooks and crannies thus today very little of the scheme works. A great deal will change in the forthcoming refurbishment – hopefully for the better!
AMC have announced plans for their £10 to £15 million “total refurbishment” of the Odeon Leicester Square. C.E.O. of the new parent company, Adam Aron, revealed a detailed awareness of both the theatre and its “global importance within the industry”. Despite AMC being a huge operator of multiplexes, he says the Odeon’s size and traditional configuration are now unique in the West End and will be preserved and enhanced. I understand the organ was mentioned specifically and that the Odeon will retain a large screen (not IMAX to avoid competition with the Cineworld Empire across the Square – possibly Odeon’s own isense)whilst having a new sound system installed. Greater leg room is also planned and reclining seats (remember Empire One?). He acknowledged the number of refurbishments the Odeon has had over the years and promises that this one really will recover the iconic venue’s former glory. It’s early days of course and we’ve yet to see the finished product but it has to be positive news, given so many of us feared at least a degree of sub-division.
It also makes sense when the neighbouring five Odeon Studios, two subterranean Odeons in the former Leicester Square Theatre’s footprint, the four screen Odeon Panton Street (which just might go, I suspect) and four screen Odeon Covent Garden will give the Company an unparalleled film offer in the West End.
The reason for the huge gap of £5 million in the initial budget parameters is mostly down to plans being at a very early stage – don’t know which companies will be tendering for the works but AMC will be making further announcements when decisions are made.
Must be good news and that of a kind Oscar himself would welcome for his flagship.
Oops! “Oliver!” in 70mm. was in 1968 not 1971. Now, where’s that medication?
Absolutely correct. This tired old brain was thinking of “Oklahoma!’s” next day’s transfer to the Metroplole in 70mm. after opening in 35mm. at the Odeon.
The cinemas themselves are somewhat clinical, technically state-of-the-art but lacking atmosphere. As David has said, really nice décor and furnishing is pretty much limited to the foyer/bar/restaurant areas.
Just to add to the fascinating list of films/events provided above by Steffan Laugherne and Ken Roe, “West Side Story” had its premiere/Royal Film Performance at the Odeon during 1962 and was the first presentation here in 70mm. 70mm. came surprisingly late to the Odeon (“South Pacific” was, by this time, over three years into its mammoth run of four years and twenty two weeks at the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road). “West Side Story” transferred the following day to the 70mm. equipped Metropole, Victoria and “Lawrence of Arabia” began its West End run in 70mm. at the Odeon. Many films made in 70mm. or “blown up” into the format have since been presented on the Odeon’s vast and handsome 70mm. screen and I feel lucky to have been around to enjoy many of them, beginning with the “blow up” of “Oliver!” in 1971.
The proscenium arch itself appears no wider than before, the visible tabs seem exactly the same. It’s hard to see how the installation of a CinemaScope screen frame had been accommodated and what was achieved by rebuilding the pros'. Some conversions involved putting in the more sophisticated screen frame with variable masking which resulted in a correct ratio CinemaScope image but one which actually occupied a smaller area of screen. I wonder if this was one such.
Certainly an attractive and comfortable cinema with a reputation for long, premiere runs. Thought to be small when opened – would now be thought a large capacity. I was lucky, never found any flood or air conditioning problems. Fond memories of seeing “Mary Poppins”, “The Virgin and the Gypsy”, “Fantasia”, “The Lion in Winter”, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and “On Golden Pond” here, during their very successful runs, among others. Presentation was top notch – two festoon curtains lit by both footlights and from above by colour spots. Both light distribution and focus on the Odeon’s big screen were always perfect in my experience. As a Rank cinema manager myself, I heard about the maintenance problems but wouldn’t have known from having enjoyed the splendid cinema on numerous occasions.
The extant Riley Smith Hall is a short distance from the site of the erstwhile Regal Cinema.
That’s a thought. The Casino at the Cineworld doesn’t have the same ring, even were it to be allowed! Perhaps “The Casino in Leicester Square” now that “Casino” has lost its link with Cinerama and the Prince Edward Theatre! Sadly, the 1,300+ Empire One will never return so, as you say, neither will I.
Don’t think Cineworld could make the Empire Leicester Square any worse than it is now. I’ve certainly seen my last film there – one visit since twinning Empire One was more than enough. Given that Picturehouse Central ultimately belongs to Cineworld and that the largest auditorium there is most impressive with its extremely comfortable seats, strikingly colourful curtains and huge screen, perhaps the Empire/Cineworld Leicester Square is in relatively safe hands.
Almost as intriguing as recent politics! Certainly slimming down the Empire circuit somewhat. Looks like Bromley is to acquire a Picturehouse then while, doubtless, Empire will be working out how to turn the tripled erstwhile Carlton Haymarket into a ten screen multihash!
That’s extremely interesting Dave. Have Cineworld acquired the Empire chain or just the Leicester Square venue, do you know?
Understand 70mm. was installed in Screen 2 in order to show “The Hateful Eight”. If this is the case, the Parkway team deserve both congratulations and support. I enjoyed the film at a packed Odeon Leicester Square and, at the time, it was thought Filmhouse Edinburgh would the only other cinema to show the Ultra Panavision 70 film once it ended its successful run in Leicester Square. Bradford Pictureville weren’t able to share the roadshow treatment as PictureHouse Cinemas book the films there and their parent, Cineworld, refused to show it in any of their locations in spite at Mr Tarantino and the distributors granting OLS four weeks West End exclusivity (barring PictureHouse Central in Shaftesbury Avenue until the huge Odeon’s run had clocked up four very successful weeks).
By 1971, the Caley had installed 70mm screen frame, multi-speaker sound system and projectors. I saw a blow-up of “The Jolson Story” there and the huge screen was most impressive. Less so were the totally unsuitable festoon curtains, sections of which continued all around the walls up to the rear of the auditorium. Footlights filtered Red/Blue/Green (which would have lit the new tabs beautifully from their rightful place) were oddly placed along the back wall above the projection portholes thereby giving a rainbow glow to the backs of heads in the circle and leaving the stage end dark.
CF100 I’m also amazed at how many people are unaware of their environment generally. To a greater or lesser extent, lighting, screen curtains and décor/design of cinemas will, I believe, be noticed subliminally i.e. all elements that contribute to a cinema being thought of as a nice one, and secondary to things like the comfort of seats, leg room, climate, toilet provision etc. Having said that, I’ve heard audience members at OLS commenting on the vastness and splendour of the place even before the screen has appeared and during the run of “The Hateful Eight”, many people applauded and/or whistled when the tabs first opened and that was only to reveal the Odeon “O” current logo which runs constantly in other Odeons in place of tabs and before the ads. begin! Undeniably, when curtains part, everybody knows something’s about to happen – it’s “theatre”, it’s potentially exciting, it’s probably best summed up by saying it all adds to the magic which is conspicuously absent when you’ve been faced with a blank, naked screen for ten minutes beforehand.
The re-stepping of the circle echelons some years back was a big job and was not confined to the Royal Circle, it was the entire balcony. The new steppings do not just sit above the original ones except for those in the front row, either side of the cross gangway and the back row. All seating became higher than before and this meant the wall at the front of the balcony had to be increased in height (and that those in the back row who put items on the floor often found them nicked as the floor is now at waist height of anyone walking along the rear promenade). The leg-room was increased by the new steppings being designed so that seat standards could be installed slightly further back than conventionally. The exercise was costly (new seats were fitted to the new steppings – and those seats have since been replaced themselves) and overall the balcony capacity was reduced by almost two hundred seats – mainly in the rear circle – and this was when the theatres’s capacity fell from 1,9XX seats to 1,7XX. A number of seats in the back row of the stalls was also lost in the 1998 restructering. The carpet in the rows of the Royal Circle was replaced by flooring last year and I believe the plan is to extend this to the rear circle. Bearing in mind the carpet being replaced was also new at the time of the re-stepping and the price of high-end cinema seats and we begin to see how costly it is to keep the Odeon up to scratch. The “major refurbishment” first mentioned well over a year ago, and with it the opportunity to replace tabs, repair the broken house tabs track and upgrade the decorative lighting – all non-essential of course and, with further seating replacement, foyer and lounge refurbishment etc., likely to cost £millions, looks increasingly likely not to happen until the Odeon circuit has a new parent. The rolling maintenance/replacement budget continues to be made available but every four week accounting period brings with it fiscal demands for things more essential (or likely to improve footfall) than the finer elements of presentation. It also appears that Odeon’s reluctance to install Dolby Atmos, when Dolby wanted it at the Odeon first, may well have been due to the pending sale of the circuit although I imagine Dolby would have borne much of the cost as has happened for many years when technical improvements, including new digital projectors, have taken place – it’s quite a cache when your industry advertising can include the words: “…as installed at the Odeon Leicester Square” and suppliers happily pay highly for such value.
The Cannon/MGM/Virgin/UGC/Cineworld (!) in Southampton’s Harbourside Leisure area opened in 1989 as a five screen multiplex and all screens then had tabs which were out of use by the time Virgin’s brief sojourn into the cinema business took place. All Odeon’s multiplexes, when new, were fitted out with tabs until just a few years ago when the Circuit’s new-builds began to appear with just naked screens for the first time.
CF100 Warner Village Cinemas U.K. multiplexes were all fitted out from new with gold screen tabs – side opening in their larger auditoria and festoon in the smaller ones. This included the “new” Warner, Leicester Square. I believe all tabs in their multiplexes were out of use within a few years although not usually removed for several more years.
With regard to tabs and attendant lighting, I ought to credit other West End cinemas where such features are alive and well. NFT One was originally designed with solid panels moving across the screen in place of tabs but these were replaced some years ago with silver satin tabs lit by footlights and very nice they look too. The present Curzon Mayfair’s main screen was designed to be exposed all the time with spotlights projecting spheres of coloured light on the screen, here, too, within a few years tabs were installed and effectively lit by the existing spotlights. The same thing happened at the erstwhile Odeon, St. Martin’s Lane which opened with a “floating” or suspended screen and frame while the wall behind the screen was floodlit before and after performances and during intermissions – about the time the Odeon ceased being “Odeon Disney” and reverted to more traditional, if selective, programming, a track and neutrally coloured tabs lit by spotlights were installed. The recently and beautifully restored Regent Street cinema has silver tabs lit by footlights from day one. The largest screen at the brand new PictureHouse Central has exquisite tabs in turquoise, orange and silver reflective fabric.
All is not lost therefore and, if the will, the budget and the space were there at the Empire, Leicester Square to retro-fit tabs, it would be far from the first cinema to do so.
Undoubtedly there is a generational aspect with regard to the finer, more peripheral points of “film” presentation. Youngsters who have grown up knowing nothing other that the average multiplex will, naturally, wonder what we’re talking about. Alongside this, I’m often taken aback at how little most people do actually notice. I’ve been with friends to performances where various things have gone seriously wrong – lengthy loss of focus, unexplained periods of complete darkness and silence and periods of green screen. A friend with grandchildren at Odeon Bournemouth – Screen 1 had to find a member of staff to turn off the cleaners' lights – these were apparently being used in place of what was left of the auditorium lighting! By the same token, those same people wouldn’t normally notice tabs or lighting effects or specially selected non-sync music helping to set the mood. All this doesn’t mean we should cater to the lowest common denominator so full marks to Plaza, Stockport; Rex, Berkhamsted; Odyssey, St. Albans; Alhambra, Keswick and all those other cinemas where proprietors know how to create magic. Odeon, Leicester Square still use screen tabs and pageant lighting (the house tabs are there but the track was damaged by the flown 3D screen). It’s generally subliminal – except to nuts like us – but it can enhance a show no end.
It’s not that such accessories are in any way out-of-date, it’s more a case of accountants running things and thinking these things are not necessary to show a film, which they’re not, of course, worse still, they might malfunction and cancel a show – refunds equal anathema! With one, maybe two people responsible for say twelve screens the concerns are, sadly, not unjustified.
In my home cinema, children are captivated when colours change and dim as silver tabs open and the trade mark appears to magically show through. Numerous guests, many younger than myself and far from dinosaurs, also say “This is how cinemas used to be – they’re not the same these days” or words to that effect. I used to manage the erstwhile Scarborough Odeon and the projection team there would have found it hard to believe the errors Ian was faced with in the little cinema at the rear of our old circle.
Nothing wrong with the things I miss in many modern cinemas but employing/training sufficient staff to check all equipment regularly to guard against failure, as in the past, would be as alien today as advertising in newspapers when they assume – wrongly – that everyone has a computer or access to one. That may one day become much nearer the case but it hasn’t happened yet. Even quad posters could be an endangered species!
I vote with my feet these days and select my cinemas very carefully indeed.
I wouldn’t assume every “man in the street” was aware multiplexes, or sub-divided cinemas like the Empire, only ever have one IMAX screen and, if they must have anything other that “EMPIRE” on the canopy, doesn’t the generic term “cinema” more truthfully describe what’s on offer? By all means have “IMAX” on the front-of-house but not instead of “CINEMA”. Now that IMAX installations are becoming common across the U.K., like Cinerama before it, the name is already becoming diluted – especially as presenting feature films in the format, spectacular though it undoubtedly is, in my experience, reminds the less initiated that it’s far from what they once experienced in Bradford, the Trocadero or BFI IMAX in London. Also akin to Cinerama, travelogue/documentary films can’t sustain a format for ever – at least digital product doesn’t have to be made especially for the system – but I’ve been asked more than once why “Gravity” and “Star Wars – the Force Awakens” had strips of blank screen above and below the actual picture. “Clinical and soulless” comes down to something much simpler i.e. the lack of anything remotely theatrical to subliminally create atmosphere and a sense of occasion – be it screen curtains, artistic lighting (ultra-bright, dimmable LEDs can be used with colour gels – they don’t have to be the three primaries constantly rising, fading and blending “Christmas tree” fashion through the single and secondary hues) or internal architecture offering something other than variations on the black box principle. Look at George Cole’s Empire cinema of 1962 where the arcing ceiling sections and random gold coloured tiles breaking up the monotony of such vast spaces – was it such a dreadful place to watch and hear films? Not in my experience.
Terry, it is! The “façade” is an architectural jumble sale – upper part of the original façade visible but only when not hidden by all-over film banner, an open glazed area sits on the canopy attempting to imitate, without success, the Odeon’s 1998 external balcony over on the Square’s east side, while the uninspiring canopy no longer says “CINEMA” it now says “IMAX” even though only one screen in the complex justifies the brand. A mess.