ABC Westover Bournemouth

organsRgreat on October 9, 2016 at 1:36 pm

I did not post this photo, but the caption explains that it was taken by John D Sharp. John was a great fan of theatre organs; he attended most meetings of the Cinema Organ Society and Theatre Organ Club; photographed the organs and organists, and made the pictures available to club members for a modest fee. He used a top quality camera – probably a 35mm Leica; and his flash technique must have been excellent. It’s impossible to tell by looking that his photographs were taken with flash, but they must have been, as illumination inside cinemas was rarely bright enough to give clear results with the relatively slow films we had then.

You mention that your project is on Odeon cinemas, so I hope you noticed that this picture shows the ABC cinema in Bournemouth, which I believe was also known for a while as the Westover. There was an Odeon cinema in Christchurch Road in Bournemouth, but it seems that the ABC and Gaumont (both in Westover Road) have now been rebuilt as one larger complex, and that now has the name Odeon.

So far as I can remember, the organ in the ABC was a Compton with 3 manuals, 6 ranks of pipes, and Compton’s electronic “Melotone” attachment. The colours of the illuminated surround could be changed by stops on the organ console, which were labelled Red, Blue etc. It was possible to choose a piece of music with a colour in the title – say “My Blue Heaven” – and use one of the stops to make the surround match that colour.

There is a piano piece called Odeon by the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, who may have played in an Odeon cinema.

If you click on the sign next to the word “License” above, you will see the conditions under which this photo may be used. I very much doubt that John Sharp is still alive, but giving his name, as well as that of the Cinema Treasures website, would seem appropriate.