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Odeon Cinema, West Street

Usherettes and tea-trays

by John Wall

The Odeon in West Street opened in 1937. There is some argument as to the first film shown there but I think it was either "Sixty Glorious Years" starring Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria or "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". During the week's run of the latter there was a competition for a 'look-alike' of Tom Sawyer and the prize was a brand new bicycle.

The manager
The Manager was Mr. Oscar Deusche a naturalised German who was interned at the start of the war. Other subsequent managers I remember were a Mr. Self and then a Mr. Sackier. Both appeared resplendant in 'black tie' in the evening from about 6.30 p.m. onwards greeting and talking to patrons. It was considered an honour if the Manager greeted you with a "Good Evening".

A strict hierarchy
An interesting point of the times was that they rarely spoke to members of the staff, instructions being passed on through the Chief of Staff, Mr. Buttress, who came from the Palladium around the corner on the Sea Front. Mr. Buttress was a striking figure in his green uniform with tails. He was a strict disciplinarian, his word was law and woe betide the usherettes who may be caught talking in whispers in the auditorium when a film was showing. He was however a very fair man and the sort of person to whom one could take one's problems. His son Leslie and Bill Chard who was a chain smoker of "Churchmans Tenners", together with two more doormen and two pageboys made up the front of house staff.

Staff parade every day
There were about twelve usherettes and my Mother was the head usherette. A parade was held with all staff in the entrance foyer every day before the opening of the cinema and everyone was inspected for tidiness, make-up etc. No one giggled or spoke at these parades that were taken very seriously.

A page girl
An interesting innovation during the war was the employment of a Page Girl, a very pretty blonde with blue eyes and very striking in her green uniform with a pill-box hat. Very much later she married Leslie Buttress. There were also the four Moore sisters: Rusty and Joan were usherettes, Vida was in the cash box, and the youngest, Pat who later married an R.A.F. pilot, was one of the ice cream sales girls who wandered around the auditorium during the shorts and second features, but NEVER during the main feature. The Moore sisters used to live at the Railway Hotel just outside Brighton Station.

A real night out
There were many promotions for various films and the most striking that comes to mind was Cecil B. de Mills "North West Mounted Police" where all the usherettes were dressed up as Red Indian squaws complete with make-up, and the doormen were dressed up as Canadian Mounted Police officers. One should also remember that those days of the cinema were weekly events where patrons would dress up to "go to the pictures" and there was a magic that does not exist today.

Small tea lounge
There was also a small tea lounge in the circle foyer where one could partake of a pot of tea, a toasted teacake, cakes etc. This could, if required, be taken to a person in the audience and there was always great amusement and a ripple of laughter when there was a crash as someone upset the tea tray.

Projection equipment
The projection equipment was by British Thompson Houston that was pretty standard in all Odeon cinemas. The Chief Projectionist was Mr. Chipperfield who came from the Regent and one of the junior projectionists, Luke Moneypenny later went into Management and finally ended up as the General Manager of the Odeon in Jersey, Channel Islands where he remained until his retirement a few years ago.

Handsets for hearing impaired customers
It is interesting to note that patrons afflicted with deafness were catered for in that several aisle seats in the rear stalls had plug points where a handset with a volume control could be plugged in. These were available free of charge at the cash desk. This is something that today's cinemas need and is one of the reasons I do not go to the cinema any more. The Odeon was built as a cinema and had no stage to speak of but I do remember during a "Wings for Victory" week a first rate show was put on on the miniscule stage. One of the stars was Max Miller.

Sent to the website by e-mail on 28-03-04

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments about this page

A fascinating memory of cinema in the 1930s and wartime, full of entertaining detail. One small quibble: Oscar Deutsch was the founder and owner of the entire Odeon chain, which by May 1937 consisted of around 250 cinemas. (He liked to claim that 'Odeon' stood for Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation.) So even with a hands-on approach it is unlikely that he was the manager. He was actually born in Birmingham to Hungarian and Polish parents and there is no record of him being interned (nor any reason). He did much to make cinema-going a middle-class activity, which may explain the high standards of service expected of staff. J Arthur Rank finally took over the chain when Deutsch died in 1941. The Odeon West Street closed in December 1973 when the Kingswest opened and was demolished in 1990. Or could there be two people of that name? (Unlikely.)

By David Fisher (11/06/2004)

Yes, you are quite correct David. My apologies. His alleged internment may well have been a wartime rumour of the times.

By John Wall (27/06/2004)

I'm currently researching cinemas during the Second World War and in particular the lives of the usherettes who worked there, for a project. I was just wondering if you knew of any cinemas that were actually destroyed during the Blitz (or otherwise)?

By Donna (09/08/2004)

Would Donna please contact me via my e/mail: jwallvk2@tsn.cc

By John Wall (13/08/2004)

Look up Odeon Kemp Town Brighton and you will find what you want to know there. I am writing my working life as a freelance and relief projectionist. Many of the cinemas were effected by air raids but few sustain little damage.

By R H Scott-Spencer (05/02/2005)

I started off my (short) career as a projectionist in the old Criterion cinema in Gosport in 1943. (It's now a Bingo hall I believe.) I was only 14 at the time and was thrown in at the deep end doing changeovers in only my second day. The feature was a little known Disney effort titled 'Victory through air power'. On my first day, the Chief sent me down to the manager's office to ask him for some sprocket holes the Chief said we needed! I often wonder what would have happened had one of the projectors suffered a bad breakdown. They were German Ernemann machines - and this was 1943. Entrance to the projection room was gained by climbing a vertical ladder to a narrow balcony and film boxes were raised and lowered by rope. A long cry from cinema practice today.

By George Calland-Scoble (28/04/2005)

The Odeon in West Street, along with the Regent and Savoy in Brighton and the Granada in Hove, were unusual in the 1950s and 60s in starting their weekly programmes on a Thursday. In those days most other cinemas, including those in Brighton and in the London suburbs, would start a week's run on Sunday or Monday. The reason for the Thursday start at first-run cinemas in large seaside towns had to do with the pattern of holidays in those days, where Saturday-to-Saturday stays were very common. Programming major cinemas in this way meant that holiday-makers down for a week had two choices of new films at each of them.

By Jeremy Perkins (18/08/2005)

The Odeon was the pictures to us kids. But our Odeon was the Odeon Kemptown which I believe is now sadly gone. As a kid in the forties and fifties we would go to the Odeon with our mum after school with smelly egg and tomato sandwiches. If the cinema was a bit full we had to sit in the side seats near the front which did nothing for the health of your neck or your eyes. When the film was finished we would move to the more comfortable seats right in front of the screen, and a bit further back as far as the price of the seating allowed. We would also go to Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon. For sixpence we got a singsong with the manager (big ears) a cartoon, a short serial like the Lone Ranger and then a film. At twelve o'clock we would go across the road to Ray's Bakery for two slices of lovely bread and dripping, and a couple of stale cakes for another sixpence, then walk home pocket money gone, stuffing our faces and as happy as can be. Really happy days they were.

By Mick Peirson (22/11/2006)

In 1963 my father and I were on holiday having travelled to Brighton from Frodsham in Cheshire. We went to the Odeon to see The War Lover starring Steve McQueen and Shirley Ann Field. Forty two years later I interviewed her for a review I was writing on one of her stage plays. The Odeon would have had British Thomson Houston (BTH) projection equipment. Some Odeons later went over to Kalee 21s.

By David A Ellis (17/05/2008)

I too remember the Odeon on the sea front in Brighton. My friend Maureen Baines asked me if I would like to go on a blind date with a boy from Portsmouth and she went out with his friend. We had to meet by the railings outside at 7 oclock, which we did, we saw the film Wind Through the Everglades with Howard Duff. We met in the October and married the following February and we still are 50 years on, the railings are still there too! When we go back to my home town we ride along the seafront for old times sake. Happy memories.

By Pamela (05/07/2008)

In 1937 the Odeon, West Street, opened with "Sixty Glorious Years" starring Anna Neagle and Anton Walbrook. It was a grand occasion and Oscar Deutch, who was a friend of my father's, invited my parents to the opening. My youngest brother, who had a witty way with words, said, "Sixty Odious Years" at the Glorium.
We used to go over the street to the new milk bar to eat Knickerbocker Glories. Forte's took it over later and the ice cream deteriorated - we children called it Brylcreem.

By June (29/04/2009)

Actually, the first film was 'Victoria the Great', to which 'Sixty Glorius Years' was a sequel made the following year.

By David Fisher (01/07/2009)

Iremember going there on a Saturday morning; I was a member of the GB club,we used to sing the song "we come along on Saturday mornings." We also used to have competions, one of them was to see how many items we could get in a matchbox. One of the weekly films was Captain Video; I really enjoyed those days.

By Lennie Twyman (31/07/2009)

Lido Odeon Cinema, Denmark Villas Hove: Does anyone remember this cinema? The lido cinema opened on 6th May 1932. The first film showed there was a Laurel and Hardy film called "Come clean". Donald Calthorp, the film star who made a personal appearance at the opening of the cinema, appeared in the first Alfred Hitchcock talkie "blackmail".l can remember when I was a young lad about 8 years old going there with my parents to see a film called "Corridor of mirrors" back in 1948.The projectors broke down halfway through the film so they had too use the second projector and it took a good twenty minutes to change the film over. When they got the film going again the second projector was also faulty and we saw the rest of the film in fits and starts and it took over 4 hours to watch! The cheapest seats were down the front of the cinema and the dearest were the last two rows at the back of the cinema, but after a couple of years they changed this and had the dearest seats down the front and cheapest at the back.

By Bob Thomas (05/09/2011)

I just about remember the Lido in Denmark Villas - strangely it started life as an ice rink and was then converted into a cinema. Then in the early 1960s it was converted back to an ice rink.

By Peter Groves (06/09/2011)

With regard to the "Usherettes and Tea Trays" I remembered the other day that I had forgotten that loyal band of ladies who made up the cleaning staff. They were there before anyone else first thing in the morning and had left before the other staff arrived. Somewhat belatedly I take my hat off to them. Ladies you have not been forgotten.

By John Wall VK2 (14/03/2012)

My local cinema was the Odeon, Kemp Town but I remember "Bunking-in" the Odeon West Street through the toilet window round the side street and then crawling on our hands and knees up the aisle until we spotted spare seats. The Odeon Kemp Town was easier to " bunk-in", you just went in the entrance foyer and up the steps to the toilets and when no one was looking just disappear around the side and into the auditorium. Happy days but a bit naughty. We used to wait outside if the film required an adult to be with you and ask people to take us in - very dodgy and not recommended these days but we were innocent of the dangers, which you never heard of in those days.

By Dave Hamblin (15/03/2012)