The Odeon comes of age

In 1958 The Odeon Cinema celebrated its coming of age. It was estimated that in its twenty one years of being 11 million people had visited and 132 million feet of film had been seen!!

The Odeon in 1937.

The opening night (ground floor prices from 6d. and circle from 1s. 6d.) saw the Mayor of the day and the band of the 1^st. Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment and patrons saw Vivien Leigh in “Dark Journey” together with a Technicolor film called “On ice”. The manager, when those first 1,592 patrons filled the cinema, was Mr. D. Wood.

The upper floor of The Odeon, 1937.

In the early days of the 1939-1945 war came Sunday opening and the cinema had a Children’s Club started well before the war which had a membership in 1958 of 900.
When the site was excavated in 1936 nine wells were found there together with three clay pipes of the type used three hundred years previously. The manager celebrated the 21^st. by splitting a birthday cake among his staff and a number of the town’s old age pensioners who attended the afternoon performance as his guests.

The projector room of The Odeon, 1937.