Odeon Birmingham
139 New Street,
Birmingham,
B2 4NU
139 New Street,
Birmingham,
B2 4NU
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I was also priveliged to appear on stage at the Odeon in the early 70’s. as bass player and personal representative to ROY ORBISON for 10 years. The Odeon audience (a sold out performance)remains fixed in memory because in the 10 years of performing with Roy, it was the only show that did NOT get us a standing ovation. Everyone remained seated and applauded wildly for the longest time! Why Brum?!
Our many performances in Birmingham (my home town) were always precious to me. Roy loved the Birmigham people They rated highly amongst his favorite audiences worldwide. Roy’s movie, “The Fastest Guitar Alive” was screened at the Gaumont, Snow Hill on it’s
release in the late 60’s. Shortly after that the Gaumont was transformed into a Cinerama theater which had the largest screen in the world with the exception of the ‘travelling’ Cinerama theater in the US – held under a big-top, circus style.
In 1964, the Odeon broke it’s box office record with the Beatles' film “A Hard Days Night” which ran for many weeks. However, it was short lived as the next presentation, Walt Disney’s 1937 Classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” surpassed it creating a new record.
Terry Widlake
Another couple of 2006 photos of the exterior here:–
Front:
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Back:
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A current view of the main entrance ‘facade’:
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Interior – pre-subdivision – shot including the organ here
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A close-up view of the main entrance, photographed in 1971 here:
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The Odeon Cinema opened as the Paramount Theater on 4th September 1937. The architects were Frank Verity & Samuel Beverley (Cinerama is not a style of architecture) the Paramount was Art Deco. It was one of several Paramount Theaters built by Paramount Pictures in major cities in the United Kingdom. The Birmingam Paramount had a seating capacity of 2,441. The organ was a Compton 4 manual/10 rank which was still in use occasionally into the mid-1980’s.
It was taken over by Odeon Theatres and re-named Odeon in August 1942. It was never part of the ABC Theatres chain. In 1965 it was closed for a few months for a major modernisation which stripped the building of many of its original decorative features. Until it was split up into four screens the huge original seating capacity served well as a venue for pop concerts as well as films.