Funny Girls
5 Dickson Road,
Blackpool,
FY1 2AX
5 Dickson Road,
Blackpool,
FY1 2AX
3 people
favorited this theater
This was the largest of the original Oscar Deutsch built Odeon Theatres, seating 1,684 in the stalls and 1,404 in the balcony.
The Odeon opened on 6th May 1939 with “Three Smart Girls Grow Up” starring Deanna Durbin.
The main facade and entrance is on Dickson Road but a second entrance for front stalls patrons was provided on Springfield Road.
Provision was also made for an organ but this was not installed until 1946, when a Conacher 2Manual/12Ranks with grand piano was installed and opened by Al Bollington.
The Odeon was triplexed in 1975 with the two smaller screens 2 and 3 contained completely within the the under-balcony area of the rear stalls. This meant that from the balcony located screen 1 there was no visible change to the auditorium.
Even the wonderful Art Deco style lights remained in full working order until the day of closure.
The spacious cafe at first floor level was converted into an equally spacious bar.
Even towards the end of its cinema life it was possible to fill the 1,300 seat (former circle) screen 1 (‘Titanic’ had especially large queues forming and extra performances added).
Odeon built a new multiplex on the outer fringe of Blackpool, and this original Odeon building was closed in 1998. It was neglected and left in a rather poor state of disrepair.
It was boarded up for several years until it was acquired by Basil Newby who converted the former circle into a gay nightclub;Flamingo’s, a gay bar in the former circle foyer and Funny Girls; a drag-cabaret theatre in the former stalls area.
The Odeon is a Grade II Listed building.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy, Daniel Jones
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 30 comments)
A photo dating to just before the Odeon was tripled in 1975 here:–
View link
This building looks better today than it proberbly has done in the last 20 years. All thanks to the pink pound.
Nov 2007 photo with Funny Girls at this theater:
View link
Three more interior images before the Odeon closed here:–
View link
View link
View link
So much of this still intact its amazing! Great pics Ian, thanks again!
More photos can be seen here.
Here is a photo from around 1969?
The Odeon, photographed in 1985:
View link
A couple more digitally scanned images from 1992 when it was still operating as a cinema:–
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/4785403225/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/4786035962/
Should this not be listed as Odeon and closed. I understood CT policy is to list the last name at the time it closed as a cinema, the Tivoli is not listed as Yates wine bar. Researchers using this site would not find the Odeon unless they were aware its no longer a cinema and is now night club many cinemas on CT that are night clubs now but listed as the cinema name at the time they closed. At the moment its listed as a cinema with 3 screens called Funny Girls. R