Odeon Marble Arch

Article spotted on “Cinerama.topcities”. Go to “Cinerama want to be” on Home Page, then Click on “Dimension 150” then Odeon, Marble Arch.

Number of my own pressbook cuttings are on this site, mainly on the “In Cinerama?” page.

A brilliant cinema even if the decor was a little souless. The screen was just amazingly huge. I worked at the Dominion on Tottenham Court Rd and got to see many movies at the West End Odeons for free so it was a great opportunity to see the many different auditoriums in the 80s. I worked at the Dominion at the time of the premier for Return Of The Jedi. To see the way the cinema was converted to screen that movie was very interesting. They built a projection box under the circle and closed off thed stalls or most of it if i remember. The first time it was screened was 9am with the last one at 12.30am the following day. It sold out solidly for 6weeks……but thats the Dominion- maybe i should put my other stories on the Dominion page. I saw Mary Poppins, Stargate and many others on that huge hugely missed Marble Arch screen. Makes me laugh when i see an Odeon with Odeon’s logo across the doorway- ‘Fanatical About Film" shame they dont feel the same about the buildings theyre shown in!!!!

Saw “Lawrence of Arabia” there back in 1988 WOW stunning performance on that huge screen! The interior decoration was very nice, I like deep curved screen and the lighting above it, also the sides of the walls was also very appalling to me.

The mighty sound system when it first started up was top even for a sub standard approach without “THX” it was great sounding with six-track Dolby Stereo SR type.

Bass thundered around me with a deep rumbling, “No Prisoners, No Prisoners.”

I would be gutted to see it as it is now, a shoebox you say I don’t believe that, thou I have seen Odeon do this to one of its largest screens at the Odeon Westover Road. Someone should kick them in the a££ for doing that. Clearly the word multiplex has gone to there heads!

The Bible in the Beginning opened Oct 7th 1967 Coliseum Cinerama
Patton Lust For Glory opened May 8th 1970 Casino Cinerama

For 70mm at Marble Arch and London check John Sharps list:

http://www.in70mm.com/library/70mm_in/london.htm

Apart from the fact that this was probably one of the best cinemas built in the UK to see a film it was a projectionists dream cinema to work in. Originally equipped with 3 Vic 8 projectors after the Christie Xenon’s where installed two Cinemecannica towers where modified to take a spool holding up to 3 reels of 70mm which enabled 70mm films to be run with reduced number of change overs.
The cinema had a great house lighting system with the auditorium split into 3 sections Circle, Front Stalls and Stage the colours could be programmed different for each section or cycle through the 3 colours of Red, Green and Yellow this was particularly effective on play ins to big movies like Hello Dolly one of the Arch’s better runs.
D150 was never run at this cinema because of the delay in opening if I remember correctly it opened at the Coliseum in St Martins Lane.
Due to the curve in the screen the centre of the screen was approx 14ft deeper than the sides. One downside to this was that from the rear circle a bus travelling along the road appeared to be going over a hill or in the case of Lawrence Of Arabia a curved horizon. The curved screen was replaced with a much shallower curved screen for the opening of the restored Lawrence in 1989 on David Leans request. I was at the first D150 (not advertised) screening of Star Wars and it was amazing to see, when the old awful yellow cert hit the tabs there was a stunned silence apart from one member of the audience exclaiming look at the size of that f****r! However due to the rights to D150 Fox requested the film to run in standard 70mm after a couple of days. I think probably on of the best pieces of Showmanship I ever saw was the opening to A Bridge Too Far when after the prelude in Academy the masking opened outwards just clearing each credit as it hit that section of the screen.
A great shame a better conversion could not have been achieved especially as I understand some screens get the flick through a mirror or two. RIP the Showmanship at the Arch. (No reflection on the current team)

I think I’ll stay away. Thanks for the update. The Curzon Mayfair is one of the few remaining gems of that era.

Have they kept any of the original interior, cjc? I haven’t dared go in since the desecration.

I spent many happy hours in the box, having become good friends with the staff. The chief at the time told me that the screen actually opened out to 90 feet wide for D150 presentations. They screened the original ‘Star Wars’ in this format – despite slight cropping top and bottom – and it looked and sounded stunning. They had to close the front few rows of the stalls because people were being physically sick during the death-star destruction sequence!

This cinema was built with a beautiful curved screen in I think 1968 to show the big Cinemascope productions. In the few years before the disastrous conversion I got to see the restored digital print of “Spartacus” (complete with Anthony Hopkins dubbing Olivier’s lines for the previously censored bath scene in which he discusses “oysters” with Tony Curtis). I still remember that excitement when the curtains opened wider and wider at the start to the extremes of that fabulous curved screen. My dad took me to see my first James Bond film here (The Spy Who Loved Me). They also ran a fabulous 70 mm season in the summer of 93, which included “The Right Stuff”. Can you imagine? On the biggest Screen in Europe! The foyer were full of weird 60s stained glass, like something out of old Star Trek episodes. There was lots of wood panelling. Very 60s and charming. I miss it. Sniff.

This cinema was built to accommodate the Dimension-150, (D150), process, hence the huge screen. It opened with the first of only two true D150 films, ‘The Bible-In The Beginning’. ‘Patton – Lust for Glory’ was the second film.

with a bizzare booking policy (attack of the 50ft woman was one of the final nails in the coffin) its no wonder it did such poor business, sadly as a five plex it does a roaring trade…ho hum

AFTER VISITING THE REBRANDED ODEON I AGREE THIS ONCE POPULAR WEST END CINEMA HAS BEEN EFFECTIVELY RUINED.

DEREK ATKINS(PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER MERCIA CINEMA SOCIETY).