Just thought I’d mention that about 4 weeks ago I had a conversation with one of the builders carrying out repairs on the Odeon’s canopy. As well as mentioning what Tim has told us about the overall refurbishment of the cinema, the builder also mentioned that screen 1 would be getting a DIGITAL PROJECTOR!
This is great news as a digital projection system in screen one, would be EPIC, giving the overall experience of watching a film in there a huge boost. Although I’m guessing they’ll still have the 35mm projector in use too.
As for screens 2 and 3, I’ve heard they are sticking with 35mm film projectors. This isn’t that bad as they may upgrade at some point to digital, but if the screens remain the same size, there may not be much point. What screens 2 and 3 REALLY need are new surround systems. When I worked there until its closure, screens 2 and 3 were still working off Dolby Pro Logic (or the cinema equivalent) which didn’t sound that great.
I doubt Screen 1 will get a new surround system because it only upgraded to Dolby Digital in 2003 (just in time for the matrix sequels) And it sounded great (Shame the films weren’t, lol)
Anyway, hope this is interesting to someone, it’s going to be an emotional day when that place re-opens.
Hello all, my name is Arron and I was an employee of the Odeon York from 2001 to the day of it’s closure in 2006. I, like many others in York, loved this building dearly. It was the first cinema I visited as a child and was my first real job when I turned 18. At the time I considered it a privilege to work at a place which had brought myself and my friends so much joy over the years, from Saturday morning kids clubs, to studying film as a student and eventually working there, with my two closest friends.
After reading some of the comments on this website, I thought I’d weigh in with my own thoughts about working at the Odeon and the unique insight I had as an employee of Odeon cinemas.
When I first started in September 2001, the site, was in my opinion, still thriving. Queues for the latest teen gross-out flick, ‘American Pie 2’, stretched out the door and onto the street. The DVD mad, illegal download watching culture of today was still in it’s infancy and Saturday night at the movies, was still preferred to staying in and watching a film. City Screen York, was only a year old and still considered to be solely an ‘art house’ cinema, even though they were showing a limited selection of mainstream films. Vue Cinema (at that time named Warner Village) was (and still is) something of a trek to get to and lacked the personal touch of the classic picture house. To me, Vue cinema has always been somewhat like entering an airport terminal. Vac-formed plastic wall fixtures, giant glass walls and electronic boards showing cinema times like airplane departure notices, just doesn’t seem like a memorable night out to me.
All of my memories of the Odeon are rooted in a time well after the refurbishment of the mid-1970’s. I had always remained indifferent about the inner layout of the building, yet I found it fascinating trying to identify the remaining art-deco features that lay dormant beneath a drab brown and cream colour-scheme. As an employee of the Odeon, the remaining functional rooms scattered throughout were one-by-one, falling into disuse. Yet as most people who worked there would testify to, working at the Odeon, was like a second family. Having no bar (at least during MY time) or function rooms to speak of, the cinema was just that, a cinema. It consisted of a kiosk/ticket desk and three screens, and as such, didn’t take much man-power to run. The general manager at the time, Barbara Gledhill, knew the running of the building backwards and was the next door neighbor of one of my fellow employees (good luck pulling a sick-day there my friend, lol) Yet Barbaras presence made the place feel comforting and gave me a feeling of perpetual nostalgia, having seen her overseeing the place from a young age.
As the time passed working there, rumours of a refurbishment began circulating around and we were given some hope of replenishing the dwindling number of cinema goers visiting us everyday.
Computer enhanced images of the front of the building came to us one morning, showing what the exterior at least would look like, if given the proposed overhaul. They seemed subtle and above all respectful to the overall feel of the building. This is of course when the whole controversy surrounding the preposed removal of the original signage at the front of the building. And we were all ANGRY. It seemed like certain people were more pre-occupied with how aesthetically pleasing the building was, rather than whether it would continue to actually function as a CINEMA. I know however that there are those people who visit this site, who would strongly disagree with me about the proposed changes, but like I said before, this is just what we saw from the inside as employees.
Now, I’m not an idiot. I realise that it’s important to maintain buildings that are important to the cultural heritage of a city and indeed the country. But at the time it felt like a hangman’s noose dangling in-front of the aging cinema, threatening to put an end to our favourite hobby and of course our jobs. And this is how it continued to be for the longest time, and all the while, the building fell further and further into disrepair. I remember saying to Barbara at the time, that if someone didn’t make a move soon, it wouldn’t matter if we had a preserved antique neon sign on the front of the building, because with giant sheets of cork-board nailed to windows, no-one would want to look at it anyway. A complaint, which is of course, now true.
Then suddenly, we were thrust into the newspapers, with a series of articles about the troubles the Odeon was facing, most damaging of all, was about the standard of the men’s toilets at the front of Screen one. The photos, showed dingy, mold-ridden toilet walls and cracked tiles, with the title ‘NOW SHOWING AT A CINEMA NEAR YOU’. I believe this article was, in the long-run damaging to the Odeon. Even though I know the intent of the article, written by a frequent visitor and dedicated supporter of the Odeon, was meant to push the community into action and bring on the ‘sensitive’ refurbishment. But as an employee, the following weeks after were filled with customers coming up to us at our ‘posts’ and giving us their own two-cents on what they thought of the pictures and what we should do about the situation. This started some, ahem, ‘lively’ debates, lol! The truth of the matter is, that even though the state of the toilets in question, was… well, questionable, they were toilets almost NEVER used by the general public. Most of whom didn’t even know about the toilets, instead favouring the restrooms in the upper-lobby of the cinema, which depending on where you were sat in screen one, were much closer. The toilets themselves were far cleaner and were fully-functional, and I should know, I inspected them often enough as part of my daily work routine.
This of course kicked off the infamous, ‘Save the Odeon York’ campaign, started by the Evening Press. Following up with a series of decidedly more ‘upbeat’ articles about what the populous of York could do to save their beloved cinema. Word was spread about the cinemas situation, petitions were signed, ending up I believe somewhere around ten-thousand signatures. And through it all the press kept everyone up to date on slow news days. But again, being on the inside, this seemed to make NO difference whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, I was amazed that people were taking such an interest in the place and it was for time, looking very positive. The Evening Press patted themselves on the back for thinking the whole thing up and people who signed the petition could walk past the building and believe that they were making a difference. However, there-in lies the problem, if the ten-thousand or so people who signed the petition actually visited the cinema on a weekly of monthly basis, there wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place, at least with attendance, which may have pushed the Odeon bosses into doing something. But I can tell you right now, in the final days of the cinemas life, it was a ghost town. I remember on one Saturday in particular only taking around £400 for the entire day?! Now when you factor in wages, gas and electric bills etc, this is a crippling amount of money to be taken in on a day of the week, that just a few short years earlier had people double-queuing out the doors.
At the time, I was in my second year of university at York St Johns and as my end of year project came round, I decided to make a documentary about the troubles the Odeon was facing. It was rather crude, but we managed to get short interviews with members of York Council and York Evening Press. I’ve pasted a link to my YouTube page below, with the documentary in two parts, please feel free to give it a watch. Please bear in mind, that the opinions expressed in the documentary are solely those of the participants and were never meant for public broadcast. However the film shows some shots of the building from the inside and older black and white photos taken when the cinema was opened in 1937. You will have to click on part two after the first part is finished. Just copy and paste the link.
I remember being called into the head office in early 2006, along with all the other employees to be told by the regional director what the state of affairs was. It was pretty much pointless waiting to hear it from the man himself, as when we walked in and saw the look on the duty-manager’s face, we knew what the outcome was going to be. We were told the building would close in August and that we would be given a small severance package (small being the operative word, as my package alone was less than a months wages for FIVE YEARS of ‘service’) We were each shook by the hand, then marched out of the office and told to get on with the rest of the day.
And as we all know, the rest is history. It was only when I took my last look around the cavernous screen one at the Odeon and sat in my favourite seat, reminiscing about all the good times I’d shared with people in there over the years, that it all hit me and I just sat in silence for half an hour, just trying to soak it all in.
Well, I better wrap this essay up, lol! Please remember that these are just my own thoughts of what went down and I thank people as an ex-employee for what they did/ still continue to do for the cinema. I was overjoyed when I heard about Reel cinemas taking it over and I hope they can restore and bring up-to-date this magical place.
Hello all,
Just thought I’d mention that about 4 weeks ago I had a conversation with one of the builders carrying out repairs on the Odeon’s canopy. As well as mentioning what Tim has told us about the overall refurbishment of the cinema, the builder also mentioned that screen 1 would be getting a DIGITAL PROJECTOR!
This is great news as a digital projection system in screen one, would be EPIC, giving the overall experience of watching a film in there a huge boost. Although I’m guessing they’ll still have the 35mm projector in use too.
As for screens 2 and 3, I’ve heard they are sticking with 35mm film projectors. This isn’t that bad as they may upgrade at some point to digital, but if the screens remain the same size, there may not be much point. What screens 2 and 3 REALLY need are new surround systems. When I worked there until its closure, screens 2 and 3 were still working off Dolby Pro Logic (or the cinema equivalent) which didn’t sound that great.
I doubt Screen 1 will get a new surround system because it only upgraded to Dolby Digital in 2003 (just in time for the matrix sequels) And it sounded great (Shame the films weren’t, lol)
Anyway, hope this is interesting to someone, it’s going to be an emotional day when that place re-opens.
Best Regards,
Arron D.
Hello all, my name is Arron and I was an employee of the Odeon York from 2001 to the day of it’s closure in 2006. I, like many others in York, loved this building dearly. It was the first cinema I visited as a child and was my first real job when I turned 18. At the time I considered it a privilege to work at a place which had brought myself and my friends so much joy over the years, from Saturday morning kids clubs, to studying film as a student and eventually working there, with my two closest friends.
After reading some of the comments on this website, I thought I’d weigh in with my own thoughts about working at the Odeon and the unique insight I had as an employee of Odeon cinemas.
When I first started in September 2001, the site, was in my opinion, still thriving. Queues for the latest teen gross-out flick, ‘American Pie 2’, stretched out the door and onto the street. The DVD mad, illegal download watching culture of today was still in it’s infancy and Saturday night at the movies, was still preferred to staying in and watching a film. City Screen York, was only a year old and still considered to be solely an ‘art house’ cinema, even though they were showing a limited selection of mainstream films. Vue Cinema (at that time named Warner Village) was (and still is) something of a trek to get to and lacked the personal touch of the classic picture house. To me, Vue cinema has always been somewhat like entering an airport terminal. Vac-formed plastic wall fixtures, giant glass walls and electronic boards showing cinema times like airplane departure notices, just doesn’t seem like a memorable night out to me.
All of my memories of the Odeon are rooted in a time well after the refurbishment of the mid-1970’s. I had always remained indifferent about the inner layout of the building, yet I found it fascinating trying to identify the remaining art-deco features that lay dormant beneath a drab brown and cream colour-scheme. As an employee of the Odeon, the remaining functional rooms scattered throughout were one-by-one, falling into disuse. Yet as most people who worked there would testify to, working at the Odeon, was like a second family. Having no bar (at least during MY time) or function rooms to speak of, the cinema was just that, a cinema. It consisted of a kiosk/ticket desk and three screens, and as such, didn’t take much man-power to run. The general manager at the time, Barbara Gledhill, knew the running of the building backwards and was the next door neighbor of one of my fellow employees (good luck pulling a sick-day there my friend, lol) Yet Barbaras presence made the place feel comforting and gave me a feeling of perpetual nostalgia, having seen her overseeing the place from a young age.
As the time passed working there, rumours of a refurbishment began circulating around and we were given some hope of replenishing the dwindling number of cinema goers visiting us everyday.
Computer enhanced images of the front of the building came to us one morning, showing what the exterior at least would look like, if given the proposed overhaul. They seemed subtle and above all respectful to the overall feel of the building. This is of course when the whole controversy surrounding the preposed removal of the original signage at the front of the building. And we were all ANGRY. It seemed like certain people were more pre-occupied with how aesthetically pleasing the building was, rather than whether it would continue to actually function as a CINEMA. I know however that there are those people who visit this site, who would strongly disagree with me about the proposed changes, but like I said before, this is just what we saw from the inside as employees.
Now, I’m not an idiot. I realise that it’s important to maintain buildings that are important to the cultural heritage of a city and indeed the country. But at the time it felt like a hangman’s noose dangling in-front of the aging cinema, threatening to put an end to our favourite hobby and of course our jobs. And this is how it continued to be for the longest time, and all the while, the building fell further and further into disrepair. I remember saying to Barbara at the time, that if someone didn’t make a move soon, it wouldn’t matter if we had a preserved antique neon sign on the front of the building, because with giant sheets of cork-board nailed to windows, no-one would want to look at it anyway. A complaint, which is of course, now true.
Then suddenly, we were thrust into the newspapers, with a series of articles about the troubles the Odeon was facing, most damaging of all, was about the standard of the men’s toilets at the front of Screen one. The photos, showed dingy, mold-ridden toilet walls and cracked tiles, with the title ‘NOW SHOWING AT A CINEMA NEAR YOU’. I believe this article was, in the long-run damaging to the Odeon. Even though I know the intent of the article, written by a frequent visitor and dedicated supporter of the Odeon, was meant to push the community into action and bring on the ‘sensitive’ refurbishment. But as an employee, the following weeks after were filled with customers coming up to us at our ‘posts’ and giving us their own two-cents on what they thought of the pictures and what we should do about the situation. This started some, ahem, ‘lively’ debates, lol! The truth of the matter is, that even though the state of the toilets in question, was… well, questionable, they were toilets almost NEVER used by the general public. Most of whom didn’t even know about the toilets, instead favouring the restrooms in the upper-lobby of the cinema, which depending on where you were sat in screen one, were much closer. The toilets themselves were far cleaner and were fully-functional, and I should know, I inspected them often enough as part of my daily work routine.
This of course kicked off the infamous, ‘Save the Odeon York’ campaign, started by the Evening Press. Following up with a series of decidedly more ‘upbeat’ articles about what the populous of York could do to save their beloved cinema. Word was spread about the cinemas situation, petitions were signed, ending up I believe somewhere around ten-thousand signatures. And through it all the press kept everyone up to date on slow news days. But again, being on the inside, this seemed to make NO difference whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, I was amazed that people were taking such an interest in the place and it was for time, looking very positive. The Evening Press patted themselves on the back for thinking the whole thing up and people who signed the petition could walk past the building and believe that they were making a difference. However, there-in lies the problem, if the ten-thousand or so people who signed the petition actually visited the cinema on a weekly of monthly basis, there wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place, at least with attendance, which may have pushed the Odeon bosses into doing something. But I can tell you right now, in the final days of the cinemas life, it was a ghost town. I remember on one Saturday in particular only taking around £400 for the entire day?! Now when you factor in wages, gas and electric bills etc, this is a crippling amount of money to be taken in on a day of the week, that just a few short years earlier had people double-queuing out the doors.
At the time, I was in my second year of university at York St Johns and as my end of year project came round, I decided to make a documentary about the troubles the Odeon was facing. It was rather crude, but we managed to get short interviews with members of York Council and York Evening Press. I’ve pasted a link to my YouTube page below, with the documentary in two parts, please feel free to give it a watch. Please bear in mind, that the opinions expressed in the documentary are solely those of the participants and were never meant for public broadcast. However the film shows some shots of the building from the inside and older black and white photos taken when the cinema was opened in 1937. You will have to click on part two after the first part is finished. Just copy and paste the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S-km414FOQ
I remember being called into the head office in early 2006, along with all the other employees to be told by the regional director what the state of affairs was. It was pretty much pointless waiting to hear it from the man himself, as when we walked in and saw the look on the duty-manager’s face, we knew what the outcome was going to be. We were told the building would close in August and that we would be given a small severance package (small being the operative word, as my package alone was less than a months wages for FIVE YEARS of ‘service’) We were each shook by the hand, then marched out of the office and told to get on with the rest of the day.
And as we all know, the rest is history. It was only when I took my last look around the cavernous screen one at the Odeon and sat in my favourite seat, reminiscing about all the good times I’d shared with people in there over the years, that it all hit me and I just sat in silence for half an hour, just trying to soak it all in.
Well, I better wrap this essay up, lol! Please remember that these are just my own thoughts of what went down and I thank people as an ex-employee for what they did/ still continue to do for the cinema. I was overjoyed when I heard about Reel cinemas taking it over and I hope they can restore and bring up-to-date this magical place.
Thanks for reading,
Arron D.