The First 40 Years: 1989

This is part of a series of articles looking at the first 40 years of the Stephen Joseph Theatre (1955 to 1995) from the perspective of the theatre's Archive. The articles were first published in the SJT Circular newsletter.

1989: The Odeon

by Simon Murgatroyd

On 23 January 1989, Alan Ayckbourn made a suggestion which would profoundly affect the future of the SJT. In a letter to Scarborough Council’s Chief Executive, John Trebble, Alan suggested the recently closed Odeon cinema could become the new home of the theatre.

The search for a permanent home for the company had been a long-standing and frustrating ambition practically since Stephen Joseph opened the Library Theatre in 1955. By 1989, the company had been based in the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round (or Westwood as it was colloquially called) since 1976, but that had never been intended as more than a short-term home for the company. In the derelict Odeon, Alan saw potential.

The Odeon had closed on 21 October 1988 in Scarborough with the film Buster, starring Phil Collins (although one must not equate the two, no matter how poor the film was!) It was apparently the last single screen Odeon left in the country aside from the flagship cinema, the Odeon in Leicester Square, London.

This was all a far cry from the glory days of the building when it was one of the head-line grabbing chain of Art Deco cinemas built during the 1930s by Oscar Deutsch; the son of a Jewish immigrant from Hungary who became an unlikely cinema chain mogul and had an enormous impact on British architecture during the 1930s and 1940s.

The first Odeon opened in Perry Barr, near Birmingham, in 1930. The unusual name was suggested by a friend who had seen the word ‘Odeon’ whilst in Tunisia on holiday; it’s ancient greek for ‘singing place’ and it appealed to Deutsch because it sounded both exotic and - starting as it did with his initials - it could also be used as an acronym for ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation.’ Officially the company was called the Deutsch - Odeon Chain of Modern Super Cinemas, but you wouldn’t have heard people saying they were popping to that rather than the ‘Odeon’ very often.

In 1932, Deutsch met a pivotal figure in the history of the Odeon - and Scarborough’s cinema - in the architect Harry Weedon and hired him to designing his cinemas. In an astonishing burst of productivity, the pair opened 87 cinemas in the UK between 1933 and 1937 - including Scarborough’s landmark Odeon.

The cinemas became known for their signature Art Deco style which typically included a tower or vertical feature (much like our own) with buildings designed to appear streamlined and frequently featuring rounded corners - both elements again found in Scarborough.

For Scarborough, alongside Weedon as architect, the design was handled by J. Cecil Clavering and Robert Bullivant. It was built on a favoured corner site and - specific to Scarborough - the site was chosen for its proximity to the railway station; it was intended that it would be the first thing the majority of tourists to Scarborough would see as they stepped off the train. Unusually - and to again attract the tourists - the Odeon had a large cafe with a panoramic view of the town centre; this apparently increased the cost of the build by £3,200 but was deemed a worthwhile expense.

The interior design of the cinema was by Mollo and Egan and it broke with the Odeon’s tradition of simple decoration. The opulent decoration of the building was meant to represent lush tropical vegetation and gave the interior of the building an exotic and fresh visual appeal; an example of the original colour scheme can still be found at the bottom of the lower foyer stairs above the small Odeon display. The single screen cinema seated 1,711 people - 946 in the stalls with 765 in the balcony - and was built at a cost of £38,700 (strangely almost the exact same cost of converting Westwood County Modern School into the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round in 1976).

The Odeon was unveiled to the public on 28 March 1936 and was opened by Sir Kenelm Cayley. It is frequently mistakenly reported the Scarborough-born actor Charles Laughton - the first British person to win an Oscar for Best Actor with The Private Life Of Henry VIII - opened the venue, but this was not the case. Laughton, who was born in the town and still had family there, was visiting Scarborough at the time and last-minute arrangements were made for him to appear at the opening night; the souvenir programmes feature a sticker in the programme of events centre-spread proclaiming a 'special appearance by Charles Laughton'. The opening night featured the film The Ghost Goes West, starring Robert Donat and directed by René Clair; coincidentally one of Alan Ayckbourn’s favourite directors.

The fall in the popularity of cinema, particularly during the 1980s, sounded the death knell for the Scarborough Odeon - alongside many other Odeons. It was no great surprise in 1989 when the Odeon closed and perhaps even less of a surprise when the owners, Rank, announced their favoured intention was for the Odeon to be converted into bingo hall; a public outcry put paid to that.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and on 21 September 1989, it was announced that Alan Ayckbourn was in talks with Rank about acquiring the building, which was leased from Scarborough Council. With the support of the Council, talks took place over a number of months leading in March 1990 to the formation of the ADMirable Partnership - a company consisting of Alan Ayckbourn, Lord Downe and Charles ‘Mac’ McCarthy - to secure the lease of the building, which was announced on 28 September.

On 13 November, plans for the conversion were approved and praised by Scarborough Council and the long road to funding and building a new home for the company began in earnest.

Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.