DAVIDW 1,683 Posted May 20, 2013 Report Share Posted May 20, 2013 Blimey its hard to believe that small space was filled with screaming fans during the 60s for all those pop tours . Beatles, Roy Orbison , Everlys, Little Richard , Stones, Searchers etc etc. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted May 20, 2013 Report Share Posted May 20, 2013 It's a bit deceptive. What you see in the photos is the entrance area; it all opened out when you went further into the building. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fch782c 144 Posted May 20, 2013 Report Share Posted May 20, 2013 Thats bought back some memories of the old saturday morning matinee Chico The Rainmaker about a shrunken head Sky Pirates about a bunch of kids using remote controlled model aeroplanes to foil a diamond smuggling gang, staring Bill Maynard (Greengrass from heartbeat) and Jamie Foreman (Derek Branning Eastenders) Both of these films from the early seventies if memory serves. I also saw The Ten Commandments at The Futurist on Valley road Nottingham and Mary Poppins at the Metropole on Manfield road Sherwood Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LizzieM 9,507 Posted May 20, 2013 Report Share Posted May 20, 2013 It's a bit deceptive. What you see in the photos is the entrance area; it all opened out when you went further into the building. What was Maid Marion Way called in the days of that map then? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted May 20, 2013 Report Share Posted May 20, 2013 MMW didn't exist in those days, it was only created in the 1960s. The closest equivalent was a road called Granby Street which was enlarged and widened to become the top part of MMW. Partly explained and demonstrated here http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8474&hl=maid Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted August 17, 2013 Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 And the next stage. From a distance, the ex-Odeon appears to have grown a large appendage The front looks really small And from Maid Marian Way it looks like War of the Worlds 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bazalways 26 Posted August 18, 2013 Report Share Posted August 18, 2013 Another eighty years of history turned to rubble, what a shame my fond memories of the Odeon are not there for others to see. Shows like Little Richard, The Stones, & my all time favourite Bill Haley & his Comets in 1957, did it rock that night, not a person in their seat for the final number Rock Around The Clock, the visible bounce of the balcony was frightening. I didn't get to see The Beatles there but had seen them earlier at Coop House (Elizabethan Rooms for 6/6d), in 1963 I think. There was another venue gone without even noticing. Why did the last sixty years go so fast, and yet, thankfully, with a little jog of the mind, come back so vividly. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Radford Boy 26 Posted August 18, 2013 Report Share Posted August 18, 2013 Anyone know what became of the Theatre Organ in the Odeon. If remember correctly it was a British made Compton. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted August 18, 2013 Report Share Posted August 18, 2013 According to this, it lasted until 1964 and was then "split up"; whatever that means in organ language. http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/11113 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kendaldrac 40 Posted August 31, 2013 Report Share Posted August 31, 2013 A friend of the family worked for a salvage and reclamation company and knowing of my intrest in history and buildings took me along to the Odeon just after new year I think it was 2001 as he was doing a quote for stripping out the building after its closure. I remember downstairs behind partitioning there was an old bar and cloakroom still with equipment and glasses laying about it was like they boarded it up and for go it about it. In the main cinema the screen was in front of the old stage from when it was a theatre and there was a very dodgy spirals metals staircase that took you up into the fly pit, then a skylight and out onto the roof. It was a rabbit warren of passages and dead ends from all the conversions that had taken place and the projection room seemed to be full of old equipment held together by a wing and a prayer, looked liked it hadn't been updated or modernised for years. From my childhood until now I can say that I have seen the Scala at Long Eaton, Ritz at Matlock, ABC & Odeon in Nottingham, Cosy in Heanor and Byron in Hucknall all close. Only one still going from childhood that consider traditional cinema is the Scala at Ilkeston. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kendaldrac 40 Posted August 31, 2013 Report Share Posted August 31, 2013 For the person who wanted to know more about the organ: The Nottingham cinema opened as the Ritz (part of the County Cinemas circuit) late in 1933. County's musical director was the well-known broadcasting organist Reginald Foort, whose base was the Regal, Kingston-on-Thames. He was also an advisor to the organ building firm of Peter Conacher & Co. of Huddersfield, and as a result of this connection, Conacher were contracted to build three large instruments for three super cinemas then being developed by County. These organs were of four manuals and twenty units (made up of twenty-two ranks) and included grand piano attachments playable from the console. The first to open was earlier in 1933 at the Regal, Wimbledon, Nottingham opened at the end of the year, and in 1934 they were followed by the Regal, Hull which had the third of the big Conachers. County Cinemas subsequently ordered smaller instruments from the firm of four manuals and twelve units, again with grand piano attachments, and these went to cinemas in Margate, Southampton and Southend - the latter being moved to the Odeon, Blackpool after the war. Conacher only built three other theatre organs - two for the Philpot circuit in Coventry, and one for an independent cinema in Rotherham. The Ritz, Nottingham organ was heard regularly on the radio in the hands of Edmund V. (Jack) Helyer who was resident organist from 1933 until 1950 with a break for service in the RAF during the war. County Cinemas had been absorbed by Odeon (later combining with Gaumont under the Rank banner) in the late 1930s and the theatre renamed, so during the war the organ was played by guest organists from the Odeon circuit. Jack Helyer was made redundant in 1950 in a round of post-war cuts, but stayed with the company in a management capacity at the Gaumont, Nottingham, but up until 1960 he still broadcast from the Odeon, as well as the BBC Theatre Organ in London. In 1964 the Odeon, Nottingham became the first cinema in the country to be subdivided into two, and the building works resulted in the sale and removal of the organ. Regrettably the organ was broken up for parts, the console being cut down to a two manual and used in a church in Surrey. Various ranks of pipes were used in church instruments and there are a couple of ranks still in use in theatre organ installations too. One of the Tibia ranks is in the midlands, and the Orchestral Oboe is playing in a residence installation in Weston-super-Mare. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loppylugs 8,429 Posted September 1, 2013 Report Share Posted September 1, 2013 Very interesting, thanks. The age of the cinema organ was pretty much over by the time I started going to the various cinemas, I never saw or heard the one at the Odeon. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 Are students smaller than they used to be? Now that the "new odeon" is beginning to take shape, you can try and guess how many students will be crammed into a very small space. Brings to mind the Pete Seeger song 'Little Boxes'. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mudgie49 401 Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 They look more like a bee hive, I can't imagine living in a cell like that. Will they have a window,or just an opening with bars attached? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
radfordred 6,284 Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Now it's almost finished, It doesn't look too bad from Maid Marian Way. Better than some of the awful 60s/70s rubbish which surrounds it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fynger 841 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Thats nasty.....I stupidly thought it was gonna take up the same space as the odeon did. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 I know what you mean. The lower level bit on the left is in the old Odeon space; the tall building is in what was an empty hole. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Booth 7,364 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 It's just a box with windows. No style or character, just like everything else that's being built in this great city of ours. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
.... 23 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Nothing new. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fynger 841 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 At least the students will be comfy.....gotta pamper them Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mudgie49 401 Posted September 2, 2014 Report Share Posted September 2, 2014 They could have put a little character to the building.Who has the last word on constructing buildings like this one? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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