Historic local cinema to close after 88 years

The Odeon chain has announced the closure of five cinemas across the UK which are deemed to be “no longer viable”.

The local victim is the Weston-super-Mare Odeon, whose 1,800-seat auditorium opened on 25 May 1935 with a gala screening of the fourth screen version of the oft-remade Brewster’s Millions, starring matinee idol Jack Buchanan.

During the interval, the audience of local dignitaries was treated to a recital on the cinema’s grand Compton pipe organ by Alfred Richards.

This also provided quite a visual spectacle, its sleek, modern art-deco console rising from the orchestra pit adorned with a beautiful, curved glass surround – illuminated from within with ever-changing colours.

Richards marked the occasion by composing a song entitled Around the Corner at the Odeon, later immortalised by crooner Leslie Smith on a 78rpm disc specially pressed for playing to audiences all around the Odeon circuit.

The Compton organ in all its original glory

Over the ensuing years, many celebrity patrons were entertained by this impressive British-built organ, whose 600 pipes are enclosed in two rooms above the stage.

In the early years, organist Peggy Weber often found Haile Selassie and his entourage in the front row of the circle. The exiled King of Ethiopia was living near Bath in the late 1930s, and was a keen cinemagoer who also regularly attended Bath’s Little Theatre Cinema. When he was in the audience, Weber always played the song Here’s a Health Unto His Majesty in her interlude.

At the outbreak of WWII, Roy Pearce broadcast from the Odeon simultaneously on the National and Empire services. For half an hour, he was the entire output of the BBC.

In 1963, The Beatles came to the seaside to play a total of 12 shows (two a night) from July 22-27 at the Weston-super-Mare Odeon before the release of She Loves You and the advent of full-on Beatlemania.

Although recorded music eventually took over from the pipe organ, the Compton has been kept in working order for nearly nine decades. It was overhauled by the cinema owners in 1980 and thoroughly restored by a voluntary group in 1988. Care of the organ passed to the West of England Theatre Organ Society in 2001 and it now continues to be maintained and presented in concert by members of the Theatre Organ Club. It is one of only two left in the entire country.

Ben Snowdon, who runs The Music Palace in Porth, South Wales, has been taking care of it for the last 23 years.

“The Compton is included in the building’s listing and therefore cannot be removed,” he told us. “Odeon have agreed to try and maintain the organ once the cinema goes dark and have agreed to keep the heating on in the chambers and have asked me to go and inspect it periodically. It is special as it is still in its original location and is virtually as Compton left it in 1935. As there are so few original installations left, I just hope this one survives.”

The cinema closes on June 5. The final opportunity to see and hear the Compton organ in action will be on Sunday 21 May when the Theatre Organ Club presents Michael Wooldridge in concert.