ODEON

The last of my four regular cinemas in Wolverhampton was the Odeon. It opened in September 1937 and  was a wonderful example of the Odeon style. Originally seating in excess of 1,900 it was converted to three screens in 1973, became a bingo club in 1983 and closed in 2007. By 2009, it had been refurbished and re-opened as the Diamond Banqueting Suite. In October 2000, it was designated a Grade II Listed building by English Heritage. This was as classy and opulent as cinemas went in a small town and even in the 60’s it was still the gem of Wolverhampton’s movie theatres. It was here that I saw my third X rated movie, Alfred Hitchcocks’ ‘The Birds’. They had some Sunday only specials, (‘I Was A Teenage Frankenstein’, ‘Shadow Of The Cat’, ‘Macabre’, ‘Attack Of The Giant Leeches’, ‘Beast From Haunted Cave’, ‘The Black Scorpion’ and a few others) but they generally stuck to the Sunday for 7 days formula. They tended to screen the big Bond movies, but it was here I enjoyed ‘Jason and the Argonauts’, ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘Dr. Stranglove’, ‘Repulsion’, ‘I Don’t Want To Be Born’, ‘The Devil’s Rain’, ‘Vampyres’, ‘The Satan Bug’, ‘Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte’ and the musical ‘Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang’, among others. This didn’t mean to say they didn’t have re-releases (‘Brides Of Dracula’, ‘Psycho’, ‘Curse Of The Werewolf’, ‘House Of Wax’, ‘The Fly’, ‘Rodan’, ‘War Of The Worlds’, ‘Day Of The Triffids’) and the occasional obscure movie (‘The Head’, ‘The Projected Man’, ‘Playgirls And The Vampires’). It also claims some fame in that I saw ‘Godzilla Vs The Smog Monster’ here, one of just six Godzilla movies I saw on a big screen in the UK, it shared the bill with ‘The Thing With Two Heads’ a film with Ray Milland, not to mention the numerous ‘Carry Ons’. This up-market cinema was no competition to the Clifton. As I’ve sat here typing, I’ve realised just how many cinemas there had been in the town, many which had closed there doors or disappeared. However here are some childhood memories. The Olympia, in Thornley St. I remember queuing at a bus stop outside this cinema in the middle/late 50’s. The Coliseum, Dudley Rd. My mother had been born in Pearson Street just a minute or two away and my grandmother still lived there, I have memories of seeing a cinema, but stronger memories in later years of the colourful Asian film posters, when it was running Indian movies. The Scala, Worcester St. I remember the Bingo hall and years later the frontage, which was still standing while all around it had been demolished. They said it was to be incorporated into the new main entrance to a hotel complex that was to built there, the next time I visited Wolverhampton it too had gone! The Queen’s, Queens Sq. An aunt worked there and later at The Savoy/ABC as an usherette and would occasionally pass on her free tickets to my parents. The Regal, Wednesfield. We had relatives living on the new Ashmore Park Estate and my father would drive past it when we visited. The Pavilion, Castle Street. Closed 1956, frontage still standing. The Dunstall/Odeon, Dunstall. Closed 1960, but not demolished untill 1980. The Clifton, Fallings Park. Closed 1961, demolished shortly after. There were others but sadly I don’t recall anything about them at all! But it is the Globe/Carlton cinema at Horsley Fields that makes me feel very sad and a little ashamed. My home was just a ten minute walk from this cinema and I would have passed it every time I went into town, and yet in all those years, and I must have passed it by dozens if not hundreds of times, I can find no memories of it at all!!