THE COMPTON ORGAN IN THE
ODEON CINEMA, LEICESTER SQUARE.

THE ODEON has provided Londoners and tourists alike with film entertainment for almost 70 years.


The building was designed by Andrew Mather and Harry Weedon, and opened on 2nd November, 1937, showing "The Prisoner of Zenda", starring Ron Coleman, Madeline Carol, and David Niven. This was a Royal Premiere performance, with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in attendence, and the evening's proceedings started the National Anthem. This was followed by the Odeon News Reel, Hawaiian Holiday (a Disney cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck) and, then, the feature film. The charities that benefited from the evening were The National Trust for Scotland and The Empire Cancer Campaign.


The commanding black granite exterior includes a unique 120-foot-high tower that displays the name of the cinema. The interior was also striking and included 2,116 seats (1,140 in the stalls and 976 circle) lavishly upholstered in leopard-skin moquette. Striding towards the screen, on each side of the proscenium arch, were four near-naked figures (known as the "the flying ladies") sculpted by Raymond Briton-Riviere. The auditorium's banding ripples concealed lighting, while the projection box was provided with all the latest British cinema equipment. The stage was equipped with a hand-painted safety curtain, a fly tower, a rising orchestra pit, and the magnificent five-manual Compton organ (on its own lift). Other facilities included a suite of offices, a Press Room, and a number of Powder Rooms. This cinema was the omega of luxury and of comfort.


In 1967, the cinema closed for "modernisation" and, at that time, most of the beautiful art-deco features, which had survived the London bombings, were disposed of. The film that re-opened the cinema in December of that year was called "Smashing Time". It was a title that, somewhat ironically, seemed to lament the destruction of the flying ladies and the building's other original features.


In 1998, the cinema was again modernised but, this time, the company wished to sympathetically recreate some of the grandeur of the original décor. The flying ladies were recreated and the emphasis was placed on "the best of the old with the best of the new". In 2005, the circle was restepped and re-seated.