PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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THE REGENT CINEMA AND Mr OSCAR DEUTSCH Back in the 1920s an ex-metal merchant by the name of Mr Oscar Deutsch had been chairman of W & F Film Service, which became part of Gaumont-British. In 1930 Mr Deutsch started a new venture, Cinema Service, which initially owned six houses. This company was reformed in 1937 as Odeon Theatres Holdings Ltd and in the May of that year acquired the Paramount circuit. He now had control of some 250 cinemas and Odeon was the third largest circuit behind Gaumont-British (GB) and the Associated British Pictures Corporation (ABPC). The new company's classical name was derived from the 'Odeion' on the slopes of the Acropolis. Unfortunately this expansion brought with it many financial problems, as a result of which J Arthur Rank and United Artists each bought half of the shares in the holding company, Odeon Cinema Holdings Ltd. Deutsch's intention had been to build up an up-to-date circuit of luxurious theatres. They all looked the same as he quickly realised the benefits of a corporate image but each cinema was a company in its own right so that it could sell its shares to local people and thus be a part of the local business community. The Odeon group had apparently purchased some land in Union Street, Plymouth, ready for a new cinema. The outbreak of the Second World War put a stop to this plan but evidently not to Mr Oscar Deutsch's intentions. The story goes that Mr Deutsch invited Mr Prance of the Regent Cinema to lunch with him at Exeter, where he announced his plans for a major new cinema in Plymouth that would put the Regent out of business. Unless, that is, the owners sold it to him. This they did and thus it was that on June 17th 1940 the old Regent Cinema reopened as the Odeoen Cinema.
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