The archive

6 published memories.

Martin Brookes · 1970s · The Odeon

The bingo years

Remembers the building becoming a bingo hall around 1973 and running until 1999; his grandparents Annie and Edward Raven of Esher Road went regularly.

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Terry Jay · 1960s · The Odeon

A lifetime in one building

Went as a child with his sisters, buying sweets from Mores sweet shop beforehand — and later worked in the very same building as a bingo caller in 1966.

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Angela Cotgrave · 1930s · The Odeon

Grandmother Edith, usherette

Her grandmother Edith worked as an usherette in the cinema’s early days, and lived on Brockwell Road.

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Richard Wall · 1940s · The Odeon

Singing along with the bouncing ball, 1944

Attended the matinees in 1944, singing along to lyrics projected with a bouncing ball, children tipping up the seats during the action scenes.

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Veronica Marshall · 1950s · The Odeon

Saturday matinees and first dates

A regular at the Saturday matinee — Roy Rogers and Trigger, Gene Autry — who once lost her teddy bear when a friend borrowed it during a screening. Years later she used the cine…

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Alan Hitchman · 1950s · The Odeon

A grand place to a young boy

Walked to the matinee from about ten years old, with his younger sister — cowboy films, cartoons, Flash Gordon serials. Remembers “a big foyer” and an organ that “popped up some…

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