Mike Laycock looks back at the rise and fall of York's Odeon cinema.

It was billed in the Evening Press as "The Event of 1937 in York." Flags and bunting were draped along Blossom Street up to Micklegate Bar, all 1,484 seats sold out within 90 minutes of the box office opening and the new £60,000 art deco building was lit by neon lights.

Among the stream of VIP guests was Oscar Deutsch himself.

Oscar was the businessman who built up a chain of cinemas across the country under the clever acronym Odeon - standing for Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation.

The way that Odeons are now closing down across the country, Oscar won't be entertaining the nation for much longer. The Leeds Odeon closed last year, and others are scheduled to close in Glasgow and Edinburgh this year

Cinema-goers in York have been concerned for some time about a lack of investment at the Odeon. For example, exterior paintwork has been flaking, giving a shabby appearance to the city's last traditional picture house.

But the first time anyone knew the cinema was under formal threat of closure was when council planners met in October to discuss an application to remove the original Odeon sign high on the frontage.

The Odeon wanted the changes as part of renovation work to the outside of the building, which also included repainting the doors and windows.

Councillors were told that the owners had threatened to close the cinema if they did not receive permission to replace the specially designed rounded letters - the only original sign left in the country - with those seen on Odeons elsewhere in Britain.

Members branded the threat "ridiculous," and threw out the plans, saying the signs were "an architectural feature and integral part of the building."

The following month, the Odeon confirmed that the cinema was being "assessed for its economic viability" and the Evening Press discovered that staff had been told that it might have to be put on the market, as "all possibilities" had been exhausted.

Redundancies had also been mentioned to staff, along with the possibility of relocating some of them to other Odeon sites across the region.

Updated: 12:08 Thursday, January 15, 2004