A short history of the Odeon Cinema in Nairobi, Kenya

Photo: Odeon Cinema Latema Road 1956.

 

Did you ever hear ODEON is the acronym for "Oscar Deutch Entertains Our Nation".

Wikipedia indicates, 'Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. Odeon publicists liked to claim that the name of the cinemas was derived from his motto, "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation", but it had been used for cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920s, and the word is actually Ancient Greek ᾨδεῖον, Ōideion, meaning "a place for singing" '. 

Odeon Cinema opened in the 1950s. After the Odeon was built, Mr. Dahyabhal K Patel obtained the lease and the Odeon franchise. A the time Odeon Cinemas was a large international company. Mr Patel also opened an Odeon in Nakuru. The Business Daily reports that before the cinemas picked up the Mau Mau conflict started. Additionally there was competition from other Nairobi cinemas showing Indian movies. These included Shan, Liberty, Embassy and Globe cinemas.

Mr. Patel sold the cinema to a non resident company, the Indian Film Combined Ltd in 1959. He continued to operate the Nakuru Odeon. (see a separate post of the history of the Odeon Nakuru cinema). 

Indian Film Combined Ltd operated the cinema until 1969. The business was then sold to Kenya Exhibitors. Kenya Exhibitors was a Kenyan organization, It's directors were all Kenyans. 

In the 70s an 80s the Odeon showed most of the new Kung Fu blockbusters and first repeat Hollywood blockbusters. It ran continuous shows everyday at around 1pm,3,5,7,and 9pm. It was usually in the top 10 of all cinemas in Kenya with respect to movie attendance and box office revenues.!!

Kenya Exhibitors ran the cinema until the proliferation of pirating, VHS and DVD crushed movie attendance in Kenya.

 In the 1990 it was transformed into a church. And in 2011 it became the Kenya Aviation College.

 Photo: Odeon Cinema

 Photo: Odeon building with 5 floors and windows covering the front of the premises is occupied by the Kenya Aviation College.

Kenyans still remember the Odeon Cinema in Nairobi. Here are some of the comments from Facebook:

'The first fim screened at this cinema was Anarkali, starring Pradeep Kumar, Bina Rai, Mubarak etc. © Rajni Shah'

'Watched The Ten Commandments there multiple times'

'Gosh! There was a tree on Latema road!!! Compare this to the matatu menace right now!!!!'

reference:

Oct 4th 2011:

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/society/lights-out-for-odeon-after-a-good-run--1994052

https://m.facebook.com/KenyaHistory101/photos/odeon-cinema-on-latema-road-1956-the-first-fim-screened-at-this-cinema-was-anark/502068589806122/