Title: Odeon Cinema Holdings Limited Legal File: United Artists Corporation Records, Series 7A
Inclusive Dates: 1934-1950 (bulk 1938-1950)

Creators:

• Odeon Cinema Holdings Limited

• United Artists Corporation

Call Number: U.S. Mss 99AN/7A

Physical Description: 2.0 cubic feet (5 archives boxes)
Repository:

Housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections; owned by the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records, mainly 1938-1950, maintained by the United Artists for reference regarding its assets in Odeon Cinema Holdings Limited and its relationship with Oscar Deutsch and J. Arthur Rank. Includes correspondence to and from United Artists executives such as Murray Silverstone, Florenz Guedalla, George Archibald, Walter Kelly, and Edward C. Raftery concerning the relations between the two companies and agreements, articles of association, balance sheets and accounts, directors reports and accounts, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, and other documents concerning Odeon's general operations.

Note:

Forms part of the United Artists Corporation collection.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-99an007a

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Oscar Deutsch (1893-1941), the son of a rich Hungarian scrap metal merchant in England, built his first Odeon Cinema Theatre in 1930. Deutsch's mission was to provide quality cinema for British movie goers - the name Odeon was an acronym for Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation. Deutsch chiefly built his theatres in large urban suburbs and, by 1936, he had built 150 Odeon theaters valued at 10 million pounds.

In 1935, United Artists bought into Odeon. At this time, United Artists needed British theatres in which to distribute its pictures because a substantial portion of the company's profits were generated in the British market. Deutsch needed the association with United Artists because he needed cash for his ambitious theatre building projects. The result was that by the mid 1930s, United Artists had acquired a fifty percent share of Odeon's holding company, Odeon Cinema Holdings, Ltd. Florenz M. Guedalla, then the United Artists legal counsel in Great Britain, and Murray Silverstone, the United Artists Ltd. managing director, were key players in United Artists penetration of the British market.

In order to raise additional cash during the late 1930s, Deutsch floated two stock issues and it was a result of the seond of these in 1938 that British film magnate J. Arthur Rank was able to buy into Odeon Cinema. By 1939 Rank was on the Odeon board of directors. After Deutsch's untimely death in 1941 his associates sold their shares to Rank who then became head of Odeon.

By the early 1940s, Rank had created a huge empire encompassing about 600 theatres, a distribution network, and over half of the studio facilities in Great Britain. United Artists soon found it difficult to cooperate with Rank and by 1943 he began to exclude them from the British market. Although United Artists still owned 50% of Odeon, after the mid 1940s it could not book its pictures in Odeon theatres.

The Odeon Cinema Holdings series covers the years 1934 to 1950 and is divided into two sections. The first section contains chronologically arranged correspondence exchanged between United Artists' British officials, the United Artists' home office, and Odeon executives about the relationship between the two companies.

The correspondence does not appear to be an organic file but rather a reference file of Odeon material created from the files of a number of top United Artists executives because the letters related in some way to relations with Odeon. The file chronicles United Artists' relationship with the corporation during Deutsch's heyday in the mid 1930s and its deteriorating relationship with J. Arthur Rank in the 1940s. Interspersed among the general correspondence are some agendas and minutes of Odeon meetings relayed to United Artists' New York office from its British subsidiary along with occasional financial reports and statements. The bulk of the correspondence is that of Oscar Deutsch, Murray Silverstone, George Archibald, Florenz M. Guedalla, Edward C. Raftery, and Arthur W. Kelly.

The second series is an alphabetical file of other types of documents that relate to Odeon operations more generally. Only a few items relate to Odeon's dealings with United Artists. Included are legal agreements, articles of association, balance sheets and accounts, annual reports, a list of the Odeon circuits, and board of director minutes. There are also two files of newsclippings. Both the balance sheets and accounts and the meeting minutes have large chronological gaps between 1943 and 1958, precisely the time when Rank was excluding United Artists from British film distribution. The files are arranged chronologically within each subject category.

Processing Information

The records in this series were extracted from accession M95-233 which was comprised of unprocessed and partially processed files. The files were received in 1969 and some work was done on them prior to box and folder lists being prepared and call numbers being assigned in 1994-1995.

Deutsch, Oscar, 1893-1941.Rank, J. Arthur, 1888-1972.Motion picture industry.Motion pictures -- Distribution.Motion picture industry -- Great Britain

U.S. Mss 99AN/7A	Series: Correspondence
Box   1   Folder 1	1935-1937
Box   1   Folder 2	1938 January-July
Box   1   Folder 3	1938 August-November
Box   1   Folder 4	1938 November-December
Box   1   Folder 5	1939 January-August
Box   1   Folder 6	1939 September-December
Box   1   Folder 7	1940 January-February
Box   2   Folder 1	1940 March-April
Box   2   Folder 2	1940 May
Box   2   Folder 3	1940 June
Box   2   Folder 4	1940 July-August
Box   2   Folder 5	1940 September-October
Box   2   Folder 6	1940 November-December
Box   2   Folder 7	1941 January-July
Box   3   Folder 1	1941 July-December
Box   3   Folder 2	1942 January-May
Box   3   Folder 3	1942 June-December
Box   3   Folder 4	1943-1944
Box   3   Folder 5	1945-1946
Box   3   Folder 6	1947
Box   3   Folder 7	1948 January
Box   3   Folder 8	1948 February-December
Box   3   Folder 9	1949
Box   3   Folder 10	1950
	Series: Company Records	⇧
Box   4   Folder 1	Accountant's report, 1943
Box   4   Folder 2	Agreements, 1935-1939
Box   4   Folder 3-4	Annual reports, 1937-1950
Box   4   Folder 5	Arrangements between United Artists and Rank, 1942
Box   4   Folder 6	Articles of association, 1937, 1942
Box   4   Folder 7-13	Balance sheets, 1938-1950
Box   4   Folder 14	Crescent Theatre controversy, 1935-1936
Box   4   Folder 15-16	Deutsch matter, 1934-1936
Box   4   Folder 17	List of theatres in Odeon Circuit, undated
Box   5   Folder 1	Investments, 1940
Box   5   Folder 2-6	Minutes of board of directors meetings, 1938-1950
Box   5   Folder 7-8	Newspaper clippings, 1938-1950
Box   5   Folder 9-10	Reports to United Artists on General Cinema Finance Corporation, 1948
Box   5   Folder 11	Summary of United Artists/Odeon dealings, 1935-1940