Image Credit: #D25191, Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, IWM Non-Commercial Licence.

There are endless ways to watch a film in 2020; from renting the latest releases on the television to secretly streaming online using an ex-boyfriend's Netflix account. A trip to the local cinema is probably quite far down on the list and for Bryan Richardson, this is due to a loss of ambience and glamour.

Bryan took a 6 month training course before he was allowed to run his own cinema. Living in dormitories in the Gaumont Finchley, he took classes in front of house, how to deal with customers and abate complaints. It was in 1965 when he received a telephone call offering him the position of Manager in Guildford,

“I’ll only go for £25 a week.” “But we’re only paying the Manager you’re replacing £19!”

Nevertheless, they accepted and Bryan stepped foot into the venue that would keep him entertained for the next 30 years.

“It was always a nice theatre.”

Guildford’s Odeon opened on the Upper High Street in 1935 and despite having 4 competitors in the town, Bryan is assured that the Odeon was the classiest, “It was to do with me I expect!” There was only one screen with space for 1,250 guests and they would typically play one film per week, “Mary Poppins was the one that broke all the records.” The cinema was later expanded to 4 screens giving the opportunity to play popular films for longer.

Today you can purchase your ticket via a touch screen, pay for your pick n’ mix self-service and sit down to watch the previews without uttering a word to anyone.

“Showmanship was important! My Projectionist would choose the music that was played to match the film. We used to make sure the colour scheme was fitting the mood. Then time the music so the end of the track faded out as the curtains opened.”

That was all for just 1/9 (1 Shilling and 9 Pence) for the seats closest to the screen.

High standards were important to Bryan, “I wanted [audiences] to feel like it was worth making the effort.” A strict formal dress code was adhered to by all of Front of House complete with clean nails and pressed uniforms, “we used to have staff inspections.” The women were asked to wear white shoes and men had to be changed into their dinner jackets before 6:00PM every evening.

David Corrie joined the Guildford Odeon in the 1980s as Bryan’s Assistant Manager. “Everybody loves David, but he’s useless!” A glowing first review but one that would spark a friendship of over 40 years. David remembers the shared experience a visit to the cinema created. When a twist was coming up in a Thriller such as Glenn Close’s final emergence from the bathtub in Fatal Attraction, “all the staff would look at their watches and go it’s 10 past 10!” Then quietly shuffle into the screen and wait to see, “the joy of watching 50 members of the public jump at once! You’d hear popcorn and chocolates roll down the aisles.”

Some things haven’t changed. The cinema experience isn’t complete until you’ve wildly overestimated how much popcorn you can eat in a 2 hour window. Profits were mostly made from selling refreshments as the highest percentage of each ticket sale went back to the film company, “when ET opened the first 4 weeks of Box Office went straight back to Spielberg!” They tried during the 1970s to replace interval ice creams and instead, “roll in a drinks trolley with little miniatures. Prices were the same as a pub but for some reason you’d pull out a gin and tonic [and customers would say], ‘I’m not paying that!’ and... you had to serve it in a plastic glass. It takes away the glamour!”

It wasn’t just box office hits that had crowds queuing up outside the cinema. They were also established venues for exciting live shows, and sometimes you were lucky enough to host a big name act, “for The Rolling Stones, we had two sold out houses.” Bryan describes the memorable first performance where fans at “the back of the stalls wanted to get a better view so stood on the seats and broke them” causing a frantic repair job before the second audience came in.

Unlike individual theatres today, Bryan was responsible for getting the local community excited about upcoming releases, “we had to submit to Head Office every week a folder to say what we had done to publicise a film.” If acceptable, cinemas would be given extra budget. He was especially good at creating memorable moments that the press would just have to cover. When You Only Live Twice played, it was supported by a 15 minute short called How to Live With A Neurotic Dog and Bryan arranged a photo opportunity with a group of Dalmatian owners outside the Odeon. By coincidence, he had already purchased the dog who starred in the film as his own pet 6 months earlier.

Later in his career, Bryan’s commitment to creating a memorable atmosphere extended to Leicester Square where he became a regular at Royal Film Premieres, “I did about 18.” He was responsible for lining up the stars of the film so they could be introduced one by one to the Queen. “All these big names, Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stalone, Schwarzenegger, used to say, ‘What do I talk to the Queen about?’ and, I’d say ‘I’m afraid she doesn’t do conversation!’”

The Odeon Guildford closed its doors in 1996 and the building was sadly demolished in 2002 but, the magical atmosphere created by people like Bryan up and down the country is for most of us, one of the reasons we fell in love with film in the first place. “I’m very humbled as it’s a lovely feeling to think that people enjoyed their visits. [They] say ‘oh it must be sad it has all gone’, but no because it happened. I do have dreams every week about the Odeon though, so it hasn’t left me."

This story was originally published in Film Stories Magazine.