Oscar German

This article deals with the cinema operator Oscar Deutsch. On the Jewish functionary see Oskar Deutsch .

Oscar German (* 12. August 1893 in Birmingham , † 5. December 1941 in London ) was a British film entrepreneur , who in the 1930s with the Odeon - movie theaters into one of the most important theater owners advancement of the United Kingdom.

Odeon lettering of the London cinema "Odeon Leicester Square" at night (2007)

Life

Training and trip to film

Oscar Deutsch was born as the son of the wealthy scrap metal dealer Leopold Deutsch in the Birmingham district of Balsall Heath. His father was a native Hungarian Jew , his Jewish mother Leah Cohen immigrated to England from Poland . In 1904 Leopold Deutsch died in an accident and the business was continued by his brother Adolf Brenner under the name Deutsch and Brenner . German attended King Edward Grammar School in Birmingham before joining the family business.

In 1920, Deutsch left his family's company and instead founded the film company Victory Motion Pictures Ltd. with two former school friends, the later successful film producers Michael Balcon and Victor Saville . which acted as a film distributor for CM Woolfs and John Freedman's W&F Film Service in the Midlands . When Balcon and Saville went to London in 1923 , Deutsch co-financed their first film production, Weib gegen Weib , which marked the beginning of Alfred Hitchcock's film career.

Development of the Odeon cinema chain

Woman against woman remained Deutsch's only attempt to participate directly in a film production. Instead, he preferred to act as a film distributor and projectionist in Birmingham. In 1925 Oscar Deutsch took over the Crown Cinema in Coventry together with Reginald Noakes , which was soon followed by other acquisitions. In February 1928, Deutsch teamed up with a number of entrepreneurs to build a new cinema building in Brierley Hill, West Midlands . The Brierley Hill Picture House , a humble brick building with fewer than 1,000 seats, opened on October 1, 1928.

Deutsch planned another new building in his hometown of Birmingham. In order to set the new cinema apart from the local competition, the name “ Odeon ” was chosen for the building. The term was already a common name for film theater in other countries, but Deutschs Kino in the Perry Barr district of Birmingham was the first in England to bear this name. In the 1930s the name ODEON became a backronym that was equated with the advertising slogan "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation" .

The Odeon Leicester Square (2007)

In March 1931, Oscar Deutsch set up his cinemas in the Cinema Service Ltd. company . together. That same year he became chairman of the National Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association for the Midlands . In 1933, Deutsch finally named the company Odeon Cinemas . At that time, the number of its movie theaters had grown to 26, making it the eighth largest British cinema chain. Unlike his competitors, Deutsch had his Odeons built in the suburbs of British cities. Here he addressed the middle class with his magnificent buildings , whom he was able to win over as a new target group for film screenings. Previously, the cinema was mainly viewed as a cheap form of entertainment for the lower class.

Architecturally, the Odeons were based on classical modernism , and many cinemas were built in the Art Deco style. To the leading architects of Deutsch's cinema buildings was Harry Weedon , who at Erich Mendelsohn oriented work. The so-called “Odeon style” was characterized by closed blocks of houses with soaring towers and neon lights attached to the outside, which reproduced the outlines of the cinema even after nightfall. Weedon was also for the construction of the Odeon Leicester Square responsible, as the flagship of the Odeon cinema chain in the London 1937 West End was opened and remains one of the most important premiere cinemas in the UK.

Expansion and early death

Within a few years Oscar Deutsch rose to become the third largest cinema operator in the United Kingdom. In 1936 he owned 146 cinemas, and in 1937 a further 36 Odeons were added. In addition, Deutsch took over the county cinema chain and the Scottish singleton cinemas. At the beginning of the 1940s, there were already more than 300 movie theaters in the Odeon chain. The growth of the Odeon cinema chain was linked to the establishment of a new parent company, Odeon Theaters Ltd. , and with the entry of further donors into the company. In 1935, the US film company United Artists acquired shares in Odeon, which gave Deutsch the opportunity to show high-quality productions such as those by Alexander Korda . In 1938, the British film entrepreneur J. Arthur Rank joined the company. However, Oscar Deutsch continued to determine company policy. When he planned to take over the Paramount cinema chain before World War II , Odeon was on a par with the longer established chains of Gaumont and Associated British Cinemas (ABC Cinemas).

In 1918 Oscar Deutsch married Lily Tanchan. His wife advised him a. a. in the color design of the cinema interiors. The connection with Tanchan resulted in three sons, including the film producer David Deutsch (1926–1991). Oscar Deutsch lived alternately in London and Birmingham. In his hometown he was president of the Singers Hill Synagogue. Deutsch was considered a proponent of rearmament in the late 1930s and later helped evacuate Jews from National Socialist Germany together with Sir Michael Bruce .

German was ailing all his life, but this was kept from the public. He survived cancer surgery in the late 1920s and followed a strict diet from then on. In 1941, at the age of 48, he succumbed to the effects of cancer in a London clinic. He had previously suffered injuries from a bomb strike.

His widow sold the shares in Odeon Theaters to J. Arthur Rank and the Odeon cinemas became part of the Rank organization . After further changes of ownership and a merger with United Cinemas International in 2004, Odeon-UCI is now considered the largest European cinema chain.

literature

• Allen Eyles: Odeon Cinemas. 1: Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation . Cinema Theater Association, London 2002, ISBN 0-85170-813-7 .
• Brian McFarlane (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of British Film . 3 ^rd edition. Methuen, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-413-77660-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Oscar Deutsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography on BFI Screenonline (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Allen Eyles: Deutsch, Oscar (1893–1941) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed via oxforddnb.com).
2. ↑ Allen Eyles: Odeon Cinemas , p. 12.
3. ^ Roy Moseley: Evergreen. Victor Saville in His Own Words. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale 2000, ISBN 0-8093-2315-X , p. 22.
4. ↑ Jeffrey Richards: The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in Britain 1930-1939 . Routledge & Paul, London 1984, ISBN 0-7100-9764-6 , p. 37.
5. ↑ Allen Eyles: Odeon Cinemas , p. 19.
6. ^ Brian McFarlane (ed.): The Encyclopedia of British Film , p. 195.
7. ^ Rachael Low: The History of the British Film. Vol. VII: 1929-1939; Film making in 1930s Britain . Routledge, London 1997, ISBN 0-415-15451-0 , p. 14.
8. ^ ^{A b} Jeffrey Richards: The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in Britain 1930-1939 . Routledge & Paul, London 1984, ISBN 0-7100-9764-6 , p. 38.
9. ↑ Brad Beaven: Leisure, citizenship and working-class men in Britain, 1850-1945. Manchester University Press 2005, ISBN 0-7190-6027-3 , pp. 194-195.
10. ↑ Thom Gorst: The Buildings Around Us . Spon, London 1995, ISBN 0-419-19330-8 , pp. 93-95.
11. ↑ Marcus Binney: Palaces of Art Deco . In: The Times , April 29, 2002, p. 36.
12. ↑ The Monopolies Commission: The Rank Organization Limited and The De La Rue Company Limited ( Memento of the original of July 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , HC 335, 1968-69, p. 97.
13. ^ Sarah Street: British National Cinema . Routledge, London 1997, ISBN 0-415-06735-9 , p. 10.
14. ↑ John Trumpbour: Selling Hollywood to the World: US and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-521-65156-5 , p. 176.
15. ^ Stanley Price: Obituary: David Deutsch . In: The Independent , December 18, 1991, p. 23.
16. ^ Odeon-UCI acquires Irish cinemas .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Variety , May 31, 2011.