1938-12-15 — Page 9

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Thursday

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

December 15, 1938.

"O.D." Owns 300 Cinemas-Goes To The Ask him what he'd like from

Pictures"For A Little Relaxation"

"Good Wife" Aids Him In £30,000,000 Deal

BIRMINGHAM. ******

Covering a wall in the office of quiet, mild little Oscar Deutsch, cinema magnate, is a map of Britain studded with illuminated green bulbs.

Each bulb represents an Odeon cinema. They show how, in six years, their owner has risen from a metal merchants' yard to negotiate, this week, a £30,000,000 deal that will make him Britain's Cinema King.

He already owns 300 cinemos. If he brings off a deal now pending with Gaumont-British he will control 600 more. And 600 bulbs are waiting to add to the cluster on the map.

Bald-headed, 44-year-old Mr. Deutsch is known to his 15,000 employees, as "O. D." There is magic in those initials.

From them he coined the name "Odeon," a name that shines in neon lights in almost every town in the land.

He recently told the amazing story of how he has come to lend the cinema Industry in six short i yeorn,

ຄາເ

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he took ;រ 15 young Bendensle interest in the cinema. 1 Was In 1930 that he opened the first i Odeon at Perry Bar, Birmingham.

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BY 1033 HE HAD 50 CINEMAS. ONE OF THEM WAS BUILT IN! VIRTUALLY AN OPEN FIELD. AND nus FRIENDS IN THE! CINEMA INDUSTRY JESTED ABOUT THE SITE. BUT PRE- SENTLY HOUSES SPRANG UF ROUND THIS ODEON ALMOST OVERNIGHT.

By 1137 ile Odeons numbered 200. To-day there are 360, valued at about £22,000,000,

HIS SECRET

"I've come to control 300 theatres." | said Mr. Deutsch in matter-of-fact | tones, but I haven't finished yet. I have £10,000,000 plan to butk sill more.

"HOW DID I DO IT? A GIFT OF CONCENTRATION. THAT HAS BEEN MY BECKET.

"I ат

still

concentrating," he laughed apologetically, "and every week another Odeon cinema opens."

He told how his chestnut-haired | wife is always at his elbow to help, m in the great decisions he bus to tanke.

"She is on my Board of Directors," he said, "and has been responsible for the decoration of all our lintls. No two of them are alike.

"She learned that when we were frat married. Bho designed the furnishings of our home twenty years ago. Her wonderful sense of colour and design has been evident In all our homes-and in all our

cinemas.

"A good wife is the greatest girl that a man cars have."

While he direels the organisation of his great circuit Mrs. Deutsch is travelling all over the country super- vising the decoration of cach new hal),

TELEVISION NEXT

But at week-ends they meet, and forget business in their large, com- fortable home at Edgbaston, neur

here.

Cinemas are never mentioned. Mr. Deutsch becomes the family man with his three children.

HE TOLD OF HIS AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE. "TELEVI- SION IS THE NEWEST FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT.” HE SAID. "I PLAN LATER TO HAVE FULLSIZE TELEVISION SCREENS IN EVERY ODEON CINEMA.

"My favourite relaxation?" he re- pented, and whispered

secret.

"I often work 18 hours a day, but in odd hours off i go to the pictures

for a little relaxation."

Mr. Deutsch travels continually be- tween London and Birmingham, at ways with a secretary at his elbow, His head office is still in Birming- ham, but lavish London offices were opened in Park-lane in 1934.

It is in Park-lane that the million-

a human dynamo,

Five secretaries hovir round to take his instructions; the telethones bring incessantly.

*UFS]

New homes in agirultural colonies in Libya. Hakan empien across the Mediterranean in Africa, wild be found by 20,000 Italians in 1,000 families, vanguard of millions. Italy plans to retrik diren eventually." Here is one of the Jungen abrit in teave Rome. Homes, stables and

vigatinga sed move areng Leen eardrueted for tisu.

Britain, governing Palestine through a mandate of the League of Nations, is attempting to stamp out acts of terrorism that have upset the Holy Land in frequent clashes between Jews and Arabs. Here, a member of the Royal West Kents brings in two bandits captured near Tul Karum. British have erected tarbed-wire inferminent camps..

300 CATS "INVADED" STUDIO

Two Men Said They

Were Ill-Treated

An allegation of cruelty to cats in the production of the film "Goldwyn Follies of 1938" was mentioned in a case recently before Mr. Justice Singleton in the King's Bench Division.

"which

denounces cruelty in the Goldwyn Follies film."

"That society," said Mr. G. D. Roberts, .c. (for the film com- ¡panies). "has been prominent, in the hands of MacMichael, in moking allegations against persobs who are connected with the circus trade, and has a long record of litigation.

Samuel Goldwyn, Incor-

"AeMichael and Coubrough have porated. and United Artists!

received notification in regard to this Corporation were granted an action, but they have refused to enter Injunction to restrain Edmund any appearance, although in corres- T. MacMichael, J. M. Coubrough, pondence they assert the truth of the and the Bancroft Press, Ht-gallons and express their inten-

[tion of repeating them." chin, Hertfordshire, from re- peating or publishing similar McMichael was in court, and a man libels to that which, it was alleged, was contained in a what he said was his reply to the pamphlet printed by Bancroft notice of motion. Press and distributed by Mae- Michael and Coubrough,

An order for damages was not nyked for as it was not likely to br of any avail.

"TO REPEAT THEM"

In the pamphlet MacMichael, and Coubrough were described, respec tively, is hon. director and hon. treasurer of the Performing and Captive Animals Defence League,

Safest Hands In The World

SHE HELD CHINA WORTH £3,000,000; NEVER A BREAK

The safest hands in the world. To whom do they belong? A statesman, a helmsman, or an en- gine driver, a surgeon, a dentist, or an artist, a wicket-keeper, or a goalkeeper?

No-they are reputed to belong to quiet humble Mrs. Louisa Allen, of Arvon-road, Highbury, Na white-haired war widow, aged about 60, who has the air and the bearing of a family re- tainer in a ducal house or of the old-fashioned "nannie.”

For the last 20 years, six days a week, she has earned a living

nire cinema king is seen at his best washing, scrubbing, and polishing the treasured porcelains, pot-

teries, and pieces of china passing through the hands of a great West End firm of antique dealers, Messrs. Rochelle Thomas, of Dog "Retrieves" Shark King-street, St. James's-street, S.W.

Queenscliff, Australia.

During that time she has averaged between 150 and 160 Even dogs have taken to shark pieces a day (a million pieces in the aggregate). And on the fishing here, A retriever jumped average each plece has been worth between £1 to £4. So she has from a pler here, caught a 5-foot cleansed about £3,000,000 worth of pottery, china, and porcelain. shark by the tall, and dragged it Ashore where fishermen shot It. She has not broken a single | and soft, but not weak or in-

piece during her 20 years; and she has only chipped three. Surely it is with justice that she claims to have the safest hands Jin the world.

CONTINENTAL

STURDY

and STRONG

CARLOWITE

CO.

4. Quoinh “KG. Tel. 31225.

THERE'S A THRILL

definite.

Her nails are manicured und perfectly shaped,, showing sym- metrical "moons," but they aro not long or tinted.

Louisa, as Mrs. Allen is known

Colonel Fulgencio Batisto, virtual dictator of Cuba, who was a recent guest of the Ameri- can Army in Washington.

Lens Shows Up Mars

Oakland, Cal. Alfred Leach, president of the East Bay Astronomical association, has built a telescope in his garage with a 9-inch Newtonion reflector that has permitted him to make observations of Mars that have convinced him the planet has life on i

Mr. Justice Singleton asked

from the back came forward with

Mr. Justice Singleton: 1 see you are tulled Captain MacMichael.

"I was a captain during the war in the 8th Devonshires," was the answer.

IN SAME REGIMENT

Mr. Roberts: evidence of that. I happened to be in the same regiment.

I can ve personal

Mr. G. D. Roberts, K.C., served from August 1914 to Avril 1910. In the Devonshire Regiment and on the Staff, He wus in France

four years.]

Ім д statement he read, Mac- Michael said he had tried, through the court, to prevent the exhibition of the film.

"We are prepared to fight Samuel Goldwyn at any time in this matter," he added.

[In "Goldwyn Follies of 1038" the Ritz Brothers sing a song about cats, ending with a film studio being In- vaded by 300 cats.)

FAMOUS PIANIST DIES

Leopold Godowsky, 08-year-old Russian composer and planist, who made his debut at the age of nine, has died in New York after an operation.

Godowsky was greatest of all pianists from the point of execution. Horowitz nowadays might excel him, or Rachmaninoff, but in his day te was more dazzling even than Paderewski or Pachmann.

He "transcribed" the Chopin studies, and some of the great ones could not play them, although they sounded simple enough when he was at the key-board.

Pachmann, the eccentric, said of him: "Godowsky is the king of: plonists-but I can play better,"

He could, but never as brilliantly.

AMERICAN WIFE

In 1909 the Emperor Franz Joseph made him head of the Imperial Royal Plano School in Vienna, but he spent the greater part of his life in New York, and married an American.

His Vienna contract specified 200 Thours a year of teaching, at £4 58.

an hour.

Classes were never to exceed 15,

among antique dealers and art con- WPA Nap Nearly Fatal and if he were absent from Vienno-

noisseurs, told me that the knack of handling china is hereditary.

Recently, she was one of the proudest women in London, for she has more than 350 china and porcc- "My brother was a china packer,"

by her

BUTTE, Mont

even In America-the class had to go to him, expenses paid by the Government.

NO BOUQUETS

It was a pension past, and he start-

On a chilly morning or

evening he'll probably

bc nurturing fond

thoughts about a nice

muffler, (from $7,50).

Mackintosh's

Nere's Luch!

EWO

BEER

We try to make it easy

for you to buy your

CHRISTMAS Gifts

FOR SMOKERS

WE HAVE A WIDE SELECTION OF CIGARS, CIGARETTES AND SMOKERS' REQUISITES

IT IS CERTAIN that SMOKERS WILL APPRECIATE

SMOKING GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS

OBTAINABLE AT

SHUI HING

CO

DEPARTMENT STORE

187-195 Des Voeux Road Central

Fireworks Trap Smuggler

MURRAYVILLE, B. C.

inin figures on view in the Antique she said. "My father was foreman Sneaking a sleep on a WPA pro- Dealers Fair at Grosvenor House. at Christie's, and my married Ject can entail even greater dangers. Each plece has been carefully and daughter is very domestiented too, than merely getting discharged. A lovingly washed

expert I think 'safe hands' must be in the local worker slipped under a ware-led with ten years nominally to his Thomas F. Alex, barber, was fined Hands.

family.

house platform to take his nap and credit. "There's a thrill in washing up was sleeping soundly when a truck display pieces. I remember wash- drove onto the platform. The sup- when a bouquet was passed up to the United Stakes. Officers at a border He disdainer planists' hair and $50, for smuggling fireworks from the ing the famous 'Dresden Music port gave way, and the truck settled platform after | Teacher,'

which was, valued at on the ground only a foot from the recitals he spurned it.

one of his London custom house found 893 small pack £2,000."

| sleeper's head.

nges of Arecrackers concealed in chis "I'm not a ballet dancer," he said.nr.

What are her hands like?

Her handshake is a gentle enress, neither clinging nor curt.

It is precise but kind.

Her fingers are long, artistic,

Fached to the brim q

By BREEN, BREIFINGE