 The founder of the Odeon cinema circuit, Oscar Deutsch was the Birmingham-born son of a Hungarian emigrant who had prospered in scrap metal. He entered the film industry in the 1920s with school friends Michael Balcon and Victor Saville, who went into production, while Deutsch became a prominent exhibitor, at first shrewdly capitalising on the value of cinemas to provincial businessmen.
By 1933, he had 26 cinemas, called Odeons, alleged to be an acronym for 'Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation', and by 1937 there were 250, with the Leicester Square Odeon opened as the flagship. The Odeons were famously stylish and comfortable, catering to the increased middle-class respectability of the cinema, and bringing the idea of the 'picture palace' to Britain. Unlike the other two big circuits, ABC and Gaumont-British, Odeon was not affiliated with production.
When Deutsch died of cancer, his accountant, John Davis, became joint, then sole, managing director. Deutsch's widow sold out to J.Arthur Rank, thus helping cement his pre-eminent position in the British film industry.
Brian McFarlane, Encyclopaedia of British Cinema
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