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Odeon Cinema - Flat Street


flyingpig

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I'm sure they did Dave.......and I think they showed it on that Plain, down in Spain too !lol

Was it raining at the time? lol

There must have been some fantastic songs in that musical if we can quote the lyrics practically word for word after all these years.

Then again, as S24 has just said, there can hardly be a household in Britain that didn't have that soundtrack album.

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Sorry I pinched your next posting Ab...... we went to see "My Fair Lady" at the first opportunity - Sunday, 10th October,1965. After all, we had been waiting eight years to see it.

The original Broadway cast LP had been played many times in our house since the show opened in 1956. Indeed, I don't think there were many households in the Western World that didn't have a copy of that album!

We weren't disappointed. Loved the film then, and still do.

I don't think I shall be bothering with the projected remake...do you?

I was lucky enough to see Julie Andrews in the late 80's. This was at the Royal Festival Hall, where she did a Christmas concert with Andre Previn and the LSO.

They did most of the stuff from their RCA Christmas album and it was magical.

She still had her voice then, and was in great form.

To me "My Fair Lady" was an excellent film with an absolutely fantastic set of songs in it but was spoilt by a very sudden and inconclusive ending.

I'm suprised that they would try to remake it these days as Professor Higgins (Rex Harrison) as well as being a pompous old snob was also the most sexist character I have seen portrayed in film.

"Why can't a woman be more like a man?"

What an attitude :o

..and who want a woman to be more like a man when the woman in question was the absolutely gorgeous Audrey Hepburn! B)

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To me "My Fair Lady" was an excellent film with an absolutely fantastic set of songs in it but was spoilt by a very sudden and inconclusive ending.

I'm suprised that they would try to remake it these days as Professor Higgins (Rex Harrison) as well as being a pompous old snob was also the most sexist character I have seen portrayed in film.

"Why can't a woman be more like a man?"

What an attitude :o

..and who want a woman to be more like a man when the woman in question was the absolutely gorgeous Audrey Hepburn! B)

Well Dave !......I think the ending of "My Fair Lady" is not inconclusive........just as Shaw's original ("Pygmalion") is not.

The audience can think what they like, and make up their own ending, just as they see fit. If they think that Eliza and Higgins are going to live happilly ever after....fine.

If (like Shaw), they realise that this can never be, because of the social mores of the time, and Higgins' being so happy with his lot.....fine.

"Pygmalion" ends with the scene at Higgins' mother's house, where Eliza walks out on him saying: "Goodbye Professor Higgins, I shall nor be seeing you again".

Higgins is left alone, chuckling and telling himself that she will be back.....not for a romantic purpose, but, just to continue the game they have been playing......which would suit Higgins perfectly.

After all....he's grown accustomed to her face!

Shaw later wrote an epilogue to his play, in which Eliza actually marries Freddy......who is basically nice, but an upper class twit! They open a flower shop, but it does not do well, and Eliza finally determines to set herself up as a teacher of phonetics, much to Higgins' dismay.

Again, you can work out for yourself how they all end up.

I always rather liked old Higgins. I guess because there is a lot of him in me. He can't be doing with the PC brigade, He does like women - to an extent, but the total lack of logic drives him to distraction!

Like Higgins, i'm a man ...."Who prefers to spend the eveings in the silence of his room. Who likes an atmosphere as restful as an undiscovered tomb"

BUT...."let a woman in your life............. !!!"....

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Well Dave !......I think the ending of "My Fair Lady" is not inconclusive........just as Shaw's original ("Pygmalion") is not.

The audience can think what they like, and make up their own ending, just as they see fit. If they think that Eliza and Higgins are going to live happilly ever after....fine.

If (like Shaw), they realise that this can never be, because of the social mores of the time, and Higgins' being so happy with his lot.....fine.

"Pygmalion" ends with the scene at Higgins' mother's house, where Eliza walks out on him saying: "Goodbye Professor Higgins, I shall nor be seeing you again".

Higgins is left alone, chuckling and telling himself that she will be back.....not for a romantic purpose, but, just to continue the game they have been playing......which would suit Higgins perfectly.

After all....he's grown accustomed to her face!

Shaw later wrote an epilogue to his play, in which Eliza actually marries Freddy......who is basically nice, but an upper class twit! They open a flower shop, but it does not do well, and Eliza finally determines to set herself up as a teacher of phonetics, much to Higgins' dismay.

Again, you can work out for yourself how they all end up.

I always rather liked old Higgins. I guess because there is a lot of him in me. He can't be doing with the PC brigade, He does like women - to an extent, but the total lack of logic drives him to distraction!

Like Higgins, i'm a man ...."Who prefers to spend the eveings in the silence of his room. Who likes an atmosphere as restful as an undiscovered tomb"

BUT...."let a woman in your life............. !!!"....

Point taken,

But I see that like me, even after years of not seeing the film you can quote whole sections of it (particularly lyrics from the songs)

Doesn't that just show how powerfully memorable these films are.

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Point taken,

But I see that like me, even after years of not seeing the film you can quote whole sections of it (particularly lyrics from the songs)

Doesn't that just show how powerfully memorable these films are.

It does indeed Dave.

I guess "My Fair Lady" has the best book of any musical, because Alan Jay Lerner did such a good job of keeping much of Shaw's dialogue from the original, and yet actually managed to improve it by the addition of those memorable lyrics.........and, of course, not forgetting Fritz Lowe's beautiful music.

He did such a good job in fact that - when you watch "Pygmalion" today, all the song cues are there, but no one sings.

It's most frustrating !

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It does indeed Dave.

I guess "My Fair Lady" has the best book of any musical, because Alan Jay Lerner did such a good job of keeping much of Shaw's dialogue from the original, and yet actually managed to improve it by the addition of those memorable lyrics.........and, of course, not forgetting Fritz Lowe's beautiful music.

He did such a good job in fact that - when you watch "Pygmalion" today, all the song cues are there, but no one sings.

It's most frustrating !

So,

Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?

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Guest funkydory

Here's a display from my "My Fair Lady" memorabilia collection. I can turn some of the pages if requested by forumers at a later date of the official brochure (top right hand corner) and make a further posting if others are interested to show how advertisements over the past four decades have tried to keep up with contemporary designs printing.

I did have the soundtrack album and a pink 30" x 40" street poster at one stage (but they went with a previous sweetheart :( )

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I did have the soundtrack album and a pink 30" x 40" street poster at one stage (but they went with a previous sweetheart :( )

That wouldn't have been Eliza Doolittle would it Professor Higgins? lol

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I remember as a child that when we went down the steps from Fitzalan Square on the right there was the steel framework of an unfinished building. I was told that it was to have been a cinema where building work had stopped in 1939 due to the war. Later on, I don't know the date, the bulding was completed using the 1939 steelwork as the Odeon Cinema.

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Here are 3 images from Britain From Above in date order (1928. 1937 and 1952) showing progress of the Odeon site.

2041661806_Odeon1928.png.77429e504687b2ebc51074e2dfb76732.png

 

967807139_Odeon1937.png.78bc616520d16637b7aac2a7ca72758b.png

1696883374_Odeon1952.png.3752335cabcb63a5d56ee94e32ff09a4.png

 

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On 22/03/2007 at 12:24, Sheffield History said:

I love pictures like this - they tell us so much

Look at the road sign to Newark too !

Fancy being signposted for Newark at that particular part of Sheffield City Centre..

It may seem strange to have a signpost to Newark, but at that time a vehicle would go to Newark to pick up the A1 to London as the M1 had not been built north of Rugby.

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The proposed Odeon sounds a wonderful construction, with its "fin-like tower" and neon tubes.  The Sheffield Archives has all the plans from 1937/38 at reference X616.

972078637_Odeon1939.thumb.png.0f06629209391398766ef312c9ced093.png

1637710355_Odeon1939_2.png.65245d948d3311c707709b3100a16614.png

During the war supplies and labour for cinema construction never materialised... Presumably the design was similar to the Odeon in Burnley:

1855116322_Odeon1937Burnley.png.8b485b9d40445e5fb3de891f925d56f7.png

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