Lights out for Odeon, after a good run

After that story of Cameo last week, it was brought to my attention that there is one more transformation that has happened to another cinema hall — this time on plot 209/400, Tom Mboya Street.

This is the sad demise of Odeon Cinema structure as we knew it and it is important that we say farewell to this cinema hall — and in a nice way.

Built in early 1950s Odeon, the cinema business, has had a slow death and it appears that even its 1990s transformation into a church hall did not pay off for its owners.

It looks like all the cinema halls of yesteryears in Nairobi are following a similar path: They first turn into religious enterprises, before they progress to either shops or offices. But that is the nature of business.

Cameo, Shan Cinema (Ngara), and Embassy (next to Odeon) became churches before they were taken over by other businesses. (And there was ABC cinema near Kamukunji Police Station)

Shan Cinema, once a bastion of Indian movies, is today known as the Dome and is home to Sarakasi Trust, an arts and culture enterprise.

To digress a bit, it was at Shan where Evangelist Evans Mrima started one of the first evangelical churches in Nairobi, Outreach Gospel — and when he died in 1989, his followers kept waiting for him to resurrect. He had just purchased the building.

Globe Cinema is still a church more than 30 years after it was banned from screening Hollywood movies for violating copyright.

And finally, Odeon Cinema has been transformed into an education hub with Kenya Aviation College opening up its Nairobi campus there .Many in the Generation Y did not find Odeon screening any movies —and with the neon sign of Odeon long gone, many would actually wonder why that place is known by that name.

But those in my generation will remember that we watched Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies there in the dying days of Odeon before Pastor Pius Muiru moved in and replaced us.

Odeon has an interesting story. After it was built, it was hired by Mr Dahyabhal K Patel who got the franchise to become the flagship of Odeon Cinema’s in eastern Africa.

Odeon Cinemas was a large chain and its entry into Nairobi was an indicator that there was faith in the colony then. But before Odeon picked up as a business, the Mau Mau war broke out and the colonial elite who had been targeted started having doubts about their stay in Kenya.

Although Odeon managed to open a cinema hall in Nakuru town, the bastion of settlers and capital of the Happy Valley, Mr Patel suffered economic havoc and after a struggle to build a cinema clientele by taking advantage of the Indian populace in Nairobi, he was outwitted by its next door neighbour Embassy Cinema, Ngara’s Shan Cinema, Parkland’s Liberty, River Road’s Casino Cinema, Globe Cinema and to an extent Kamukunji’s ABC.

In 1959, Mr Patel managed to sell his franchise to Indian Film Combine Ltd —only that he did not disclose some of the liabilities he had at Odeon, Nairobi. He however retained the Nakuru business which was ran under a new company, Odeon Theatres Ltd.

A Kenya Gazette notice number 384 of 1959 contains a notice under Fraudulent Transfer of Business Ordinance in which Indian Film Combine declared that it was not taking over liabilities incurred by Mr Patel.