The Odeon Cinema was built in 1953 and located at the junction of North Bridge Road and Cashin Street. Set up as the flagship cinema of the Cathay Organisation, it was one of the most popular cinemas in Singapore until its demolition in 1984. It was also air-conditioned and equipped with state-of-the-art cinema technology: four Gaumont-Kalee “21” projectors that included Stereophonic Sound, VistaVision (a high-resolution wide-screen format created by Paramount Pictures in 1954) and Cinemascope (a kind of lens format that allowed for wide-screen projection, used from 1953 to 1967). On 15 February 1980, the Odeon became the first cinema in Singapore to use Dolby Sound for a screening of Zulu Dawn, an American adventure-war film. The Odeon building was later sold by Cathay to developers, and it was demolished in 1984. This flyer is from 1953, the year the Odeon was opened, and notably features multiple languages translating the synopsis of Niagara, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Marilyn Monroe.
