A History of
ABC Shaftsbury Avenue
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This article first appeared in |
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| Written by: Mr. John Hughes and Mr. John Sharp. Images by: Thomas Hauerslev | Issue 55 - December 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 ABC
Shaftsbury Avenue screen 1+2 and the beautiful facade in July 1985.ABC Shaftsbury Avenue opened in December 1970, in the shell of the old Saville Theatre. It was hailed as The Ultimate Cinema Of The 70's. Situated at the top end of Shaftsbury Avenue, it has had a chequered life as a twin cinema. Changing its name (due to various takeovers) to the Cannon, then MGM, before reverting back to its original name ABC in 1996, it was the second twin cinema to open in the West-End after the converted Plaza (Piccadilly Circus), and just before the Warner (Leicester Square). |
Further in 70mm reading: 70mm in London 1958-2023 by John Sharp Visiting 70MM Cinemas of London's West End, September 1990 70mm at the Odeon Leicester Sq, London "Star Wars" Presented in Dimension 150 |
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 ABC
Shaftsbury Avenue screen1.Both screens are fully equipped to show 70mm, with Philips DP75 projectors. Screen 1 (616 seats) still has 2 projectors and a non-rewind [platters, ed.] system. Screen 2 (seats 581) has, alas, a single projector and non-rewind system. Both screens have the Dolby CP200 sound processors. It also has Dolby Digital and SDDS. |
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 Chief
Projectionist John Sharp working with the platters and the DP75sAt the time of writing this article [spring 1998], the future of this cinema is in doubt as the current owners ABC have put the site (along with several others) up for sale, which means that another 70mm West-End cinema could disappear. The cinema closed sometimes in 2000 and then re-opened as the Odeon Covent Garden Oct 19, 2003, ed. |
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70mm Presentations |
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Listed below is an itinerary of all films that have been presented in 70mm at this theatre. Media and Special shows are not included, only films that were screened to a paying audience:
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A
typical sticker
used on posters to promote 70mm presentations.