Cinema Web: Agnew to Augusta

PRINCESS PAVILION/ EMPIRE, 126 York St, Albany

Empire Pictures began screening regularly at the Princess Pavilion in 1906, another venue which was also used as a skating rink. In 1911, West’s (managed in Perth by Thomas Coombe) announced their intention to build on this site the state’s first purpose-built cinema in a rural area – the Empire, Albany:

It is the intention of West’s Picture Co. to proceed to erect on the site a fine picture palace, with suitable refreshment stalls and winter garden for ladies at a cost of £5,000. The building will have a spacious dress circle, and, with the ground floor, will accommodate over 1,000 people. The construction will be on the latest American principle, having large windows all round which can be opened on hot nights… The whole of the materials, with the exception of the red leather tip-up chairs, will be bought in Albany. It is West’s intention to show every night in the summer and probably three nights a week in the winter. (Albany Advertiser 30 August 1911)

The Empire theatre was designed by Tom Anthoness and built by Ashman and Warner. It opened on 31 October 1912, in York St, next to the Empire Building on the north-east corner of the intersection of York St and Stirling Terrace, screening six nights a week (not on Wednesday) and a Saturday matinee for children, with three changes of programme each week. The first manager was Mr Merrick and from September 1913 it was F. Clarke-Cottrell, director of Empire Pictures in Perth. The first pianist was Mr Duncan. At some stage, possibly when the returned servicemen took over the Town Hall, King’s Pictures transferred here. In 1918, when the competition at the Town Hall was advertising that the business was run by ex-servicemen, the Empire proclaimed that they were ´the only theatre in Albany where the OPERATOR (Mr Frank McDonald) is a returned soldier’ (Albany Advertiser 28 December 1918).

H.E.Lambert bought the picture lease from King’s in 1919, and operated there as well as at the Town Hall in the early twenties. At that time, the theatre held 780 seats. But Lambert’s problems of insecurity of tenure at both venues convinced him to build the Regent, which opened in 1925. Soon after this, the owners of the Empire (Drew, Robinson and Co) leased the building to Harry Wiley, and at the end of his lease in October 1927 they announced plans to renovate the theatre. The renovations were designed by architect Harry Jefferis, built by Harry Wiley and the building was re-opened on 26 July 1928, leased to H. E. Folkard. The local community was proud of the result, and particularly grateful that it produced work for local people at the height of the depression:

The interior of the theatre has indeed taken on a new appearance. A greatly increased dress circle is a feature of the scheme. This is fitted with tip-up chairs, upholstered in leather, and the maximum of comfort is afforded patrons by their arrangement.
In like manner has the body of the theatre been treated, new seats of similar design replacing the old order. These are so ranged as to afford every person an uninterrupted view of the screenings.
The chairs are the products of the factory of Hearn Bros and Stead, of Victoria Park, Perth. It is thus noteworthy that they were made by white labor in our own State – a principle worthy of emulation in every direction possible.
Particularly restful and pleasing to the eye is the color scheme and decorative effect achieved, this being on a par with the latest work carried out in Perth and at other important centres. M.E.Rew has eclipsed all past efforts in this direction and both he and his co-worker (Mr Chopping) have indeed bestowed of their best in an artistic sense. The electric fittings, furnished and installed by Mr W.Johns, of Albany, give added beauty.
Mr H.E.Folkard, the lessee of the theatre, is now in possession of an entertainment house worthy to rank with those of much larger centres than Albany. (Albany Advertiser, 26 July 1928)

Soon after this renovation, Lambert won the lease back again and by the end of the decade was screening in all three venues (Regent, Empire and Town Hall), till in 1933 Drew Robinson leased the Empire picture rights to H.F.Kanzler, who retained them from then on.

During World War 2, the Empire was listed as having 400 seats, and after the war Kanzlers’ Albany theatres were managed by Ron Crisp. The cinema interests of H.F.Kanzler were taken over on his death by a public company known as Albany Pictures, which from 1954 ran the Empire, the Regent, and the Middleton Beach Hall, and later built the Orana and the Boronia drive-ins. When a third drive-in was opened in competition, Albany Pictures decided to rationalise – they did not renew the lease of the Empire when it expired in June 1965 and closed the cinema in October 1965. It was later used as a skating rink, a youth amusement centre, a live theatre, and most recently a nightclub.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Building plans and tender documents, dated December 1930 – held by Albany Historical Society
Post Office Directory , 1921, 1924-1949
Max Bell, Kino, no.13, September 1985, p.14
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.99, 109
Albany Advertiser, 26 October 1912, 30 October 1912, 2 November 1912, 28 December 1918, 26 July 1928, 1 October 1965
Everyone’s, 23 October 1929, pp.18-19
Film Weekly, 11 November 1965, p.3
Interviews (Colleen Pead): Ron Crisp (1986), Ron Woods (1986)
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Len Lambert (1997), Colin Langley (1997)
Photos: 2 1 exterior, approx 1900 (site of Princess Pavilion), b&w, Albany Public Library, Local History Collection
2 exterior, 1978, colour (Bill Turner)
4 exterior, 1985, colour (Robert Newton) exterior, Max Bell, sepia, 1980’s

 

REGENT, 134 York St, Albany

On 5 February 1925, H.E.Lambert opened the Regent Theatre in York St inside the former St Alban’s Buildings on the western side of York St, just south of the Frederick St intersection. One of the shops in the previous building was gutted to form the downstairs foyer. The large interior was designed to be as much as possible like the Prince of Wales in Perth, even to copying some of the plaster ornamentation. There were no local builders capable of this kind of work, so Mr H. J. Ives was brought up from Perth. In the planning stage, it was described like this:

The plans provide for a building of entirely modern lines, designed to give a seating capacity of 1070 persons. Of these the dress circle will seat 230 and the ground floor 840. The building is to be of brick, with cavity walls and concrete foundations. The main floor will measure 65ft. by 54ft. and seating, as in the dress circle also, will be arranged on the semi-circular plan; the whole of the chairs will be of the tip pattern, and those in the circle will be upholstered in brown plush. The maximum of space has also been allowed between rows, and as the wooden floors are graded patrons will enjoy every comfort and obtain uninterrupted views of the screenings. Two private boxes will flank the ends of the dress circle. These each have a capacity of eight persons. The confectionery establishment of the Strand Cafe will be transferred to other quarters in the building and the spacious shop utilised as a vestibule, with a double window ticket box in the centre. Entrance to the stalls will be through doors on each side of a marble stairway leading to the dress circle. A landing 17ft. in width will be fitted half-way up the stairway to serve as a lounge for circle patrons. The walls of this theatre have a height of 24ft. 6in. The ceilings will be of fibrous plaster, panelled with jarrah mouldings, modelled on the plans of the Prince of Wales Theatre in Perth. Indeed many features of that palatial house have been embodied. The interior walls will be panelled to a height of 3ft. 6in. and the floor of the vestibule tiled in black and white. Electric radiators will be empanelled in the walls, ensuring warmth in winter. A special feature has also been made of ventilation. Oscillating fans will be installed throughout, and specially constructed air pipes fitted. The operating box will be constructed of reinforced concrete and occupy a position under the circle stairway. The circle is fitted with a special exterior exit stairway, and double escape doors are also provided on the ground floor at the front and rear of the building. Designed essentially as a picture house, the theatre has nevertheless been fitted with a commodious stage, sufficiently large to allow of the presentation of modern vaudeville turns. (Albany Advertiser 3 September 1924)

On the opening night, it was described as ´a handsome and comfortable place of entertainment’, seating nearly 900 (Albany Advertiser 5 February 1925). Australtone sound equipment was installed in December 1929. Lambert operated this venue till he sold the business to the Kanzler brothers in 1935, shortly before Lambert’s death in 1936. During the war, the Regent was operating seven nights each week, with 760 seats, and after the war the Kanzlers bought the building outright.

The cinema interests of H.F.Kanzler were taken over on his death by a public company known as Albany Pictures, with Joel Moss as first managing director. From 1954 the company ran the Empire, the Regent, and the Middleton Beach Hall and later built the Orana and the Boronia drive-ins. When a third drive-in was built in competition with all these, Albany Pictures decided to rationalise. They closed the Empire in October 1965, but remodelled the Regent, which re-opened on 22 July 1965 with a Gala Charity Film Preview of 55 Days at Peking:

The main entrance from York St has undergone major change. The central stairway to the dress circle has been removed, and so has the island ticket box.
A new ticket kiosk is placed against the north wall, and a new stairway has been (sic) on the southern side of the entrance lobby.
The new stairway of reinforced concrete, is built on the cantilever principle, with no support on the outer side.
A wooden grille, extending from floor to ceiling beside the stairs, gives the illusion of support, but the stairs are in fact tied solidly into the concrete wall with steel girders.
The walls of the entrance lobby are covered with plastic vinyl wall covering in willow shade, applied like wall paper. The end wall below and beyond the big mural, is covered with a similar material in hibiscus shade.
The wall coverings contrast pleasingly with the ceiling, which has been painted in Burmese gold. The floor is covered with vinyl tiles.
Access from the street is through full length metal and glass swinging doors.
Instead of leading directly into the dress circle, the stairs from the lobby now give access to a pleasant upstairs foyer. It and the stairs are carpeted with red bycroft carpet laid over a sponge rubber base.
Comfortable easy chairs upholstered in green make the foyer a comfortable place to relax during intermissions. Wall heaters make the foyer cosy in colder weather. A small snack bar has been created off the foyer. (Albany Advertiser 23 July 1965)

The mural referred to above was a huge series of Rigby cartoons which stretched across the full width of the wall of the entrance lobby, over the stalls entrance, and depicted the history of Albany from the founding settlement to the present. The theatre was favourably compared with city theatres, but Albany Pictures found that they were now barely holding their own, running the Regent and two drive-ins, and in 1967 made a loss for the first time in thirteen years. They closed the Boronia Drive-in in February 1968 and came back into profit, but the Regent was also closed, and demolished in September 1969. In the nineties, a red brick building occupies the site, containing in 1997 a boutique and a TAB office.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1966/7
Post Office Directory 1926-1949
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.99, 120
Donald S. Garden, Albany: a panorama of the sound from 1827 , Nelson, 1977 p.311
Albany Advertiser 3 September 1924, 5 February 1925, 3 September 1925, 21 October 1925, 23 July 1965
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Len Lambert (1997)
Photos: 1 interior (auditorium), b&w, 1936 (source not known, photocopy held by Len Lambert) interior (foyer), b&w, 1938, Albany Advertiser 28 November 1938 (inside front cover) ,1 exterior (demolition), b&w, 8 Sept. 1969, held by Albany Historical Society

 

TOWN HALL York St, Albany

The splendid Albany Town Hall was opened on 1 June 1888, in York St, on the north-west corner of the intersection with Grey St. Despite its distance from Perth, Albany was well-served with visiting shows in the early years, probably because it was on the coastal steamer route, so touring companies could break their journey on the way to Fremantle, and the Town Hall was the obvious place for such performances.

These touring companies included some featuring film screenings, and in fact the first such screening in Albany was presented here by illusionist Carl Hertz, fresh from a triumphant tour of the eastern states in which he had presented the very first commercial film screenings in Australia. His Albany screening, on 14 August 1897, was reported to have been a great success:

The piece de resistance of the evening – the Cinematographe – was then exhibited; A large number of views were shown, including, “Persimmon winning the Derby”, “Entrance to Hyde Park”, “The Widow’s Kiss”, “Bathing at Brighton”, “The Serpentine Dance”, “A Bad Night”, “The Haunted Castle”, and a number of others. Many views had to be repeated and several were shown in colors. These presented a beautiful appearance, the colors being perfect. In this class the best view was “The Serpentine Dance”, where the various changes of the limelights were given as if real. (Albany Advertiser, 17 August 1897)

The American Cinematographe Co screened at the Town Hall, on 14 and 15 September 1897, and Hertz returned for one night on 7 October. In June 1898, the Salvation Army presented a show that was composed of hymn singing to lantern slides, and kinematographs that flickered so badly that the reviewer considered all the characters seemed to be “afflicted with Saint Vitus dance” (Albany Advertiser 23 June 1898): by the time the Army revisited the town in February 1904 the problem of flicker had been completely solved ( Albany Advertiser 17 February 1904). Other companies to visit Albany and to screen at the Town Hall included the Payne family (1900), Heller’s Mahatma Co (1900 1901, and 1906), the Royal Bioscope Entertainment Co (1900), Barker’s Grand Animatograph (1904), Stevenson’s Royal Biograph (1904, 1905 and 1906), Spencer’s American Theatrescope (1906), World Bio-Tableau (1906), Milner’s Pictures (1906), Bartlett’s Biograph and Blind Entertainers (1906), and the Corricks (1907 and 1909).

By now, a quite sophisticated and complex entertainment was being offered by these showmen:

Subjects and all phases of life are illustrated by means of the biograph, and as the pictures are exhibited Mr Stevenson gives a running commentary of the ground passed over. On Wednesday, for instance, “London, by day and night” was depicted in a marvellous collection of still and animated photographs, among which some of the night scenes were especially impressive, including as they did the Thames Embankment, the Hotel Cecil, Leicester and Trafalgar Squares, and the exteriors of the Empire and Alhambra music halls. More wonderful still were the exhibitions of stage productions within these two of the world’s best variety theatres. Whole performances were depicted and individual acts shown. The entertainment was relieved at intervals by appropriate songs from Miss Ettie Reid. On Thursday an hour was occupied with the bioscope production of scenes from “East Lynne”, and the lucid explanations of Mr Stevenson enabled even those unacquainted with the novel to follow the fortunes of Lady Isabel. Miss Reid here again contributed to the general effect by singing with great sweetness some pathetic songs. The second half of the entertainment contained quite a long list of startling novelties. One of the prettiest was Miss Reid’s rendering of “If all the Stars were Mine”, illustrated with a charming biograph picture. But probably the greatest draw of the evening was the introduction of a long series of Russo Japanese war films, which were both very interesting and exciting. During the last war scene Miss Reid sang with delightful effect “Blue Bell.” The closing scene, “The husband’s return from the club at 2 in the morning,” fairly brought the house down. Last night an entire change of programme was presented. (Albany Advertiser 31 December 1904)

The Taits brought The Kelly Gang, complete with searchlight, in July 1907, and Robbery under Arms in January 1908. In 1908, the British and American Biograph visited in February, and the Musical All-Blacks and Page’s Supreme Pictures in March. These occasional screenings continued, even after regular screenings began.

The first such regular screenings were conducted on Saturdays by King’s Pictures from 1906, and on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 29 November 1909 for more than four years. The films were advertised to be the same as those presented by Cozens Spencer at the Theatre Royal in Perth, and Otto Berliner, principal of Albany Grammar School, was the piano accompanist. In August 1911 West’s Pictures advertised screenings every Thursday, while they waited for their own Empire theatre to open in October 1912.

In 1913, the Town Hall was repainted throughout, and a gallery and two external escape staircases added. The gallery was constructed in jarrah inlaid with sandalwood, and provided with raked rows of shield-back opera chairs upholstered in maroon velvet. The official opening took place on Saturday 18 January 1913, with a screening of Queen Bess by King’s Pictures. In 1913 also, the Council passed a by-law imposing a fine of £2 on ladies whose hatpins were not covered or guarded. In 1918 part of the tower was converted to a bio-box, and the business was being run by a consortium of returned soldiers, in fierce competition by 1921 with H.E.Lambert at the Empire.

This competition convinced Lambert that he needed to have the picture lease at the Town Hall as well, so in 1922 he took on the Town Hall lease as well as the Empire. It was the loss of the Town Hall lease in 1923 that convinced Lambert to build the Regent to have security of tenure in his own premises, but then he won the Town Hall lease back again and for some years at the end of the twenties was screening in all three venues (the Town Hall, the Empire, and the Regent). However, he decided that it would not be economical to install sound equipment at the Town Hall, so his screenings ended there at the end of the silent era.

No further regular screenings were conducted in the Town Hall until Ron Siemiginowski closed the Downtown Cinemas in November 1987 and opened in the Town Hall as Cinema One on 7 January 1988, with Travelling North. By this time, the hall was a very difficult venue: new sound wiring could not be installed because it was a heritage building; it was very expensive to run because of rental costs per session and limitations such as the requirement to employ contract cleaners; a complicated projection set-up was necessary because of the lack of a built-in bio-box. Also films could only be run on nights when the hall was not booked for other things, which meant that films were screened on less than half the Saturday nights, and an average of only 4.5 screenings per week, during the time the company screened there. The Town Hall ceased to be used for film screening from March 1993, when the company opened its new Albany Twin, on the site of the former Orana Drive-in.

Sources: The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.61
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.99
Donald S.Garden, Albany: a panorama of the sound from 1827, Nelson, 1977 p.273
Les Johnson, Heart of a town, no publisher listed.
Albany Advertiser 17 August 1897, 31 December 1904, 8 May 1912, 22 January 1913, 4 June 1913, 28 December 1918
Alluring Albany, W.F.Forsters 1912
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours
Everyone’s, 9 May 1928, p.34
Informant: Ron Siemiginowski (Albany, September 1997)
Photos: 1 exterior, Duke of Windsor’s visit 1920, b&w, Albany Public Library Local History Collection
1 exterior, n.d., b&W, Albany Public Library Local history Collection
1 exterior, b&w, 1912, Alluring Albany, W.F.Forsters 1912
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
3 exteriors, b&w, various dates, Les Johnson, Heart of a town, no publisher listed.
1 exterior, b&w, n.d., The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.61

 

APPLECROSS

APPLECROSS HALL, Canning Bridge, Applecross

The Applecross Hall, holding 300 patrons, was officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor (Sir James Mitchell) on 15 September 1934. It cost £3,750, was of modern construction and was intended from the start as a venue for pictures, so provision was made for a bio-box and amplification. Bart Mott’s Star Entertainments was screening here in 1940/41, regular screenings are listed in the Film Weekly Directory from 1945, till at least 1958 (after the Teneriffe Gardens opened), and possibly till 1961 in conjunction with the Teneriffe Gardens. In the fifties, one operator in this hall was Mrs McKenzie (whose first husband was James Stiles, who had owned the Gaiety, Hurlingham and Como Theatres).

Sources: Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 Jack Honnibal, “The cinemas of South Perth”, typescript, held in South Perth Heritage House
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41, 1945/6 – 1960/1
Film Weekly 20 September 1923, p.38
Photos: 1 colour, 1981, interior (Bill Turner) ,1 colour, 1981, exterior (Bill Turner)

 

TENERIFFE GARDENS, Applecross.

This open air picture theatre, not a real ‘gardens’, opened in 1954 and closed around 1960.

Sources: West Australian 1954-1960

 

ARMADALE

ARMADALE CINEMA, Armadale

In 1996 Max Bell reported an ´open air cinema now screening regularly’… In 2002 Tony Paulsen reports that it is no longer operating.

Sources: Kino no.56, June 1996, p.31
Informant: Tony C. Paulsen (2002)

 

ARMADALE/DALELINE DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Forrest Rd, Armadale

Arthur River Hall 1997

Augusta Town Hall 1986