Search results for: “The Kill”

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AGNEW

AGNEW PICTURE GARDENS

Agnew Picture Gardens c 1938

Beryl Demasson remembers that before the war Alf Peterson screened at Agnew, in an open air venue beside the hotel. Once a week, cars would drive in and face the screen, with sound broadcast from loudspeakers. These screenings were being presented at least in 1938 and may have started as early as 1935, but they stopped when Alf enlisted. When he returned from the war in 1946, he tried to start up again, and is listed in the 1947 Post Office Directory and the 1948/9 Film Weekly as exhibitor at Agnew Gardens. But the venture was not so successful this time, and he moved on to Leonora and Laverton and other nearby townships.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41, 1948/9, Post Office Directory 1947
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Beryl Demasson (1999)
Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (1938?), Beryl Demasson

ALBANY

BORONIA DRIVE-IN ,Troode St, Albany

Boronia Gardens Albany 1988This drive-in was located on the western side of Troode St, Collingwood Park, opposite the intersection with Wright St. It was built by Albany Theatres to counter the third drive-in announced for Albany – the Central 70. It was operated by Phil Smith who also operated the Orana. Once the Boronia was opened in January 1964, screenings ceased in the Middleton Beach Hall. The last advertisement for the Boronia was on 22 March 1967, only three years after it opened.The site was purchased by the Christian Family Church, and in 1997 nothing was left of the drive-in.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1966/7
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes,Sussex, 1986, p.131
Albany Advertiser , 1964 – 1965
Daily News 7 February 1968
Interviews (Colleen Pead): Ron Crisp (1986), Ron Woods (1986)
Photos: exterior, 1988, Roy Mudge

CENTRAL 70 DRIVE-IN Barker Rd, Albany

Central 70 Albany 1988This drive-in opened on 26 December 1964, on the western side of Barker St, opposite the intersection with Stead Rd. It was called the Central 70 because it was the most centrally located of the three drive-ins in the town and the only one to have 70mm projection facilities. It was built for Albany Investments Pty Ltd, a local syndicate with R. W. Wood as secretary, Lindsay Day and Fred (or Syd?) Moore as directors, and Ron Crisp as manager of the cinema. Dorsets later bought out Day, Moore and Woods, and by 1981 Albany Investments was run by John Barnsby. It had provision for 480 cars and 180 seated patrons. In 1982 Orana Holdings took over the Central 70 lease, and ran it from 7 October 1982 to 10 February 1983, when the Siemiginowski family bought Orana Holdings, including the Central 70 lease, and immediately closed the Central 70. They held the lease for only a few weeks before the land was sold, and subdivided for an industrial estate. City Theatres bought the Central 70 equipment and Alan Crew installed it in the Beechline.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.132
Albany Advertiser, 1964 – 1965
Interviews (Colleen Pead): Ron Crisp (1986), Ron Woods (1986)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Crew (1997)
Informant: Ron Siemiginowski (1997)

CREMORNE GARDENS Stirling Tce, Albany

The Royal George Hotel was built on the north side of upper Stirling Terrace between York St and Spencer St. On 28 November 1896, the Cremorne Gardens opened behind the hotel, with Edward Reynolds registered as proprietor and W. B. Warner as lessee. The venue had been the yard of the hotel, and the local newspaper reporter was impressed with the transformation:

Entering under the archway from Stirling-terrace, visitors pass up a gravelled walk festooned with Chinese lanterns, illuminated with numerous gas-jets, and bordered with flower beds. Passing the entrance door, the full effect of the improvements is at once seen. In the background is a convenient stage, with scenery, wings, festoons of drapery, and flags. The side walls are cleverly painted by Mr H.Tassell, who has depicted mountains, lakes, thick bush and partial clearings, winding rivers and stately gullies, in a decidedly effective manner. The middle of the gardens has a fountain, whose falling waters give refreshing suggestions to eye and ear. In one corner stands a cleverly-arranged piece of rockery. Flower beds and borders have been filled with pot plants in bloom, including fragrant musk, gaudy phloxes, carnations, pansies, chrysanthemums, dahlias, lilies, ferns, and native plants. These in a short time will be thoroughly established, and even at present relieve the newly formed parterres from nakedness. Long branches of bright borganvillia (sic), pendant from fountain and vases, look decidedly handsome as floral decorations, and the full-leaved almond tree in one corner fits in with the new surroundings admirably, and supplies a welcome shade for occupants of rustic seats. The entire area has been turfed, and at necessary places neat gravelled walks bisect the lawn. [At night]… Fairy lamps, Chinese lanterns, and brilliant gas jets in fancy globes have, by Mr A. Reeve’s mechanical skill, been placed in advantageous places, and shed sufficient light for comfort and effect. (Albany Advertiser, 1 December 1896)

It was a live venue, with various entertainments available in the gardens setting, and a section for theatrical performances which was part-roofed in 1897 to allow the season to extend.On 11 January 1906 the Theatre Gardens re-opened after a long break, under the direction of Gerald Shaw. From February 1906, travelling film exhibitors screened there occasionally, for instance the Great American Vitascope Co from 10-17 February 1906, and the Ada Delroy Co with the London Bioscope in April that year. These screenings were conducted in competition with others at the Town Hall and the Princess Pavilion. The Cremorne Gardens was damaged by fire in 1910 and never returned to use as a motion picture venue.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.105
Donald S.Garden, Albany: a panorama of the sound from 1

DOWNTOWN CINEMA, 96 Stirling Tce, Albany

Albany Downtown Cinema 1981

On 9 January 1980, when the only remaining film venue in the town was the Orana drive-in, a new hardtop cinema appeared – the Downtown Cinema, built inside a shopping arcade in Stirling Tce (now Proudlove Ave) and with only 200 seats. By 1982 the lease was owned by Orana Holdings, and so was sold to the Siemiginowski family when they bought Orana Holdings. They operated the Downtown till November 1987, when they transferred to Cinema One in the Town Hall.In 1997, the building was Stirling Terrace Arcade, containing shops and a restaurant.

Sources: Informants: Ron Siemiginowski (1997), Ron Woods (1986)
Photos: 1 exterior, 1981, colour, Bill Turner
1 exterior, 1985, colour, Robert Newton

MIDDLETON BEACH TEA ROOMS, Middleton Beach, Albany

Edgar Green owned Greens Hall in the v formed by the intersection of Marine Drive and Adelaide Cres, Middleton Beach. In the fifties, 16mm films were screened in Greens Hall six nights a week by Ron Crisp, but screenings ceased when the Orana Drive-in was opened. In 1997, Greens Hall was used as the Beachside Restaurant.

Sources: Interviews (Colleen Pead): Ron Crisp (1986), Ron Woods (1986)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Len Lambert (1997)

ORANA DRIVE-IN Albany Hwy, Albany/ ALBANY TWO/ ALBANY THREE

Orana 1987

Golden Nugget Theatre 1980’s

Newspaper advert 1989

Pioneer World was a theme park, containing a street of buildings like those in a small township of the last century. On a prominent corner site within this complex was the Golden Nugget Theatre, opened officially on 10 April 1981. This is a two-storey, red brick building, with impressive copper doors, and seating 250 people.

The complex has had several owners, and been used in different ways. At one stage, in 1989, 16mm black and white films were regularly screened in the theatre: it is not clear when these screenings ceased, or who operated them. Dennis McKenna presented screenings there for some months. In 1990 Max Bell listed the venue as recently refurbished and now up for sale. In 1997 the theatre had been closed for some, and, though the park was still open, only some of the other premises were open for business.

Sources: Kino no.29, September 1989, p.23; no.31, March 1990, p.23
West Australian 1989
Informant: Chris Simmons (2002)
Newspaper cutting and photograph, AMMPT archives

MECHANICS INSTITUTE/ARMADALE HALL AND GARDENS, Jull St, Armadale

Armadale Hall c 1980

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ESPERANCE

BIJOU/ R.A.O.B. HALL ,Dempster St, Esperance

The Bijou Theatre was built in August 1896 (over a period of only 31 days) on the west side of Dempster St, near William St. It was officially opened on 5 September 1896. The Esperance Municipal Heritage Inventory describes it like this:

The size of the original building was 93ft x 32ft, height 22ft, auditorium 55ft x 32ft with stage 17ft x 30ft. The floor was pine. Two backdrop scenes were painted by H Gough, one of West Beach and the “Grace Darling” entering the harbour and the other scene of a drawing room. Patrons were seated on wooden stools and chairs. Illumination was by six large kerosene lamps.

The building had been owned originally by the Adelaide and Esperance Land Company and was managed for them by E.J.McCarthy. In 1947 it was purchased by the R.A.O.B.: in 1971 they sold it to Esperance Repertory and built the new grey brick meeting hall behind the Bijou.

The Bijou had a weatherboard facade, but was mainly built of corrugated iron over a timber frame. It was a multi-purpose community building, used occasionally for film screenings in the early days and more regularly (under various proprietors) from the thirties to the mid-sixties.

This was where ‘Ilham the Afghan’ conducted his occasional screenings of silent pictures in the twenties. He travelled with a horse-drawn caravan, carrying a portable power plant, just powerful enough to run the carbon arc but not to also run a projector. So he hand-cranked the projector – Philip Hancock suggests he was perhaps ‘an early candidate for R.S.I.’ (letter to Neville Mulgat). Because his visits were irregular, he needed to be able to let the town know when a screening was to take place: so he employed a custom common at the time, of a boy from the local school acting as ‘Town Crier’, walking round the streets ringing the bell and calling out the slogan for the films.

Cran Smither reminisces:

All preparations completed the single cylinder engine outside was cranked up and Mr Ilham brought the two carbon rods together and with a bright flash and sizzle an intense white light was made. The projector was hand turned all night by Mr Ilham at a very steady speed. By turning too fast the image on the screen was speeded up and if too slow the nitrate film was set on fire so Mr Ilham had a pair of scissors very handy to snip the film and therefore save the top reel from catching fire.

At this stage of film screening the projector was in the middle of the hall and the audience, so the use of scissors was the only safety device known. When the film was cut or a break occurred it had to be re-threaded through various cogs and gates and it was local custom for all the kids to count the break out: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, OUT!! as is done now on space launches. This custom was also applied to a love scene (kissing only those days). The kiss was counted down and OUT. So the silent flicks of our early lives were not always silent…

Round about Mr Ilham’s visit to Esperance the hunt for empty beer bottles became keen (half penny each), the bigger kids hunted rats because the local Road Board paid a bounty on ears and tail so the streets became neat and tidy, free of vermin with the resulting few pennies going towards “the flicks”.

In the thirties, Les Anderson moved from Boulder to Esperance and by 1940 he was the owner of the Bijou. He screened films only once a week in winter and kept his income up by opening the hall for roller skating, but in summer he screened to good houses three nights a week. He also operated the power station, which meant he had to rush off at interval every night to regulate the power supply, while his wife Molly was showing advertising slides. Anderson sold out to Jack Scholey in 1946, who operated the business as Esperance Talkies, till he too sold it in the late forties to E. McFetridge, who in turn sold in the early fifties to Mick Lalor. From the late fifties till it closed in the mid-sixties it was operated by Esperance Theatres. No-one can remember any outdoor screenings in conjunction with the Bijou – perhaps it was just too cold in Esperance?

Brian (Bunny) Dunn went to the Bijou in 1937, when his uncle Reddie McCudden was operator. At that time they had two projectors and screened on Saturday night only, with the projectors on the balcony and the screen on the stage. When Mick Lalor owned the projectors, people would book for the pictures at Lalor’s shop. Patrons would come down from Kalgoorlie to the Bijou at Christmas, and Lalor would pack them in on extra deckchairs – with the ever-present danger of canvas tearing or frames giving way! Deckchairs were used in the hall because they were simple to move in when a screening was on, or out when the hall was needed for something else (such as badminton). After Lalor opened his drive-in, regular film screenings at the Bijou ceased.

The slide projector and slides from the Bijou are currently housed in the Esperance Museum. The Municipal Heritage Inventory describes the theatre today like this:

Today the Bijou retains the original facade but it now has raked seating, consisting of 160 padded fold up seats. A rear balcony accommodates stage lighting and sound operations. A bar/kiosk has been built inside the small entrance foyer. Steps either side lead up to the auditorium.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Shire of Esperance, Draft Municipal Heritage Inventory, place no.3
Max Bell, ´Esperance Bijou’, Kino, no.29, September 1989, p.17
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex, 1986, p.101
R.C.Bridges, Footprints in the sand, self-published, n.d.
Informants: Brian (Bunny) Dunn (Esperance, 17 August 1997); Elaine Siemer (Esperance, 17 August 1997)
Letter, Philip Hancock to Neville Mulgat, November 1995
Letter, Peter & Cran Smither to Neville Mulgat, 23 January 1996
Notes of interview (Neville Mulgat): Molly Anderson (1996)
Phil Blake, http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/INTRO and bijou

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Shire of Esperance, Draft Municipal Heritage Inventory, place no.3
1 exterior, b&w, 1988, Kino, no.29, p.17 (Max Bell)
1 exterior, b&w, 1916, Battye 26711P (reproduced http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/bijou.htm)
1 interior, b&w, 1897, Esperance Museum (reproduced http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/bijou.htm)
1 exterior, colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)

1 exterior, Max Bell , 1980’s

CIVIC CENTRE, Council Place, Esperance

The large Civic Centre, including a hall, was built in Council Place, off Jane St, and opened in 1981. The Shire of Esperance brochure describes the venue in glowing terms: the setting among native plants and with ample parking space, the driveway with covered entry to the building, the auditorium with raked seating that can be converted to a flat surface by retracting the tiers on which the seats stand, the spacious stage with professional quality lighting and sound capacity, and the reception centre for smaller functions.

From 1981 it was occasionally booked by travelling film shows, using portable 16mm equipment. Then Christopher Baldwin and David Hayter initiated more regular commercial 35mm screenings there: with assistance from an experienced operator in Perth, they bought a second-hand 35mm projector and a screen. In 1995, David Hayter left the cinema, and Chris Baldwin brought in Phil Blake as weekend projectionist. Dolby Surround Sound wsa introduced in 1997, installed by Ron Tutt from Perth.

Because the venue was owned by the Shire, and no-one could have a monopoly on civic facilities, they were only able to book one month ahead, but occasionally, if they wished to book a blockbuster and the distributor required more than one month’s notice, that requirement was waived. In 1997, they did not screen every week – sometimes there were other events that booked the venue on a weekend. But when it was available, they screened on Friday and Saturday, 6 and 8 p.m. each day, with extra screenings (maybe 2 and 4 p.m. on Saturday) when they had a particularly popular film. They advertised in the Esperance Advertiser on a Thursday, and put up posters in the town.

Neville Mulgat in the Shire Office considered that the screenings were a boon to the town: they were popular with the young people, and rent to the Shire kept the Civic Centre viable, allowing it to make a profit in 1996. Popcorn made a mess, and the young patrons were sometimes very noisy, but that was a small price to pay for a valuable social activity. Regular screenings ceased in the Civic Centre when the new cinema complex opened in 2002.

Sources: Shire of Esperance, Draft Municipal Heritage Inventory, place no.8
Shire of Esperance, Esperance Civic Centre (brochure)
Max Bell, Kino no.21, September 1987, p.22
Phil Blake, http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/ESPERANCE.htm
Informant: Neville Mulgat (Esperance 1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Shire of Esperance, Draft Municipal Heritage Inventory, place no.8
exteriors and interiors, b&w, n.d., Shire of Esperance, Esperance Civic Centre (brochure)
1 exterior, 3 interiors, colour, n.d., http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/ESPERANCE.htm (Phil Blake)

ESPERANCE DRIVE-IN, Sinclair St, Esperance

Mick Lalor had had the land for a drive-in for some time but had not proceeded with the building. The locals began to lose faith that he would ever build, so they approached Perth businessman Alan Larkin. A syndicate was formed, including Larkin and Goldfields Pictures as well as several Esperance businessmen. The company began construction, but so did Mr Lalor, and his Pink Lake Drive-in was already open when the Esperance Drive-in opened at the end of January 1966 in Sinclair St, on the corner of Fisheries Rd. At first it had places for 355 cars on seven acres, but the site was ten acres, allowing room for later expansion. The locally-made screen was 70ft by 34ft, and a playground and planting campaign were planned. W. Churchill moved from Norseman as manager.

It closed in the early eighties, re-opened over the summer of 1985 for three nights a week, but closed again the following year, permanently this time.

The Esperance Museum now holds one of the Gaumont Kalee Model 21 projectors and the Carbon arc slide projector in use at the Esperance Drive-in from 1967 to 1986.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex ,1986, p.135
Max Bell, Kino, September 1985, no.13, p.14
Phil Blake, http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/ESPERANCE.htm
Esperance Advertiser, 28 January 1966, p.6
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985), Ron Elsegood (1985)

Photos: 3 exteriors, colour, n.d., http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/ESPERANCE.htm
(Phil Blake)

3 exterior ,sepia, Max Bell , 1980’s

FENWICK 3 CINEMAS, Esperance

Phil Blake describes how this 3-cinema complex was ‘built by a group of local residents along with two Victorian Cinema owners. The site on which the complex was built has historic importance being the site of the local legendary doctor John Fenwick who served the town for many years’. It opened 7 December 2002.

Sources: Phil Blake, http://westnet.com.au/dakota/PINKLAKE.htm
Kino, no.83, Autumn 2003, p.43

Photos: 1 exterior, 4 interiors, colour, http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/ESPERANCE.htm (Phil Blake)

HANCOCK’S HALL, Andrew St, Esperance

Philip Hancock reminisces:

My father Cecil ‘Pop’ Hancock operated a picture theatre in ‘Hancock’s Hall’, Andrew Street from about 1926, so far as I can recall…

The theatre was a reconstruction of a shed which had previously served as a garage cum barn which became a dance hall and picture theatre. In earlier times the front of this place bore sign-painted evidence of the diverse and multiple skills of one, George Hearne, later to become store owner, funeral conductor and story teller. As a lad I calculated he was some 4 to 500 years old and had travelled adventurously and extensively throughout the then known world…

The hall seating consisted of a number of bentwood plus other chairs from the early Esperance Hotel, later delicensed. The front seating consisted of forms made up from the original shed flooring. The planks were about 15cm. wide and the forms when made up were appx. 20 cm. wide and 2½ m. in length.

The projection room was an asbestos construction. The Arc-lamp illuminated projection machine was driven and powered by a five horse power, petrol fed, Gardner upright single cylinder engine, with a long-belt coupled generator. The engine was water-cooled. Neither the dynamo nor the engine were satisfactorily bedded, being mounted on relatively light timber frames restrained by bags of sand against excessive vibration. The floor of the area was packed sand. Engine start was achieved by pulling on the belt to turn the motor, a dirty and somewhat hazardous arrangement. Under these ´Heath-Robinson’ conditions with leaking fuel, flooded engine, loose timing rods, poor insulation and with ´Pop’ dropping lighted papers into the plug hole in vain endeavours, the re-starting of the power supply would outperform any pantomime one could imagine. Sometimes patrons attending a showing on Saturday night would be issued passes to return on Monday evening and eventually complete the film Tuesday.

The exit door near the front stalls enabled access to such toilet facilities which, for want of suitable description, hardly existed. This door also enabled the many frantic trips to keep the plant operating. Another useful purpose was to allow ingress of ´Pop’s’ many aboriginal acquaintances. The usual idea was for the door to be opened after lights out so that when lights came on the scene was a bit different from before. Fleas were not at all uncommon.

The films of course were silent, in black and white. They arrived by rail Friday night, were wound joined and spooled by the operator big brother, Cecil. After display films were repaired, rewound and railed out Wednesday nights. From memory the hire cost per programme totalled in the vicinity (in today’s currency) of four to ten dollars. Except for the Christmas and Easter holiday periods, return from patronage was about the same. Admittance was, including 2 cents tax, 15 cents. The only justification for the display, given by ´Pop’ was that it brought people up to the shopping area, and gave a bit of life to the town.

The projector was operated by big brother Cecil who stood by the open door. It was his part to join the arc-light and see the film did not jam, if it did he was obliged to protect the frame thru which the film passed to prevent the flammable material bursting into flame from the heat intensity. He also changed to big reels after each two part section was completed. My own job was situated underneath the machine winding the expired film onto matching big reels, then quickly placing the reel of film into the steel fire proof box provided. There was an obvious incentive in performing the requirements quickly and carefully, I was not nearly close enough to the door.

The musical accompaniment was provided by ´POP’ Cecil Hancock who was I am sure a gifted musician. He would faithfully follow the action or mood of the film throughout, excepting that portion immediately preceding interval, at which point sound would stop. The reason for this would become apparent when on interval, those thirsty patrons repairing to the nearby inn would find that jovial musician already breasting the bar. ´MUM’ Emily Hancock sat at the entrance door and was cashier.

The Esperance Echo (8 August 1929) carried an advertisement for The Talkies, one night only, with full supporting programme of silents, but gave no indication of who the exhibitor was or where the presentation would take place. The very favourable review the following week still did not provide these details, but both Philip Hancock and Cran Smithers remember it as being in Hancock’s Hall: Philip Hancock found the sound-on-disk synchronisation very inadequate!

‘Pop’ Hancock’s own screenings ceased after sound-on-film was successfully demonstrated in the town and it became obvious that he could not afford to acquire quality sound equipment. Hancock’s Hall became Mick Lalor’s hardware store in the fifties, but it was later demolished and in the nineties the BP Service Station stands on the site.

Sources: R.C.Bridges, Footprints in the sand, self-published, n.d.
Informant: Brian (Bunny) Dunn, Esperance, 17 August 1997
Letter, Philip Hancock to Neville Mulgat, November 1995
Letter, Peter & Cran Smither to Neville Mulgat, 23 January 1996

PINK LAKE DRIVE-IN, Freeman St, Esperance

The Pink Lake Drive-in, with a capacity of 300 cars, was opened in Freeman St, beside the High School, on 15 December 1965. It was built for Mick Lalor, who had operated out of the Bijou, and continued to operate both venues for some time. It had a 90ft x 42ft screen, and buildings of the latest design:

All three buildings at the drive-in – ticket box, concessional building, and projection room are of American design.

The projection building is 20 feet square. It is built with Ravensthorpe stone.

It has a low flat-topped roof which enables people immediately behind it to see over the top.

The projection building is 300 feet from the screen.

The concession building, built of cream bricks, is about 65 feet long by 25 feet wide.

It contains a cafeteria and office.

The ticket box, a 19 feet by eight feet brick building, is well off the road to avoid congestion of cars outside the drive-in. (Esperance Advertiser, 17 December 1965, p.15)

Trees and shrubs were planted to beautify the venue, and a children’s playground was also planned, but the site was never sealed.

Phil Blake began his cinema career there as an assistant projectionist in 1977. On his web-site he describes the effect of video on audiences: declining patronage led to a brief closure in 1983, re-opening under a consortium that was also operating the Twin City Drive-in in Kalgoorlie, then final closure in 1985, after it had been operating in the summer months only. By 1986 the venue had been sold and the land was used for a private house, with some of the buildings converted.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1964/5 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Kino, September 1985, no.13, p.14
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.139-140
Phil Blake, http://westnet.com.au/dakota/PINKLAKE.htm
Esperance Advertiser, 17 December 1965, p.15
West Australian 1985 – 1986
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)
Interview (Colleen Pead): R.Yelland (1986)

Photos: 4 exteriors, colour, http://members.westnet.com.au/dakota/ESPERANCE.htm (Phil Blake)

1 exterior, Max Bell 1985

newspaper clipping, Max Bell

EXMOUTH

DRIVE-IN, Murat Rd, Exmouth

Jack Valli remembers the start of the drive-in like this:

The then Civil Commissioner of Exmouth, Colonel J.P.K.Murdoch made a successful approach to Greater Union Theatres, and in late 1967 the Exmouth Drive-in Theatre opened for business in Murat road.

Colin Hatfield, who was running the small Panorama Drive-in at Roleystone in the late sixties, remembers that at that time television was starting to impact on drive-in audiences in the Perth suburban area. He says the town of Exmouth decided to investigate the possibility of a drive-in, and approached him for advice. He agreed to supply all the fittings and projection equipment, closed the Panorama in April 1967, transported the speakers and projection equipment to Exmouth and installed them on the prepared site. The screen was not ready, so the program he had brought with him could not be shown, and he returned to Perth.

Around Christmas 1967 Exmouth Shire Council approached Jim Woods with a request for his co-operation in the drive-in theatre venture. He agreed: the Council provided the venue and Woods provided the programming (coming up on the coastal ships from Perth, as they did to Derby, Carnarvon and Port Hedland). The venue was a combined gardens and drive-in, with provision for 104 cars, and 250 seated in the gardens. After television reduced the audience even here, Woods left (in around 1978-9) and the site was sold to a developer.

Jack Valli remembers the end of the drive-in like this:

As was the case around the nation, the Exmouth drive-in suffered a major blow when television came to the area, with the advent of the video striking a deathblow.
The property was sold to a developer in 1983.

For a while it was used as a storage yard for boats.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Public health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.135
Max Bell, Kino, no.15, March 1986, p.22
Jack Valli unpublished reminiscences
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Colin Hatfield (1997), Alan Larkin (1985), N.J.Woods (1985)

HALL/NAVAL BASE THEATRE, Exmouth

Around 1965, at the peak of construction of the US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape, the work force exceeded two thousand. In the absence of any community facilities in the nearby town of Exmouth, this isolated community had no opportunities for social gatherings except in their own homes. Jack Valli (in unpublished reminiscences) remembers it like this:

Two supervisors, Australian Jack Valli and US civilian Harrison Waite, enlisted the support of the Resident Officer in Charge of Construction, Commander R.E.Dunnells, C.E.C, U.S.N., to introduce movies to the area.
Permission was received from the US Naval Motion Picture Exchange in Hawaii to have films shipped to the base on the weekly Military Airlift Command plane which serviced the base from Honolulu. An unused navy warehouse became a temporary theatre, and for the first time in Australia, pre-release Hollywood movies were shown on a nightly basis to an invited audience.
A single Bell and Howell 35mm projector was used, and the audiences quickly became used to periodic intervals as the reels were changed. The audience supplied their own seating, which ranged from empty fuel drums to reclining chairs.
Due to animosity from hundreds of uninvited workers, the management of second prime contractors Koppers-Clough made arrangements to provide their own theatre. Mr Jack Poon, principal of the catering contractors Poon Bros. set up a second theatre in the outdoor area adjacent to the camp, and movies were shown at both locations until the base was commissioned on 16th September 1967.
The N.M.P.X. movies were then taken over for use at the base theatre and entry was restricted to US citizens, to the chagrin of other nationalities. The then Civil Commissioner of Exmouth, Colonel J.P.K.Murdoch made a successful approach to Greater Union Theatres, and in late 1967 the Exmouth Drive-in Theatre opened for business in Murat road.
The commercial enterprise enjoyed considerable success over the years, with the “House Full” sign being a common sight. For several years the youth of Exmouth were also catered for due to the enterprise of the local Catholic priest Fr. Noel Tobin. His Saturday afternoon matinees at the Exmouth community hall were welcomed by the children and parents alike.
As was the case around the nation, the Exmouth drive-in suffered a major blow when television came to the area, with the advent of the video striking a deathblow.
The property was sold to a developer in 1983. Only the US Naval theatre remains as a film venue at North West Cape.

Sources: Jack Valli, Unpublished reminiscences

FINUCANE ISLAND

OPEN AIR CINEMA, Finucane Island

Jim Woods set up a venue here for the mining company, and when the company closed its operations Eddie Wheeler moved the projectors to the PCYC in Collie.

Sources: Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Eddie Wheeler (1997), Noel Wright & Diane Lockett (1997)

Photos: 2 exterior , Roy Mudge, 1978 and 1980

1 interior, Roy Mudge

FLOREAT PARK

SKYLINE DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Bold Park, Floreat Park

On 17 November 1955, less than a month after the Highway Drive-in introduced the drive-in concept to Perth, Hoyts opened the city’s second such venue – the Skyline. It was designed by Hobbs, Winning and Leighton, and was built on public land inside Bold Park, leased by Hoyts from the Perth City Council. Like the Highway, this offered a playground for the children and a snack bar and barbecues for the evening meal before the programme began, with the added attraction of a valet service for delivery of food direct to the car. It could accommodate 753 cars on opening, and this was later increased to 790. In July 1959, the lease was taken over by City Theatres, and the cinema became the first of their chain of drive-ins. The lease was not renewed on expiry in April 1986, but the cinema had a short reprieve while it was used as a viewing point for Halley’s Comet. It was then left dark till demolished in 1988, and the City of Cambridge Shire Offices now occupy the site.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory, 1955/6 – 1971
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, pp.128-9
Kino, no.16, June 1986, p.23; no.24, June 1988, p.23; no.49, September 1994, p.25
West Australian, 1955 – 1985, 2 June 1966, 20 July 1966

Photos: 5 exteriors, b&w, 1950s (Arthur Stiles)
5 exteriors, b&w, 1970 (Roy Mudge)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
2 exteriors, b&w, 1986 Kino no.49, September 1994, p.25 (Max Bell)

FORRESTFIELD

PARKLINE DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Hale Rd, Forrestfield

The Parkline was built for City Theatres, at a cost of £60,000, and was opened on 20 February 1964. Like the Skyline, it was designed by Hobbs, Winning and Leighton. It had provision for 400 cars:

The Parkline is in a beautiful setting with a background of pine trees and orchards and with nurseries nearby.
A creek runs through the property.
The drive-in itself occupies 15 acres but it has been set in an area of 40 acres to protect its surroundings and outlook….
It has been built to serve the hills districts and the foothills, new areas which are growing rapidly….
The Parkline has its cafe, projector unit and ticket bureau all in salmon bricks.
The cafe has modern equipment, special cooking appliances and a cool room.
It will serve a varied menu from 6.30 p.m.
Car attendants and cafe assistants will be drawn largely from nearby districts…
A modern sit-in area is adjacent to the cafe. (Sunday Times, 16 February, 1964)

In 1988, Hoyts took over City Theatres and immediately closed all six drive-ins: the Parkline was then sold for $950,000. In 1997 the land was used for a housing estate and shops.

Sources:Film Weekly Directory 1963/4 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, p.128
Vyonne Geneve, ´William Leighton, architect’, Kino, no.25, September 1988, pp.7 – 15
Kino, no.25, September 1988, p.23
Sunday Times, 16 February 1964
West Australian, 1965 – 1988

Photos: 3 exterior, Max Bell 1980’s

FREMANTLE

BEACON AND GARDENS, 91 Hampton Rd, Fremantle (Beaconsfield )

After successes at the North Fremantle Town Hall and the Swan Picture Theatre and Gardens in Palmyra, Swan Suburban Pictures (James McKerchar and J. Veryard) built a new theatre and gardens in Hampton Rd at a cost of nearly £5,000. Designed by Samuel Rosenthal, it opened 17 August 1937 with Small Turn. The building permit was for ‘a stadium type theatre seating approx. 800’, and the gardens seating 500 were beside the theatre. Alterations were made in 1958, but it still closed in 1961 and was converted into a supermarket for Stammers Foodstores, its cinema origins still visible in the facade. In 1993 it was put on the market, and eventually sold, but, despite rumours of demolition and redevelopment, the gutted building remained on the site and was renovated in 1996-7, with parts of the frontage used for a chemist shop and then a video store. In 1999 a rumour was circulating that it was to be re-opened as a live entertainment centre, but in 2000 that had changed to a health and community centre.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.20, 55
Vyonne Geneve, Significant buildings of the 1930s in Western Australia, Vyonne Geneve, June 1994, National Trust of Australia (WA)/ National Estate Grants Programme, vol.1
Public Works Department, Building approval 11 March 1937 (Battye Library 1459)
Kino, No.10, December 1984, p.10; no.45, September 1993, p.31; no.50, December 1994, p.35; no.53, September 1995, p.31; no.57, September 1996, p.31; no.62, Summer 1997, p.35; no.67, Autumn 1999, p.31; no.73, Spring 2000, p.35.
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 pp.20, 55
Vyonne Geneve, ‘The vulnerability of our Art Deco theatres’, Kino, no.28, June 1989, p.6
Interview (Mark Turton): James McKerchar (1978)

Photos: 1 exterior, Kino, No.10, December 1984, p.10 (Max Bell); no.28, June 1989, p.10 (Byron Geneve); no.32, June 1990, p.19 (Byron Geneve)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

CINE 2, 6 Elders Place, Fremantle

Opened in 1983, this was one of two cinemas operated by Club Adult Cinemas (the other being in Barrack St, Perth), screening non-stop adult movies. It was still operating in 1997.

Sources: West Australian 1985, 1988

EAST FREMANTLE TOWN HALL, Canning Highway, Fremantle East

In 1899, Sir John Forrest laid the foundation stone for this building designed by architect J.F.Allen, and additions housing the Library and Mechanics Institute opened in 1902. Many different educational and entertainment programmes took place in the hall, occasionally including moving pictures, but it was never used as a regular film screening venue.

ESSEX CINEMAS 1 & 2/ LUNA ON SX, Essex St, Fremantle

Two big showrooms had been built in the car park behind the food hall in Essex St, Fremantle – with access from a laneway running between Essex and Norfolk Sts. Peter Thomson, then operating the Capri in Perth, took on the lease to these buildings, and remodelled the premises into the Essex twin cinemas, which opened in September 1987. The two separate buildings were joined by what is now the entrance and foyer, and the showrooms converted to cinemas, the whole costing £250,000. Seating was provided for 330 in Essex 1 and 192 in Essex 2, and they were very successful. This was Thomson’s first venture into Fremantle, and he went on to establish Coastal Cinemas, with a monopoly in Fremantle and Rockingham.

In 1994, Coastal Cinemas bought the premises outright and in 1997 plans were announced to demolish the two cinemas and build a four-plex on the site, but (after zoning problems) the Millenium cinemas were built instead and the Essex continued as a twin, operated by the Luna company (which had begun in Oxford St, Leederville). They were reported to have opened two new screens on the site in February 2004.

Sources: Kino no.21, September 1987, p.22; no.22, December 1987, p.22; no.59, March 1997 p.26; no.87, Autumn 2004, p.38
Interview (Margaret Howroyd): Peter Thomson (1994)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)
West Australian 1988 – 1997

Photo: Kino no.22, December 1987 (Max Bell)

HOYTS FREMANTLE/ ORIANA, 177 High St, Fremantle

On the site of the old ‘Rose and Crown’ Hotel (and later also the Fremantle Grammar School), on the corner of High St and Queen St, Hoyts built a new theatre which they considered calling the ‘Crown’, but finally named simply Hoyts Fremantle. The architects were H. Vivian Taylor and Soilleux, in conjunction with Messrs. Oldham, Boas and Ednie-Brown. The Gala Opening (a screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Love on a Budget) was held on 4 August 1938:

Convenience for patrons has been the keynote in the construction of the new theatre, and the quaintly shaped ticket office allows easy access from all sides. The circular foyer is spacious and is designed to prevent any overcrowding. One moves naturally towards the various stalls entrances and cloakrooms and to the ample staircase leading to the dress circle and lounge. The various fittings have been carried out to harmonise with the decoration scheme, in which pastel shades of green predominate. Entrances and all floors of the theatre have been richly carpeted, and noteworthy features of the theatre include a crying room, in which mothers may take recalcitrant children without spoiling their own entertainment and without interfering with the pleasure of other patrons.

Special attention in the theatre has been paid to the acoustics and an unusual (and attractive) ‘ripple’ roof aids the sound equipment. Streamlined ‘fins’ extending from the proscenium to the circle railing also play their part in giving faithful sound recording. The interior decoration of the theatre is carried out in toning pastel shades and curtains, lighting and other fittings have been made to conform. The ‘floating screen’ is a new departure in screen entertainment which adds to the enjoyment of programmes. During intermissions patrons will enjoy the quiet luxury of the lounge, in which comfortable furniture harmonises with the decorative scheme. (West Australian, 5 August, 1938)

Among congratulations received on the opening night were messages from Samuel Goldwyn, Gary Cooper, Walt Disney and Shirley Temple, quite overshadowing the local dignitaries. When it opened, the theatre had provision for 1376 patrons, and was controlled by the Board of Hoyts, Fremantle Ltd, chaired by S. (Stan) W. Perry.

But not all patrons appreciated the luxurious surroundings. In September 1939, two teenagers were convicted of ‘rowdyism’ in the cinema, and fined for disrupting the screening. Mr W.F.Samson, then Secretary of Hoyts Fremantle, brought the charges, saying that:

These young people come armed with whistles and other contraptions to make hideous noises for the sole purpose of spoiling other people’s amusement. They come like lambs, and as soon as the lights go out they become jackals. (West Australian? Fremantle Gazette? 1 Sept. 1939)

The cinema continued to be known as Hoyts Fremantle till 1961, when it was taken over by City Theatres and renamed the Oriana. Renovations in 1967 reduced the seating capacity to approx.1000, and a new 70mm screen was installed as late as May 1968. But the cinema closed 4 December 1971, was demolished in March 1972, and the new building on the site used by Walsh’s Menswear.

Sources: Fremantle Library, cuttings collection
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 pp.38-9
Max Bell, ‘Fremantle’s Theatre of Distinction’, Kino, no.65, Spring 1998, pp.30-31; no.66, Summer 1998, p.7.
Vyonne Geneve, ‘William Leighton, architect’, Kino no.25, September 1988, p.7.
Vyonne Geneve, ‘The theatres of the 30s in Western Australia’, Kino no.32, June 1990, p.18
Australasian Exhibitor, 16 May 1968 p.8
Film Weekly, 13 Aug. 1959, p.6
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1971
Fremantle Advocate, 4 Aug. 1938
Post Office Directory, 1938/9 – 1949
West Australian, 5 Aug. 1938 p.4, 1938 – 1971
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1978), Chris Spivey (1978), Arthur Stiles (1978)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Jack Gynbn (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior (Oriana), b&w, 1969 (Roy Mudge)

Interiors (Oriana auditorium, foyers, staff , bio box ) b&w, various dates (Roy Mudge)
1 exterior (Hoyts), colour n.d.

MAJESTIC, 115 (formerly 137) High St, Fremantle

The Connolly syndicate built and ran the Majestic theatres, opening first in Perth, then in Fremantle and Kalgoorlie. The Fremantle Majestic seated 1000, and was described as ‘a fine, imposing structure of generous proportions’ (West Australian, 9 December 1916), when it opened on 23 December 1916, after the official ceremony had been postponed for a day because of a power failure. In August 1918 the lease was taken over by J.C.W. Films, and in 1927 it became a Hoyts theatre, which it remained till it closed on 25 July 1938, in anticipation of the opening of Hoyts Fremantle. In fear that the Majestic lease would be taken over by another company who might operate in competition with their new theatre, Hoyts employees destroyed the fixtures and fittings on the day they vacated the premises, and opened the next day in the new theatre. The site was then occupied by a Homecrafts store, but the logo (MT) was still (at least to 1997) visible in the wrought iron of the balcony railings.

Sources:City of Fremantle, Rate Books
Fremantle Library, collection of cuttings
Public Works Department (Battye 1459)
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 p.32
Hoyts Screen News, 1931 – 2
Post Office Directory, 1917 – 1938/9
West Australian, 2 Jan.1920 – 20 June 1920
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1978)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Jack Gynn (1981)

Photos: 2 exteriors (different angles), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

1 exterior ( Majestic) , b&w, date unknown, from the AMMPT archives

MILLENIUM CINEMAS, Essex Lane (off Collie St), Fremantle

The size of audiences at the Queensgate complex was noticeably affected by the opening of the Booragoon multiplex in the middle of 1997. The attraction was the megascreens, so fashionable in the mid-nineties, but the Queensgate complex could not be remodelled to include these. In anticipation of this problem, plans were developed in 1996 to convert the Essex St cinemas for such presentations, but Council approval was withheld because of the effect on the old mill site nearby. So Coastal Cinemas took an option on another site, on the southern side of Essex Lane, between Collie and Essex Sts.

Approval was obtained for a complex including four screens, of which two would be Megascreens. It was planned to open in June 1999, but building problems delayed opening till September 1999. In 21 December 2001, Hoyts took over this venue.

Sources: Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)
Kino, no.63, Autumn 1998, p.34; no.66, Summer 1998, p.30; no.69, Spring 1999, p.35; no.70, Summer 1999, p.35; no.75, Autumn 2001, p.35.
West Australian 1999 – 2000

Photos: 2 exteriors, colour, 2001 (Graeme Bertrand)

ODDFELLOWS HALL/GAIETY/BIJOU, William St, Fremantle

The Oddfellows Hall in William St was described in 1889 as ‘a miserable place without convenience of any kind and for which extortionate terms were asked’ (Lt M.Rose, Inquirer and Commercial News 21 August 1889). It was renovated in 1890 and became known first as the Gaiety Theatre and then from 1898 to 1910 as the Bijou. The building was demolished around 1925 and the site was not again used as a theatre.

As the Oddfellows Hall, it was a multi-purpose building, and as the Gaiety or the Bijou usually a live theatre, but occasionally films were screened there. It is significant for this database because it was the site for a season of Harper’s Biograph Vaudeville Co, from 8 – 13 November 1897, that is, one of the earliest film screenings in Fremantle.

Sources: Fremantle City Council rate books 1867 – 1925
Inquirer and Commercial News, 21 August 1889
West Australian, 13 November 1897

Photos: 1 interior (Bijou Theatre), b&w, John Corrick?

OLYMPIA, Leake St (off 110 High St), Fremantle

The Olympia Roller Skating Rink on Lots 403-405 Leake St, was converted into a moving picture venue by the Star Amusement Co, and opened under the direction of C.Sudholz on 11 December 1909. The building was huge and cavernous, and in the conversion attempts were made to soften this effect:

The roof is being taken off the building in order to make the auditorium as cool as possible. Another feature is the new complete electric lighting plant which the company are installing to provide especially powerful light for their new machines. The Olympia Orchestral Band is rehearsing for the opening. (West Australian, 4 December 1909)

…the building has been structurally altered and the seating accommodation so arranged as to enable patrons to obtain a clear and uninterrupted view of the concert platform and screen. (West Australian, 15 January 1910)

The films were the same as those screened by the company at the Star Rink in Perth the previous week. Renovations further expanded the capacity of the building in March 1910, and for several years it presented films from August to the end of March, and skating for the rest of the year.In August 1913 an experiment was tried (advertised as ‘The very latest craze from London’, West Australian 2 Aug. 1913) of combining films and skating, but that does not seem to have lasted long. The advertisement for the ‘Grand Re-opening’ of Cecil’s Y.A.L.Pictures on Saturday 4 October 1913 was also the last advertisement for films in the venue. Later, the premises were used as a warehouse and offices.

During that part of the year when films were not shown at the rink, Olympia Pictures presented their programmes in the Victoria Hall.

Sources: Post Office Directory, 1913 – 1917
West Australian, 4 Dec. 1909 – 4 Oct. 1913

Photos: 1 exterior (Victoria Hall), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

P.I.F.T./F.T.I., 92 Adelaide St, Fremantle

Perth Institute of Film and Television was formed in April 1971 when a group of people involved in film, television, education, the arts and the professions came together at a meeting held at the University of Western Australia to develop film and television as an art, an industry and as an educational tool.

Projects were subsequently initiated in West Australian Schools and at the University of Western Australia and work began on raising finance to develop the Film Institute in the Old Boys School in Fremantle as a centre. (Gateway, Spring, 1974)

In July 1974 PIFT moved into the school on a 20-year lease from Fremantle City Council, and converted the premises into offices and a 142-seat theatrette with the £400,000 raised for the purpose.

The building also housed the Community Education Centre, until the Princess May School renovations were completed, and the Centre moved in next door. After that, the Old Boys School building was shared with the W.A. Film Makers’ Co-operative, the W.A. branch of the Australian Council for Children’s Film and Television, and Community Radio. By March 1975, regular programmes of children’s films were being offered twice a week – after school on Fridays, and on Saturday afternoon. Adult seasons were at first provided only for members of the Co-op, but in October 1975 these were opened to the general public. The building became the W.A. home of the National Film Theatre of Australia, and later still of the Australian Film Institute. But as well as these institutional activities, the cinema operated as a commercial exhibitor of specialist programmes, particularly of local Western Australian productions, and other programmes unlikely to gain exposure through the normal commercial circuits.

During 1976 the Tavern opened on the site, independent of the cinema, but providing a congenial social focus for the complex.

On 14 October, 1977, Cinema 16 opened in a section of the downstairs hall, as ‘a new venue for the screening of innovative 16mm films’ (West Australian 14 Oct.1977), the opening programme being Pure S and Red Nightmare. Cinema 16 used canvas deck-chairs, of the type popular in the open air theatres of earlier days.

In 1984, the organisation was renamed the Film and Television Institute (FTI), and they later moved their films screenings to Perth, taking over the Entertainment Centre cinemas (the old Academy Cinemas) and renaming these the Lumiere.

Sources: Daily News, 5 Mar. 1975
Gateway, Spring 1974, vol.3, no.2, n.p.
West Australian, 27 Nov. 1975, p.24; 6 Apr. 1976, p.5; 17 Dec. 1976; 9 July 1977, p.28; 2 Nov. 1978, p.28,

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 interior (during renovations), b&w, Daily News 5 Mar. 1975

PALLADIUM 73 Market St, Fremantle

PORT CINEMA/ PORT CINEASTE, 86 Adelaide St, Fremantle

On this site, a service station was demolished to build a £978,000 complex comprising offices, shops and undercover parking facilities. It was financed by the Fremantle City Council, from trust funds, so the Council were able to assure ratepayers that they would not have to carry any financial burden for the cinema within this complex. This cinema was named the Port, was leased to City Theatres, and opened on 17 December 1976:

In line with Council policy on new buildings, the building has been designed to blend with existing buildings, in this case the restored schools which are now PIFT and the Community Education Centre.

The Port Cinema is a plushly appointed, 400-seat theatre with the most modern and efficient projection equipment available.

The big first floor foyer overlooks the Princess May Park and a coffee shop on the ground floor actually spills into the park….

City Theatres plan to make the Port Cinema an important part of the life of Fremantle – and they have started with a policy of using new releases of films with a wide entertainment appeal.

The Fremantle City Council built the cinema after the constant demand by people in the city for a commercial cinema showing general films. (Daily News, 16 December 1976)

City Theatres was later taken over by a consortium, which sold all their theatre interests to Hoyts in 1988. In the rationalisation of Hoyts cinemas which followed, the lease of the Port was taken over by Peter Thomson of Coastal Cinemas, who also operated the Essex St cinemas and those in Queens Gate. It was then called the Port Cineaste, and new seating was installed in 1993. In 1997, after the FTI cinema moved to the Lumiere in Perth, it was the nearest thing Fremantle had to an arthouse cinema. However, when the Millenium Cinema opened in September 1999, the Cineaste was closed for conventional screenings, and used for previews and trade screenings only, until the lease expired in 2001, when the cinema went dark permanently.

Sources: Public Works Department, Building approval 29 Mar. 1976 (Battye Library 1459)
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 p.39-40
Daily News, 16 Dec. 1976
Fremantle Gazette, (10 Dec. 1975?), 2 Dec. 1977
Kino, no.33, September 1990, p.23; no.43, March 1993, p.31; no.69, Spring 1999, p.35; no.78, Summer 2001, p.55
West Australian 1977 – 1997
Interview (Margaret Howroyd): Peter Thomson (1994)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)

Photos: 25 interiors/exteriors, colour, 1981 (Roy Mudge)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

2 interior, colour, bio box, 1987, Roy Mudge
1 exterior, b&w, Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 p.39

PRINCESS, 32 Leake St, Fremantle

On the corner of Market St – next to the Terminus Hotel on the corner of Pakenham St, and opposite the Olympia skating rink – an old warehouse was demolished, to make way for West’s Princess theatre, opened on 21 December 1912, the first purpose-built hardtop in the suburban area. Seating 1850 persons, the new theatre was managed by T. M. (later Sir Thomas) Coombe till August 1914, when West’s opened another cinema at Subiaco and transferred their suburban operations there. Fullers vaudeville then operated the Princess for some time, till in March 1917 Coombe took over the theatre in his own right and brought it with him into the Union Theatres chain. Sound was introduced to the theatre in August 1929, and in 1935 it was taken over by the Grand Theatre Co, which employed William Leighton to design extensive renovations, including reducing the seating to 1540. This had been further reduced to 1200 by the time the theatre closed on 26 June 1969, a victim of the television boom. Peter Thomson describes how the cinema was showing four times a day Monday to Saturday and once on Sunday night before television: then screenings were reduced to twice a day and eventually closed altogether. The building was sold to a car repairer and gutted for use as a workshop, retaining the basic structure, including the balcony, and the entrance into Market St. In 1985 it was used as a market, and in 1989 by an icecream manufacturing company.

Sources: Fremantle City Council ratebooks 1910/11 – 1913/14
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 p.41-2
Rodney I. Francis, ´The Coombe family of Perth’, Kino no.34, December 1990, pp.12-17
Rodney I.Francis, ‘Thomas Melrose Coombe: a pioneer from vaudeville to talkies in Western Australia’, Kino no.80, Winter 2002, pp.46-48
Vyonne Geneve, ‘William Leighton, architect’, Kino no.25, September 1988, p.7
Vyonne Geneve, Significant buildings of the 1930s in Western Australia, Vyonne Geneve, June 1994, National Trust of Australia (WA)/ National Estate Grants Programme, vol.1
Daily News, 27 July 1967; 2 July 1969
Everyone’s, 4 September 1929, p.32
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1968/9
Grand Gazette, nos. 9-11 (3-17 Aug. 1918)
Post Office Directory, 1912 – 1949
West Australian, 10 Mar. 1961, 1912 – 1969
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1978), Lou Starr (1985), Arthur Stiles (1985)
Interview (Margaret Howroyd): Peter Thomson (1994)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, 1969 (Roy Mudge)
10 interior, b&w, 1969 (Roy Mudge)
1 b&w reproduction of cover of programme for gala re-opening 29 March 1941 (Arthur Stiles)
1 publicity stunt, b&w, Everyone’s 29 January 1930 p.18
Daily News took photos of Princess when it was opened as markets in 1983
Fremantle Library prints 964 – 967
1 exterior, b&w, Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 p.41

QUEENSGATE, William St, Fremantle

A sixplex was planned here, within the Queensgate shopping complex, built by Fremantle City Council. Negotiations for the lease of the cinema complex fell through, first with Hoyts in 1989, then with Greater Union, and construction was delayed by industrial disputes. By the time it finally opened, on 29 May 1990, the lease had been taken on by Peter Thomson’s Coastal Cinemas, which was already operating the Essex St twin.

This was the first suburban multiplex, and has had to be remodelled several times to keep up with the competition as more such complexes were built. For instance, in 1995 the sloping floors were replaced by stadium seating, and further remodelling is planned. But the structure cannot be remodelled to accommodate the megascreens of the later nineties, so the Millenium complex was built nearby for this kind of presentation.

Coastal Cinemas went on to acquire a monopoly of cinema in Fremantle and Rockingham, operating the business out of Queensgate, until Hoyts took over their venues on 21 December 2001.

Sources: Kino no.25, September 1988, p.23; no.27 March 1989, p.23; no.31, March 1990, p.23; no.33, September 1990, p.23; no.75, Autumn 2001, p.35.
West Australian 1990 – 2000
Interview (Margaret Howroyd): Peter Thomson (1994)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)

RICHMOND AND GARDENS, 149 Canning Rd, Fremantle East

There is some suggestion that the Richmond started as a gardens on the north side of Canning Rd, opposite the Swan gardens. However, a building permit was issued for the Silas St corner on 21 May 1934, and records state that the theatre and gardens was completed on this site in December 1934 and operated by the Richmond Theatre and Gardens Co, which also operated the Swan\Mayfair (Palmyra). In the forties, the Richmond theatre and gardens each held approx 800, though in the latter years of its history this was reduced slightly to 750 each. It closed in 1961 and was demolished in 1979 to make way for a shopping complex.

In 1973 Jack Lee reminisced:

My father built the Richmond theatre and shopping centre in Silas St and a similar complex at the corner of Petra St and Canning Rd. The Richmond theatre and the open air section alongside it were later converted into a grocery supermarket. The Mayfair theatre is now a bingo centre and store. (Jack Lee, This is East Fremantle, Perth 1973, p.143)

Sources:Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1960/61
Post Office Directory, 1935/6 – 1949
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 pp. 46,66
Jack Lee, This is East Fremantle, Perth 1973, p.143

SHARPE’S PENNY PICTURES, Holland St, Fremantle East

George Sharpe began a penny picture show in the backyard of his shop in January 1930. Attendance grew from 70 at the first show to as many as 250 for a Chaplin movie. The fire brigade forced the closure of the show as a fire hazard in 1933.

Ref: Sunday Times 21 March 1976

TOWN HALL/VIC´S PICTURES, High St, Fremantle

The Fremantle Town Hall was opened 22 June 1887. It was the location for the first screening of moving pictures in Fremantle, when Frank St Hill presented a programme on an Edison machine for one night only – Wednesday 16 December 1896. After that, touring companies presented occasional film programmes or short seasons there irregularly, and there were also occasional Sunday Rational Concerts presented, till West’s moved there from the King’s Theatre on 24 April 1909, to start the first permanent season. Irate citizens protested at their hall being leased in this fashion:

Money may be scarce with the civic fathers but that fact surely does not justify the ratepayers and many societies in Fremantle being deprived of the right to use the Town Hall on reasonable notice…

Apparently even the Mayor cannot have the Town Hall to convene a public meeting in. (letter to the editor, from Reuben Bailey, Baptist Manse, Fremantle, West Australian, 26 April 1909)

West’s continued to screen in the Town Hall, however, till the lease was taken over by Vic’s Pictures, a local company named after Victor Newton, one of the four partners in the business. They opened on 24 October 1910, and continued to screen there till 7 January 1919, by which time the company had expanded into the central business district of Perth and into other suburbs.

For many years, in the boom days of cinema in the district, when there were plenty of purpose-built venues available, the hall was used only occasionally for films. In the seventies, when there was no other venue available, it was revived by Peter Thomson and then taken over by local film-maker Daryl Binnings, who conducted mainly children’s matinees on Saturdays and special school holiday seasons. These screenings were sufficiently successful to persuade the Council that renovation to improve acoustics was justifiable, but the film screenings did not become permanent, and faded out in the eighties.

Sources: Fremantle Library, Collection of programmes and cuttings
Max Bell, ‘Fremantle Town Hall’, Kino no.51, March 1995, p.17
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 pp.26-28
John K.Ewers, The Western Gateway: a history of Fremantle, Fremantle City Council 1971
J.K.Hitchcock, The History of Fremantle: the front gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council n.d.
Post Office Directory, 1912 – 14, 1918
West Australian, 14 Dec. 1896 – 1 Mar. 1919; 22 Aug. 1973
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1978), Peter Thomson (1997)
Interview (Margaret Howroyd): Peter Thomson (1994)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981
1 exterior, b&w, circa 1910 (from Fremantle Library collection)
1 exterior, b&w, J.K.Hitchcock, The History of Fremantle: the front gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council n.d. Hitchcock p.9
1 exterior, b&w, John K.Ewers, The Western Gateway: a history of Fremantle, Fremantle City Council 1971, opp. p.145
1 exterior, b&w, Kino no.51, March 1995, p.17

TOWN HALL/ARCADIA, 222 Queen Victoria Rd (Stirling Highway), Fremantle North

This imposing bluestone building holding around 400 patrons was constructed in 1902, and was used by touring film companies from at least 1906, when Bartlett’s Electric Biograph performed there. Permanent seasons appear to have started there during World War 1, under several different managements, none of which were particularly successful. James McKerchar had been employed by the BB Picture Co in Scotland (‘BB Pictures are Beautiful and Bright’), and by the railways in Western Australia before signing up for active service during World War 1. When he returned from the front in 1918 he spent his demobilisation pay to buy the plant and goodwill of the Town Hall picture show from a Mr Jones, and worked hard to build the business up. The patronage of the children was assured by screening serials, and of community groups by arranging fund-raising nights. As McKerchar only screened twice a day on Fridays and Saturdays, he was often able to obtain the services of Mrs Anderson on the piano, on her days off from the Palladium. Special competitions and entry prizes also helped, so that by the time he left in 1922 (for other venues in Palmyra and Fremantle East) the North Fremantle Town Hall venue was thriving.

There may have followed a period without a permanent management, until the Arcadia Pictures opened in September 1936, under the management of partners F. L. Martin, W. Sweeney and A. L. Cooper. It was operated by Martin and M.Corkhill (Corkell?) for some years, until Martin died in 1946. His (son/wife?) F. H. J. Martin continued briefly, then the business changed hands several times. Around 1951, Jimmy Barton was the operator when Peter Thomson worked as a tray-boy for a shop across the highway from the hall: working on commission, on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he was able to earn about £1 a week – big money for an eleven year-old at that time!

The venue reverted in 1952 to the name North Fremantle Pictures, a name which remained till 1961 when film screenings ceased because the requirements of the Health Department for major renovations of the toilets could not be met. After a period of use by a local ballet group, the hall was taken over by the Fremantle Town Council (which had merged with North Fremantle Town Council) and sold to an antique company, which completely renovated the premises. In 1995 the hall was again put on the market.

Sources:The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, pp.28-9
Max Bell, ‘North Fremantle Town Hall’, Kino no.50, December 1994 p.15; no.51, March 1995, p.31.
Letter from Mrs K. Melancon (daughter of Mr Martin), 16 April 1978, held in Fremantle Library
West Australian, 30 October 1975
Interview (Mark Turton): James McKerchar (1978)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)

Photos:1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (foundation stone), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior, b&w, Kino no.50, December 1994 p.15 (Max Bell)
1 exterior, b&w, n.d. The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.29

YE OLDE ENGLISHE FAYRE/PAVILION/DALKEITH OPERA HOUSE/KING�S/ TIVOLI/KING�S, 66 South Terrace, Fremantle

Ye Olde Englishe Fayre was a summer pleasure gardens in South Terrace, beside the Freemasons Hotel. Fremantle rate records list the Pavilion Theatre in 1899 – 1903 as on the same site, but it is not clear whether the Pavilion was within the Fayre or the two names were alternatives for the same enterprise. The Fayre was opened by Court and Butcher in October for the 1897 season, was apparently dark the next summer and was re-opened by Jones and Lawrence for the summers of 1899-1900 and 1900-1901. Jones and Lawrence introduced films to the site, as an occasional part of their vaudeville programmes in both summer seasons, but their programmes did not feature films as was done at the similarly-named site in Perth itself.

In 1904 the Dalkeith Opera House, later known as the King’s Theatre, was built on the site. It was designed by F.W.Burwell and built by Mr James Brownlie for entrepreneur James Gallop. At that time this was the most prestigious theatre in Fremantle. In 1909 The Official Guide to Western Australia (p.202) described it thus:

A handsome structure, built for the proprietor, Mr James Gallop, was opened on September 27, 1904. The theatre is situated in South Terrace, and adjoins the Freemason’s Hotel. The building, which is in the Renaissance style of architecture, has a neatly designed facade, and can accommodate about 1,200 persons, apart from the gallery. The building consists of one gallery only, viz. the dress circle, with accommodation for 300 persons; the auditorium is 68 ft. 6 ins. by 57 feet, with a height of 33 feet. The ceiling is furnished with ornamental ventilators, which can be rolled away; the sliding roof is also sufficient to leave an open space of about 10 feet square. The stage is 60 feet by 40 feet, with fly galleries at 26 feet and gridiron at 52 feet from the floor. The whole of the building is well provided in case of fire, there being 13 escape doors scattered throughout the theatre.

Later, architectural historian Warren Kerr (p.90) explained:

The main entry to the theatre was between shops at street level. This opened into a foyer through which the audience passed to the stalls in the auditorium. A staircase also led from the entry to supper rooms situated over the shops. From this on one side, the dress circle was accessible, while on the other, doors opened onto a balcony situated over the pavement, from which views of the ocean were possible. This promenade was 90 feet in length and lighted with �handsome’ gas lights.

It was, however, not without its critics, including Sydney-based entrepreneur Geo. Musgrove, who, while visiting the West damned the new theatre with faint praise, saying that it had three faults:

…the floor has been constructed without any slope at all, the second is that you are lighting it with gas, and the third is the horseshoe construction of the gallery. Never mind it is a really good theatre. (West Australian, 16 September 1904)

Almost at once, films were included in many of the programmes presented at the theatre, though it remained a predominantly live venue. Cozens Spencer, for a three-night films season in September 1905, advertised that he would instal:

a 220 volt 60 Ampere Dynamo, driven by 35 Horse power steam engine, which will supply a 3,000 Candle-power arc – a light that will enable Senora Spencer to reproduce and project the Company’s selection of the World’s ACME OF ANIMATED ART. (West Australian 21 September 1905)

Local Fremantle subjects were occasionally shown here, including film of the Perth versus East Fremantle football match on 29 September 1906. Leonard Davis introduced regular film screenings by various companies on Sunday evenings from 10 November 1906, the first such shows in Fremantle. These continued, with other screenings irregularly on weeknights, till West’s opened their permanent Fremantle season there on 31 October 1908. They shifted to the Town Hall in April 1909, but returned to the King’s in October 1910. In both sites, these ‘permanent’ seasons were occasionally interrupted for other uses of the premises, so the company must have been relieved when they took over the newly-constructed Princess in December 1912. After this, the Young Australia League conducted the regular screenings in the King’s theatre, but only on Saturday and Monday, while Davis continued to present the Sunday concerts. For a short time from April 1914 it was called the Tivoli, but soon reverted to the name ‘King’s’. The rash of purpose-built cinemas during and after World War 1 brought too much competition to the King’s: it returned to its original policy, and from 1919 presented only vaudeville till it was closed permanently in the late twenties.

In February 1921, the following news report appeared in the West Australian:

A PEANUT STRIKE
The latest body to be affected by industrial unrest is that of the boys employed to sell peanuts at the King’s Theatre, Fremantle. An altercation arose among the boys as to the method of working the theatre, and authority in the person of their employer descended upon them and “sacked” two of their number. A stop work meeting was held immediately, and the extreme element gaining control a strike was called. It was not long however before the familiar cry of “Peanuts, lollies, and chocolate” was heard ringing through the hall, and the extremists were informed that they “could have the strike all on their own.”

The building was converted for use as a panel beating shop. A plan by Sir Benjamin Fuller to reopen the theatre as a vaudeville venue after World War 2 fell through. In 1979 the building was converted into an ice skating rink, and in 1984 it was in use as an unlicensed disco. Another plan to renovate the building as a cinema in the late eighties also fell through, and in 1997 it was in use as shops and offices, though the facade was still impressive. After renovation, which earned a heritage award from Fremantle City Council, it became the Metropolis nightclub, which was the venue for a celebration of the centenary of the building, on 8 October 2004.

Sources: Fremantle City Council ratebooks 1898 – 1928
The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.21
Max Bell, �Fremantle Opera House/ Kings Theate’, Kino no.59, March 1997, p.26
Louise Dumas, �Fremantle’s seaside opera house’, Fremantle Gazette, 26 October 1978, p.3
Jack Honniball, ‘Two theatres fit for a king’ Kino, no. 90, Summer 2004, pp.8-9
Warren Kerr, Architecture in Fremantle 1875 – 1915, the author, 1973, pp.89-92
Everyone’s, 20 March 1929, p.37
Mail, vol.1, no.164, 9 July 1904
Official Guide to Western Australia, Wigg & Sons, December 1909
Post Office Directory, 1899 – 1937/8
West Australian, 22 February 1904; 16 September 1904; 21 September 1905; 21 February 1920; 20 March 1920
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1978)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (Dalkeith Opera House), The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p21
2 exteriors (sketch 2004, photo undated), Kino, no.90, Summer 2004, p.8

Quicklinks

KALAMUNDA

KALAMUNDA HALL AND GARDENS, Kalamunda

Kalamunda Agricultural Hall 1991

Interior 1991

Kalamunda Historical Society describes (1982, p.14) how the original Agricultural Hall was the first brick-built structure in the district, which, till 1901, was known as Gooseberry Hill. This hall was built in 1896 by the Darling Range Vine and Fruit growers Association, and used as a meeting place for the Darling Range Road Board in 1903-4, as a school room occasionally, and for all the usual social occasions. Seating was on wooden forms at first, then on bentwood chairs, and the hall was lit with oil lamps.

In 1922 the Darling Range Road Board bought the Agricultural Hall and renamed it the Lesser Hall when they incorporated it within a new building, opened in 1923. The original hall was known as either the Lesser Hall or the Agricultural Hall: screenings were advertised in the Lesser Hall in 1922-1923, and in the Agricultural Hall 1927 and 1936. The venue was on Bart Mott’s Star Entertainments circuit from the early forties to the middle fifties, then for a few years by A.E.Randell. The Heath Rd Picture Gardens was opened around 1953, on land opposite the Kalamunda Storage Agency. It is not clear whether the hall screenings and the gardens screenings were connected, but both had ceased by the early sixties.

Further alterations were made to the buildings in 1968 (new entrance and toilet block) and 1975-6 (new roof and kitchen block).

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1961/2
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.31
Max Bell, ´Kalamunda cinemas, 1922-1959′, Kino no.42, December 1992, p.15
Kalamunda & Districts Historical Society, The Changing face of Kalamunda, 1982, & vol.2, 1987
Kalamunda & Districts Historical Society, A line on Kalamunda, co-ordinated by Gerry Brown, compiled & edited by John Harper-Nelson, The Nine Club 1978
West Australian, 1947 – 1958

Photos: 2 exteriors, b&w, 1898 and 1982, Kalamunda & Districts Historical Society, The Changing face of Kalamunda, 1982, p.14 (Agricultural Hall/ Lesser Hall)
2 exteriors, b&w, 1950s, 1987, Kalamunda & Districts Historical Society, The Changing face of Kalamunda, vol.2, 1987, p.31 (main hall)
1 exterior, colour , 1991, Roy Mudge
1 interior, colour, 1991, Roy Mudge

KALANNIE

OPEN AIR PICTURES, Kalannie

One informant can remember watching pictures at Kalannie when she was five years old, in the thirties. The screen was just a sheet tied on to the pile of wheatbags stacked ready for shipment in the railyard, and people sat on whatever they had brought with them. Obviously this could only happen in fine weather, and in summer if the wheat was to be used in this way. This was on the Fitzgerald circuit in the early fifties, then on Lew Punch’s wheatbelt circuit from about 1952 to 1961.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1950/51 – 1960/61

KALGOORLIE

CENTRAL GARDENS/ TOWN HALL GARDENS/ REGENT AND GARDENS, 328 Hannan St, Kalgoorlie

Regent Hall 1936

Central Gardens, on the south-west corner of the intersection of Hannan and Wilson Sts, opposite the Town Hall, opened 26 October 1911, with Radio Pictures’ screening of The Bush King or Captain Midnight, under the direction of Cozens Spencer. Radio Pictures then moved to the Cremorne Theatre in the winter of 1912 and back to the Central Gardens the following summer, and continued to be listed as occupier of the Central Gardens site in the Rate Books till 1914. After that, the site does not appear to have been in use for films for the next twenty years.

Bot Clemenger screened at the Town Hall in the twenties and thirties, and in 1926 bought the site opposite the Town Hall, for an associated gardens, but this first structure burned down.

After he formed Goldfields Pictures in 1933, the new company built the Regent Theatre on the gardens site, facing Wilson St, though its postal address was still Hannan St. The facade was divided into three sections: that on the left was a showcase for advertising present and forthcoming attractions, that in the middle provided entrance to the foyer (and thence to the theatre), and that on the right was both a ticket box and the entrance to the new gardens built next door (in Wilson St). The biobox was situated above the right hand corner of the theatre facade, so that projectors could be used from there either to the theatre screen (in the middle of the far wall), or to the gardens screen (on an angle across the far corner of the gardens). The venue was equipped with Raycophone sound gear from the start, replaced by Westrex after World War 2.

The whole site was sold in 1974, the buildings demolished and a Woolworths supermarket built there.

Sources: Municipality of Kalgoorlie rate Books 1910-1928
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1966/7
Post Office Directories 1930-1935/6 (Town Garden Pictures), 1937/8-1949 (Regent and Gardens)
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.120
Kalgoorlie Miner 1911-2
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ron Elsegood (1985)
Interviews (Colleen Pead): Noel Dunning (1986), Ted Moore (1986)

Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, 1936 (Ron Elsegood)
1 exterior (Paddy Hannan statue with Regent and gardens in the background), b&w, 1950s?, Eastern Goldfields Historical Society (also in Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.48)

MAJESTIC, 110-112 Hannan St, Kalgoorlie

The Majestic  was built by James Connolly, the third of his Majestic circuit (after Perth and Fremantle). It opened on the north side of Hannan St, halfway between Porter and Maritana Sts, on 26 May 1917 with a five-day season of Intolerance, screening twice a day (3-6 p.m. and again 7.30 – 10.30 p.m.). The official opening took place on 2 June 1917, with takings donated to the Red Cross. After that, continuous pictures were offered each day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., as in the other Majestic Theatres. Harrie (also known as Harry) Delavale was the first manager for the syndicate. It was a renovated building, formerly McKays Clothing Emporium, holding 1100-1200 people:

Visitors who have inspected the building during the past few days expressed the opinion that it is one of the best picture halls in the State, and that it compared favourably with those in the East. A feature that occasioned favourable comment last night was the comfortable seating accommodation. The padded leather seats are uniform throughout the building. It is claimed that the building will be cosy in winter and cool in summer. The ventilation has received special attention, and many electric fans have been installed in order to keep the air fresh and cool. There is easy access to the seats in all parts of the building, so that latecomers at any session will not have to disturb those already seated. (Kalgoorlie Miner, 2 June 1917)

The front wall of the cinema was set slightly back from the street frontage of neighbouring shops, with an external ticket box in the centre, flanked by entrance doors. These led into a foyer, with the bio-box situated above it and the manager’s office to the left of the entrance.

From 1920 J.C.Williamson’s leased the theatre and Robert Burley managed it for them. In 1926, Connolly sold it along with the rest of the Majestic chain to Hoyts who in 1928 sold the Kalgoorlie Majestic to Nelsons. Australtone sound equipment was installed in late 1929. Nelsons sold on to Goldfields Pictures in 1933, and at that time the theatre had ramped seating at the back, and deckchairs in front. It was not used regularly for evening screenings, but rather for matinees for shiftworkers three afternoons each week, and in winter it was used in conjunction with the Cremorne for big films (switching between the two). The café, operated by the Kalaf Brothers, was demolished in the race riots of January 1934, but rebuilt soon after.

After Goldfields sold the venue in 1975, it was gutted for use as a hardware store, but the original construction was still clearly visible inside, and the brick walls and corrugated iron roof of the original building were still visible in the 1990s above the shop fronts.

There was a Majestic Gardens a block further west, between Maritana and Cassidy Sts, south of the Post Office and Chamber of Commerce, advertised only for a short time in October-November 1917: this may have been a brief attempt to operate a gardens in association with the Majestic Theatre, but for the rest of its long life the Majestic had no associated gardens.

Sources: Municipality of Kalgoorlie Rate Books 1917 – 1928
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1971
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.113-4
Chris Wood, Kalgoorlie Historical Society
Everyone’s 25 April 1928 p.26; 23 October 1929, pp.18-19
Kalgoorlie Miner 1917-1925
West Australian 9 December 1916
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ron Elsegood (1985)
Interviews (Colleen Pead): Noel Dunning (1986), Lou Roe (1986)
Photos: 1  exterior Opening Night 1917 courtesy of  AMMPT

1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

1 exterior (ticket box, Kalaf’s shop), b&w, n.d. (1930s?), Museum of the Goldfields no.17731 exterior, b&w, n.d. (1930s?), Museum of the Goldfields no.136-08
1 exterior (Red Cross stall at entrance), b&w, 1917, Museum of the Goldfields no.1104
1 interior (audience), b&w, n.d., Museum of the Goldfields no.1154

MINERS INSTITUTE, Hannan St, Kalgoorlie

The Miners Institute was opened in 1895, on the north side of the Post Office in Hannan St, and was used by the local Council till 1897. It was a substantial two-storey brick building with ornamental verandahs on both levels, shops on the street frontage and offices above. A galvanised iron hall was added in 1896 at the rear of the main building: in 1904 this hall became the billiard room.

The railway from Perth was opened in 1896, and by early 1897 theatrical companies were travelling by train to the lucrative goldfields market. The railway also made the transport of films from Perth feasible, so films were screened occasionally in the Miners Institute hall. The first, advertised in the Kalgoorlie Miner on 18 March 1897, seems to have been part of a vaudeville performance of the Olde Englishe Fayre Company. Other companies screened occasionally in the hall up to about 1900 or 1901, including possibly the Salvation Army Limelight Department, before other venues became more popular. The building later became known as the Mechanics Institute.

Sources: Kalgoorlie Miner 1896-1901
Robert Pascoe & Frances Thompson, In old Kalgoorlie, Western Australian Museum, 1989, pp.183-6
Martyn Webb & Audrey Webb, Golden Destiny: the centenary history of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 1993, p.570
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (1896?), Martyn Webb & Audrey Webb, Golden Destiny: the centenary history of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 1993, p.572
1 exterior, b&w, 1989, ibid., p.772
1 interior (billiard room), b&w, n.d., Museum of the Goldfields (reprinted in Hannan St, Kalgoorlie, “Our Golden Heritage”, Kalgoorlie-boulder Tourist Centre, June 1995)

POST OFFICE PICTURE GARDENS/ LYRIC GARDENS/ MAJESTIC GARDENS/ PALAIS PICTURE GARDENS, 232 Hannan St, Kalgoorlie

Jonathan Morris, who owned the Home from Home Hotel (with its associated King’s Hall and Summer Gardens) and the Hippodrome, built a new gardens in central Hannan St in 1912. This was on the west side of Hannan St, south of the Post Office and Chamber of Commerce:

New Pleasure Resort.

POST OFFICE GARDENS

The Post Office Picture gardens will be opened tonight. The Summer Gardens will be closed on weekdays, but the usual Sunday night programmes will be screened at the Summer Gardens. The new gardens will not accommodate more than half the number of people that could be accommodated at the old popular resort, but as soon as the long drawn-out labour trouble is settle, it is the intention of Mr Morris to run pictures and vaudeville at the Summer Gardens. The four shops in front of the new Gardens constitute one of the best improvements in Hannan Street that has taken place for some time. They are of the latest design and present the appearance of show cases rather than of shop fronts, being neatly fitted with polished copper. There is a wide opening leading to the Gardens, the full width of the footpath. There are no less than five entrances leading to various parts of the Gardens from this corridor. Comfort, convenience and ease, and as much seating accommodation as could possibly be got out of a ¼-acre of land must have been the foremost thought of Mr Morris when he designed the Gardens. (Kalgoorlie Miner 16 November 1912)

This suggests that now Morris was operating two gardens and a hardtop venue, at least until the name Summer Gardens drops away late in 1914.

The site appears under several names. The Majestic Gardens was advertised for a short time in October-November 1917 as being ´near the post Office’. The Post Office Gardens was certainly open under that name again in 1918. In early 1919, the Post Office Gardens was renamed the Lyric Gardens, still operated in conjunction with King’s Hall (now called King’s Theatre), and apparently also in the same chain as the Lyric, Boulder. The Palais Picture Gardens is listed in the Post Office Directory in Hannan St 1923-1925, and that, too, may have been on the same site. From 1920 to 1925 it was still owned by the Morris family (nominee Margaret Morris – Jonathan’s wife?), but was leased to J.C.Williamson’s. In 1927 the site was sold to Hoyts and reverted to use just as shops.

´Johnny’ Morris, who initiated this (and other) venues, was something of a character. Mavis Quartermaine’s mother worked for him at the Hippodrome before World War One, when government regulations prevented the charging of admission to Sunday pictures shows but allowed the proprietor to take up a collection, by convention a ´silver coin’. The smallest silver coin in circulation at the time was threepence, which was half the standard admission price for children. Apparently, instead of banking all the threepenny bits paid at the door, Morris collected them in a kerosene tin, so a shortage of threepenny coins in the town forced customers to pay with the next smallest coin, a sixpence, effectively doubling his income! (A similar story is told against Nicholas Bushalla in Narrogin)

More generously, but still with a view to commercial advantage, Morris ran a free charabanc service which met trams from Boulder at the Palace Hotel corner at 7.50 p.m. and conveyed them to his cinema in time for the opening of the show.

In the 1990s nothing is left of the original building: the site is occupied by the Challenge Bank.

Sources: Municipality of Kalgoorlie Rate Books 1911-1928
Post Office Directory 1923-1925
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.117
Chris Wood, Kalgoorlie Historical Society
Kalgoorlie Miner 1906-1920

STADIUM/ CREMORNE THEATRE AND GARDENS, 52-4 (46) Hannan St, Kalgoorlie

Cremorne 1981

On the south side of the Duke of Cornwall hotel (at 52 Hannan St) was the Stadium, which Chris Woods describes thus: it ´had a concrete floor, surrounded by a high (10-11 ft) fence, and was used for film screenings in summer and ice skating in winter’. It is not clear when this venue was built, but it probably pre-dated the Cremorne Gardens, and certainly continued after that venue was built. Films were screened here in the winter of 1909, and probably in later winters also, as well as occasionally in summer, such as Sunday film screenings which began in October 1909. In 1910 the Stadium was operated by West’s Pictures, under manager W.J.Birt, and the premises were advertised in the Kalgoorlie Miner as ´The most palatial and coolest Show Place in the state!’ (1 March 1910).

The Cremorne Gardens opened on the north side of the hotel on 21 January 1907, and were advertised as ´the COOLEST, MOST COMFORTABLE, and MOST PICTURESQUE LOUNGE in AUSTRALIA’ (Kalgoorlie Miner 15 January 1907). The first lessee was Harry Rickards’ vaudeville company, under the management of Leonard Davis, and the first performance was judged an unqualified success:

Before the time for raising the curtain arrived, a large crowd assembled in Hannan St opposite the entrance, and many failed to gain admittance. Inside was seen the largest crowd which has yet assembled at any local indoor entertainment. Under the light the gardens present a really pretty appearance. The sides are composed of flat iron, painted to represent a chain of mountains, and the effect was novel. The lights all being reflected downwards had also an extremely pretty effect… Men smoke their pipes while enjoying the songs. The smoke rose directly in the air, so that it caused no annoyance or inconvenience to anyone. The stage was found to be admirably suited to the requirements of the gardens… (Kalgoorlie Miner 22 Jan.1907)

There are several photos of this gardens. One shows the crowd in the street as the facade is being completed in 1907, and another the completed facade, with advertising for Harry Rickards vaudeville. There are two photos taken inside the venue – one showing the front rows of wooden chairs and the decorative proscenium arch and stage, the other taken from the stage, showing the same wooden chairs in the stalls section, the low fence separating these from the tiered wooden benches in the gallery on either side of the entrance. In the latter, the painted walls, representing mountain scenery, are clearly visible. There is also a flashlight photo of a full house in the gardens, taken from the stage towards the rear of the venue.

It seems that, very soon after it opened, the venue was roofed, to become a hard-top. On 22 May 1908, William Anderson’s Famous Dramatic Company opened the Cremorne Theatre, with a live performance of The Squatter’s Daughter:

Notwithstanding the great rush the contractor had to make to get the work completed about two weeks before the time stated in the contract, everything was comfortable and the staging was accomplished successfully. (Kalgoorlie Miner 25 May 1908)

Later advertisements mention that the premises were ´Roofed in. Heated throughout by the latest American heat stoves’ (Kalgoorlie Miner 16 June 1908), and had a sliding roof (Kalgoorlie Miner 21 October 1913). Films were screened in the new theatre from the beginning, for instance West’s screening of the films of the visit of the American fleet to Sydney (Kalgoorlie Miner 8 Sept. 1908).

Throughout the period 1910 to 1927, the rate books list the Stadium on the south and the Cremorne Theatre on the north of the hotel.

In 1910 the Stadium was operated by Empire Pictures, in 1912-13 by King’s Pictures and from 1914 to March 1918 by Radio Pictures (under the direction of S. Madorsky). Rickards vaudeville seems to have shared the Cremorne Theatre with West’s Pictures till 1 April 1912, when Radio Pictures took over the lease. At the end of 1912, Radio Pictures were advertising screenings in either the Cremorne Theatre or the Stadium. Sam Madorsky was associated with both the Stadium and the Theatre from 1914 to 1917.

It is not clear when the Stadium became the second Cremorne Gardens, but there is a photograph of the stage of a gardens advertising The Sea Hawk screening at the Majestic and the New Cremorne Gardens: as this film was produced in 1924, it is likely that the second Cremorne Gardens (on the old Stadium site) was in operation from 1924 or 1925. From 1917 to 1926, J.C.Williamson’s leased the Cremorne theatre and gardens (implying that they moved from the old Stadium gardens to the new Cremorne gardens), and it was during their tenancy that a fire was reported to have destroyed the bio-box in 1920. Hoyts took over next, and in 1926 they employed Nelson as manager: it is not clear when Hoyts passed ownership to Tallis and Thring, but it was from them that Nelsons bought the Cremorne in April 1928. Goldfields Pictures bought the theatre and gardens from Nelsons in 1933, and rebuilt the second Cremorne Gardens to seat 2000.

At this time, the entrance was from Cassidy Street: the expensive seats were the canvas deckchairs in the front half, and the cheaper seats were wooden benches in the back half. The venue was equipped with Raycophone sound from the start, changed to Westrex after World War 2. If bad weather forced patrons out of the gardens they were given numbered tickets which allowed them entry to either the Cremorne Theatre or the Majestic, which between them had enough seats to house the full audience from the gardens. In 1935-6 Goldfields also remodelled the Cremorne Theatre. Even in the hard-top, and even after remodelling, the expensive seats were still the deckchairs in the front section of the theatre: the cheap seats were the wooden ones in the tiered stalls at the back of the theatre.

Pat Clayton remembers as a child during World War 2 going to the Saturday matinee for 6d. But on one momentous occasion free admission was offered to any child who brought something aluminium for the war effort: she took a battered pudding basin, and was self-conscious that her offering was not as fine as those of other people, unaware that it would all be melted down as scrap metal.

The Cremorne theatre and gardens both closed in 1973. Goldfields Pictures sold the gardens in 1975, and in the eighties and nineties it was the R.A.C. When the Cremorne Theatre closed, Goldfields donated it to the Shire of Kalgoorlie for the use of the children of Kalgoorlie, in appreciation of many years of patronage. The building was neglected for nearly twenty years, before N.J.Woods took over the lease in the early eighties (probably against the conditions of sale/donation, but Goldfields Pictures were no longer in the picture business by then), renovated, installed airconditioning and began to run it as a cinema again, with 600 seats. It closed and re-opened several times, and in the late 1990s was in use as an indoor cricket stadium.

Sources: Municipality of Kalgoorlie Rate books 1910-1926
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1971
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Draft Municipal Heritage inventory, June 1995
Post Office Directory 1908-1949
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.105-7
Max Bell, Kino, no.22, December 1987, p.23
Vyonne Geneve, ´The vulnerability of our Art Deco theatres’, Kino, no.28, June 1989, pp.6-12
Vyonne Geneve, Significant buildings of the 1930s in Western Australia , Vyonne Geneve, June 1994, National Trust of Australia (WA)/ National Estate Grants Programme, Vol.1
Film Weekly 21 March 1928 p.31; 25 April 1928, p.26
Kalgoorlie Miner 1909 – 1925
West Australian 27 January 1920, 1985, 1997
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ron Elsegood (1985), Alan Larkin (1985), N.J.Woods (1985)
Informants: Pat Clayton (Hyden, 21 August 1997), Lou Roe (1986), Chris Woods

Photos: 1 exterior (first Cremorne Gardens, Harry Rickards billboard), b&w, 1907, Robert Pascoe & Frances Thompson, In Old Kalgoorlie, West Australian Museum, 1989, p.187; Museum of the Goldfields no.1267.
1 exterior (laying foundation stone of first Gardens), b&w, 1907, Eastern Goldfields Historical Society
1 interior (audience at first Cremorne Gardens), b&w, 1907, Eastern Goldfields Historical Society
1 interior (first Cremorne Gardens, seating), b&w, 1907? Museum of the Goldfields, no.1204
1 interior (first Cremorne Gardens stage), b&w, 1907?, Eastern Goldfields Historical Society; Museum of the Goldfields no.1496
1 interior (Cremorne Theatre, audience at first performance), b&w, n.d. (1908/10?), Eastern Goldfields Historical Society
1 interior (Cremorne Picture Theatre, seven female staff in uniform in foyer), b&w, n.d. (1930s?), Museum of the Goldfields no.1769
1 interior (Cremorne Theatre, audience) b&w, n.d., Museum of the Goldfields no.1770
1 interior (Cremorne Theatre, interior, seats empty, curtain across screen), b&w, n.d., Museum of the Goldfields no.1771
1 interior (Cremorne Theatre), b&w, approx. 1935 (Ron Elsegood) Museum of the Goldfields no.1772
1 interior (second Cremorne Gardens?), b&w, 1924?, Museum of the Goldfields no.139-08
1 interior (second Cremorne Gardens), b&w, n.d. (1936?), Museum of the Goldfields no .1768
1 exterior (Cremorne Theatre), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (foundation stone), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (Cremorne Theatre), b&w, 1988, Kino, no.28, June 1989, p.11 (Lynne Robins)
1 exterior (Cremorne Theatre), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 newspaper clipping , 1985, Max Bell

SUMMER GARDENS/ HIPPODROME/ KING’S HALL, lower Hannan St (approx.432 Hannan St), Kalgoorlie

Looking South 1997

Looking North 1997

There were two sites called ´Summer Gardens’. The first Summer Gardens was operating as a live venue at the rear of the Kalgoorlie Hotel in 1900. These premises then became the home of the Goldfields Athletics Club, and were renovated for use as a live entertainment venue in early December 1906 by publican Toby O’Toole. He began to advertise these premises again as Summer Gardens but apparently changed the name of his venue from Summer Gardens to Palace Gardens by 15 December 1906. Films do not appear to have been screened there, so this site is described only to avoid confusion with the other Summer Gardens and Palace Gardens.

Jonathan Morris opened the second Summer Gardens (in conjunction with his Home from Home Hotel in lower Hannan St, in the 1990s known as the Hannan’s View Hotel) on 26 December 1906, and from January 1907 W. H. Pilkington screened films there. In May 1908 Morris’ New Hippodrome (beside and behind the hotel) was described as a skating rink, and was screening films in winter, while the Summer Gardens continued in summer. Both venues were screening King’s Pictures in the middle of 1909, until the new King’s Hall (like the Summer Gardens, attached to the hotel) was opened in April 1910:

The new picture palace erected by Mr Jonathan Morris, next to the Summer Gardens, which is to be known as King’s Hall, will be opened this evening. The building will accommodate an audience of 1500 quite comfortably. Every comfort has been provided for patrons, all of whom will be provided with chairs. From the back of the reserved portion of the building the floor is carried upward with a rise of 6 inches in every 3 ft, with the result that a most excellent view of the pictures can be obtained from all parts of the building. The operator’s box is situated about the centre of the building and is built directly from the ground and is independent of the main building so as to ensure a minimum of vibration. (Kalgoorlie Miner, 11 April 1910)

The opening (due, as described above on 11 April) was postponed because of warm weather, so pictures continued to be shown at the Summer Gardens till an electrical storm forced the transfer of the program to the Hippodrome on 16 April. By 18 April King’s Pictures were being advertised in King’s Hall, and there is no further reference to the Hippodrome as a picture venue.

The Hippodrome building continued to be used for other purposes – both entertainment, and later industrial. It was a very large venue, running parallel with Hannan St, and set a little back from the street. Access was through a small courtyard to the office section at the northern end, and through that into the hall itself. This was constructed of corrugated iron over a timber frame in the lower section and over a cast-iron frame for the wonderful arched roof. While it was in use for dancing and skating, it had a first-class wooden floor, but when it was converted for use as a munitions factory during World War 2 that floor was replaced with specially reinforced concrete. The building was later used as Ludin’s furniture store, and in the 1990s as Harvey Norman furniture – with new shops built along the Hannan St frontage, but the main hall still intact behind.

Meanwhile, from 1910 King’s Hall and the Summer Gardens continued to be advertised in tandem, till the advent of the Post Office Gardens in central Hannan St in November 1912. From this time, it seems that Morris was operating two gardens and a hardtop venue, at least until the name Summer Gardens drops away late in 1914.

Sources: Municipality of Kalgoorlie Rate Books 1910-1926
Post Office Directory 1923-1925
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.117
Chris Wood, Kalgoorlie Historical Society
Kalgoorlie Miner 1906-1920

Photos: 1 interior (Hippodrome), b&w, 1916?, Museum of the Goldfields no.1213
2 interiors (Hippodrome roof), colour, 1999 (Graeme Bertrand) – one looking south, one north

TIVOLI GARDENS/ HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, Dugan St, Kalgoorlie

The Tivoli Gardens was Kalgoorlie’s first purpose-built entertainment venue, owned by Harry Rickards and managed for him by Phil Stuart. It opened on the southern side of Dugan Street, near Cassidy Street, on 10 July 1897. On the following Monday, the Kalgoorlie Miner pronounced it ‘the best and most complete of its kind in the colony’, and went on to report on the premises:

As scarcely needs telling it is somewhat of a trial to have, in the summer months, to sit out an entertainment in a crowded hall, and Mr Phil Stuart, the muchly-experienced theatrical manager, who is responsible for the establishment of the Garden, has certainly done a good thing for the public of Kalgoorlie and himself. What can be more agreeable in the way of relaxation and recreation than to be able to enjoy a first-class entertainment at evening in a spacious, well-lit garden, with the sky for a roof? That is, of course, with the attendant privileges of chatting and strolling about with friends, having a leisurely smoke and indulging in a cup or glass of refreshment. After a survey of what has been done at the Kalgoorlie Tivoli Gardens for the convenience and comfort of the public, one can only conclude that the institution will be a great success with good management – for which essential, it is needless to state, Mr Stuart can be relied upon. For the purpose of the Garden the whole of a quarter-acre block on the southern side of Dugan Street, between Wilson and Cassidy Streets, has been enclosed. The main surrounding wall is 12ft of flat galvanised iron, and extends back from the Dugan Street front for 130ft, where it meets the sides of the stage. Between the rear of the big stage building and the right-of-way is a separate space enclosed by a 7ft fence. It may be mentioned that Mr Stuart has been induced to promise to allow this rear enclosure to be used by a Quoit Club. In the Garden there is a natural decline in the ground surface towards the stage. And this has been somewhat increased, so that with a slope on the stage of 12 inches, it will be possible for visitors to perfectly see all that is passing on the stage from any part of the ground. The stage has been built extraordinarily strong, the explanation therefor being that Mr Stuart has provided for the safe carrying of the heaviest accessories for a dramatic performance. The open stage space is 24ft wide, by 25ft deep, and the dressing rooms for ladies and gentlemen are on the right and left sides respectively. There is a wide clear passage running the whole width of the stage – 60ft, at the back of the dressing rooms, giving free room for the accommodation of vehicles, companies of soldiers and the like, which may be required to figure in plays. The height of the stage to the roof is 24ft. Everything is exceedingly substantial, and nothing but hard wood being used the risks of fire are reduced to the slightest. In fact hardwood exclusively has been applied throughout the Garden, excepting for the lounges, etc., where it could not well be put in. On each of the two sides are galleries, of six tiers, to accommodate 150 people on each gallery. These galleries or balconies are an innovation for Gardens of the description of this, and serve a double purpose – of giving a splendid point of vantage and staying the walls. For the benefit particularly of ladies the part in front of the stage is enclosed as a reserve with a picket fence. The promenade space is all that portion behind the reserve to the front wall. Entrance is had to the Gardens by two doors in Dugan-Street, between which is a double door, to be used as a crush exit. There is also a large escape door on the western side of the ground. On either side, right at the front, in the corner is a small refreshment bar, excellently appointed, with a serving counter facing a commodious gentlemen’s lounge. Beyond the lounge on the right is a cosy tea-room, set apart for ladies, and on the other side in a corresponding position is the manager’s office. The fronts of the lounges are to be screened with bead curtains, so that a gentleman can have his refreshment in comparative privacy, in fact, unless one looks for it, the purpose of the bars and the lounges will not be apparent, which many visitors will doubtless appreciate. Obliging waiters and waitresses will be ready to bring refreshments to them. The lounges, ladies’ tea-room, and manager’s rooms have dadoes of varnished wood, with dark beading, while the lining of the walls is in bright harmonious tints. The ceilings are coloured in imitation of white, blue-veined marble, with the woodwork a well-contrasting light shade of grey. Altogether the effect is excellent, and the beholder is inclined to believe that feminine nicety of judgment has been responsible for the choice of colourings. Advertisements have happily not been permitted to find a place on the walls, which are coloured bluish-grey, while the solid wood capping to the walls is painted bright brown. The light is, for the time being, to be furnished by kerosene lamps, but Mr Stuart has the promise of several arc lamps for the Garden connected with the electric light installation for the town in about a fortnight. To ensure high-class work in the painting of the proscenium and scenery, Mr Stuart has specially engaged Mr Walkley of Coolgardie, who is now busily at work. From the designs and descriptions, it seems that the artist’s doings will result in something really fine. The background of the top of the proscenium will be painted turquoise blue, and over the upper portion will be drapery in old gold, with crimson hangings in the corners. In the centre there is to be a sunburst with golden rays and below the drapery are to be painted floral designs, including the rose, shamrock and thistle. At the sides there are to be painted suspended panels, bearing landscapes, and these panels will be flanked by twisted gold pillars. All the cords and tassels connected with the drapery will be in gold.

The Garden is estimated to give room for the assembling of 2000 persons, while seating accommodation is at present provided for 700.

There is no concrete evidence that the Tivoli ever screened films, except that any venue owned by Harry Rickards seems likely to have included films on the bill at some stage.

Dust was a constant problem in an open-air venue, so it is not surprising that in early 1900 the venue was roofed and renovated, provided with electricity, and re-opened as Her Majesty’s Theatre. This building had several pillars to support the unlined corrugated iron roof, and a balcony across the back of the hall, though the side balconies seem not to have been retained.

It was still primarily a live venue, used by travelling companies for vaudeville and musical comedy and dramatic productions, and for performances by local dancing schools and amateur theatrical groups. However, it was also used occasionally for films: ´Olympia, the passing show’ in March 1906, Spencer’s American Theatrescope in June 1906, Bartlett’s New Biograph and Blind Entertainers in December 1906, screenings of the Tait’s feature film The Story of the Kelly Gang in June 1907, T.J.West and the Brescians in November 1907, Page’s Supreme Pictures in June 1908, the Paris Biograph Co in November 1908, etc… It was closed after the opening of Kalgoorlie Town Hall in 1908.

Sources: Kalgoorlie Miner, 12 July 1897, 1900-1908
Martyn Webb & Audrey Webb, Golden Destiny: the centenary history of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 1993, pp.571-2
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Draft Heritage Inventory, 1995
Post Office Directory 1902-1913
Chris Wood, Kalgoorlie Historical Society

Photos: 1 interior (labelled Tivoli Theatre – does this mean Her Majesty’s Theatre?), b&w, n.d., Martyn Webb & Audrey Webb, Golden Destiny: the centenary history of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia , City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 1993, p.571
2 interiors, b&w, n.d. (Her Majesty’s Theatre) Museum of the Goldfields, nos.1460 (during a ball), 1498 (seated audience)
1 stage, b&w, n.d. Museum of the Goldfields no.2074

TOWN HALL, 316 Hannan St, Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie Town Hall 1980’s

Kalgoorlie Town Hall 1997

Interior 1999

Interior 1999

Interior 1999

Interior 1999

The Kalgoorlie Town Hall was erected on the northern corner of the junction of Hannan and Wilson Sts, in 1908 at a cost of £22,500. It was a most impressive structure, with a magnificent divided central staircase leading from the downstairs foyer, joining at the landing, then dividing again as it continued to the upstairs foyer. Three beautiful chandeliers illuminated the stairwell. Inside the hall, the decorative plaster work on the proscenium and the pressed metal walls and ceiling were also most impressive. The individual seats in the upstairs lounge were made of moulded and cast iron, upholstered in dark red velvet. Another huge chandelier hung from the recessed ceiling.

It had no bio-box at first, but from the beginning it was occasionally used for film screenings, for instance Mr J.M.Whipp’s Pathescope on Friday and Saturday nights in September 1908. In the twenties two local companies attempted to run regular screenings in the Town Hall – Zenith Pictures in 1923, and Clemenger’s Kalgoorlie Town Hall Pictures in 1925. For regular screenings, it was now necessary to have a built-in biobox, so one of the chandeliers and some of the space in the upstairs foyer was sacrificed to this purpose.

By this time Nelsons (who operated the Cremorne and the Majestic) dominated film exhibition in the goldfields area, and independent operators found film supply difficult to arrange, which was how the Town Hall became the birthplace of Goldfields Pictures Pty Ltd. W.R. (Bot) Clemenger came to Kalgoorlie from Victoria, to work for his uncle on the construction of pipe for the Kalgoorlie water supply project. He served in the armed forces in France in World War 1, and when he returned sought work in a field suitable to his impaired health. He decided to go into business for himself, but soon realised that a mining town ran on credit. One of the few businesses which operated entirely on a cash basis was film exhibition, so he set himself up as an exhibitor in the Town Hall in 1925, and by 1928 was operating in association with Nelsons. When he installed sound his equipment was very unreliable: he used to say that he was the only person who could hear in the whole building, as the sound travelled from the speakers on the stage over the walls and ceiling to where the manager stood at the back of the auditorium. He was only able to screen once or twice a week, in between other regular hall bookings for dances and concerts. Because he was operating in competition with the established exhibitors, he could obtain only second-rate product: he was accused of ´keeping the cowboys in the basement’ because of the frequency of programming westerns. He opened the Town Hall Gardens on the opposite side of the road (on the site of the later Regent theatre) in 1928 and maintained these until they burned down. In 1933 he formed Goldfields Pictures, a syndicate of nineteen local men known familiarly as ´the football team’, which bought out Nelsons and was then able to leave the Town Hall because they were operating the major theatrical outlets in the district.

The Town Hall is still a landmark in Hannan St, and has been lovingly restored, but films have not been screened there regularly since 1933.

Sources: Martyn Webb & Audrey Webb, Golden Destiny: the centenary history of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia , City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 1993, pp.573-5
The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate , Macmillan 1989, p.90
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Draft Heritage Inventory, 1995

Kalgoorlie Miner 1908-1925
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ron Elsegood (1985)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Ted Moore (1986)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate , Macmillan 1989, p.90
´Back to the Goldfields’, Souvenir Brochure 20 August – 21 September 1938, p.71
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
6 interiors (staircase, upstairs foyer, lounge seating, proscenium), colour, 1999, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior, sepia, 1980’s , Max Bell

TWIN CITY DRIVE-IN/ KALGOORLIE DRIVE-IN, cnr Killarney, Cotter & Thurmott Sts, Kalgoorlie

This drive-in cost £45,000, raised by a group of local business-men (including Ron Manners, who became Chairman/Managing Director), who formed Twin City Drive-in Theatres. They were determined to use local labour and materials as far as possible, but to provide a facility of high standard. When the project was first mooted, Ace Theatres announced that they would be forced to open a third drive-in, to protect the interests of their shareholders – but they dropped their plans when it became clear that the Twin City project would go ahead. It opened on 5 November 1962 with a permit for 500 cars, and was always larger than the Viewway.

Nevertheless, its popularity was such that in the good years the cars would line up right down Thurmott street: the venue opened at 6 p.m. and for a good picture people would drive up at 3 p.m., park the car in the queue and leave it till about 6 p.m., when they would return and enter the drive-in (“God help you if you pushed in”).

The main entrance and exit were both on Thurmott St, with an emergency exit also in Cotter St. The screen was at the Eureka St end of the site, with a long, narrow café in the middle of the block, running parallel with Thurmott St. The bio-box was on top of the café, and just in front of that end was a section with chairs, not enclosed with a fence. The café had counters on both sides, but usually only the Cotter St side was open, as that had a verandah: on very busy nights both sides would be opened.

Ron Manners summed up the site’s history: “As Chairman/Managing Director of the Twin City Drive-in Theatre, concluded 22 years of successful operation with a 450% capital return to shareholders, in addition to the 200% dividends return.” Towards the end, it was bought by Ace, and on 25 March 1984 it was taken over by N.J.Woods. He changed its name to Kalgoorlie Drive-in, but it closed permanently later that year. In 1997 there was no sign of where the drive-in was: the site was a housing estate.

Sources: Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.141
Kalgoorlie Miner, 23 August 1962
West Australian 1981 – 1984
Interview (Ina Bertrand): N.J.Wood (1985)
Informant: Kaye Zanker (1999), Ron Manners (2002)

Photos: 2 exteriors, site before construction, colour, July 1962 (Ron Manners)
2 exteriors, initial site works, colour, August 1962 (Ron Manners)
2 exteriors, building in progress, colour, 12 October 1962 (Ron Manners)
1 exterior, initial bibox construction, colour, 2 November 1962 (Ron Manners)
1 exterior, screen steelwork erection, with two Keogh Engineers vehicles in foreground, colour, 2 November 1962 (Ron Manners)
3 exteriors, progress on bio-box (on top), cafeteria (downstairs) and toilet block complex, colour, 2 November 1962 (Ron Manners)
1 newspaper clipping , 1985, Max Bell

VIEWWAY DRIVE-IN THEATRE/ ACE CINEMAS, Oswald St, Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie Viewway 1997

Kalgoorlie Viewway 1997

The View-way was one of the Ace chain of drive-ins, designed by William T and Garry Leighton. It opened with provision for 430 cars in July 1960, managed by Frank English. John Pye, manager of Ace Theatres, described one eventful evening there:

I can well remember one of my chaps ringing from Kalgoorlie: ´Mr Pye, there’s been a cloudburst up here. All the roads are awash, there’s four feet of water on all the corners. Don’t you think I could close the drive-in down tonight? No-one could possibly get here. If they did their cars would be swept away.’

I said: ´So, that’s the way it is? If anyone turns up, even yourself, put your own car up on the ramps and the car of any staff who turn up, and turn all the lights on if there’s town lighting, turn on the auxiliary plant and light the place up, and even if no-one else comes, put the whole show on.’

´Why?’ he said, ´It’ll be a waste of time and it will cost us $300 quite apart from the staff wages.’

´Put it on,’ I said, ´And tomorrow morning the whole town will be talking about those silly idiots who put on a show on in the middle of a cloud-burst. And from then on they’ll never have to worry whether the show will go on or not: from then on they’ll know it’s on. They only have to get there, no matter what the elements are like. But put the show on and let me know how you get on.’

At half past ten he rang me to say he didn’t know how they got there, but 37 cars turned up, paid for admission and thought it was marvellous in the drenching, tearing rain, with the wind blowing all over the place and the whole area saturated. I suppose the young bloods decided that they could boast about it the next morning – how they went to the stupid drive-in in the middle of a cloud-burst!

On 5 October 1983, a hardtop cinema, seating 344, was opened on the same site, sharing the bio-box, the concession and the toilets, but screening different programmes from the drive-in: often a film would be shown first in the hard-top, then in the drive-in. The drive-in closed in 1986, but opened again quite soon, and till 1999 both continued, the hard-top screening two sessions each day, and the drive-in screening one session each day.

From 1 July 1998, the venue was known as Ace Cinemas, Kalgoorlie – in line with the other Ace cinemas in Midland, Subiaco, and Southland. By this time, the ‘Way’ chain was no longer in existence…

When the venue was built it was in the middle of nowhere – halfway between Boulder and Kalgoorlie: by 1999 the two towns had merged, there was a shortage of land for building and the value of the land was too high to justify its use as a drive-in while attendances were declining. For, despite a boom in hard-top cinema attendance in the late 90s, drive-in attendance had declined dramatically – partly because of the increasing technical sophistication of films designed for cinema release, partly also because the encroachment of other buildings around the site which meant that light (particularly from floodlighting) interfered with viewing. So, on Sunday 1 August 1999, the drive-in closed and the land was purchased by Safeway.

The hardtop, however, was expanded to three screens (seating 320, 235, and 148) with the car park extended to provide enough parking for the larger venue. There was plenty of product available to keep this larger venue supplied.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1959/60 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.141
Vyonne Geneve, ´William Leighton, Architect’, Kino, no.25, September 1988, p.14
Film Weekly, 28 July 1960, p.9
West Australian 1969 – 1986, 1995
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985), Morris Hansen (1999)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Noel Dunning (1986)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): John Pye (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior (drive-in), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior (drive-in and theatre), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior, b&w, 1995, Aaron Bunch, National Library of Australia Pictorial Collection, nla.pic-an11579947-8
1 newspaper clipping, 1985, Max Bell

KAMBALDA

KAMBALDA DRIVE-IN/SILVER LAKE DRIVE-IN, Atriplex Rd, Kambalda West

Kambalda 1981

Concession Building 1981

It was discovered that the township of Kambalda was built on top of ore-bearing land, so when expansion became necessary a new town was built nearby, and called Kambalda West.

Peter Thomson was screening in Kambalda Town Hall in 1967 when Jim Woods approached Western Mining with an offer to build a drive-in in the town. In order to forestall this competition, Thomson and three local people formed a company and made a counter-offer, which was accepted by the company, who provided the land, in Kambalda West, which was just being opened up.

Thomson had been very impressed with the dome showrooms of the Holden dealer in Beverley, and decided that a similar building would add to the appeal of the Kambalda drive-in. He tracked down the architect, and the dome was built as the cafeteria, with the kitchen in the centre of the dome, food and drinks around the walls, and patrons coming out through a turnstile. It was a talking point and also visual advertising for the venue as it was positioned so you could see it for miles.

The venue opened in November 1969, with provision for 240 cars, and was very successful, screening seven nights a week by the time Thomson sold out his interest to the other partners about two years later. Sid Francis, who worked for Western Mining and had been assistant projectionist, then left Western Mining to manage the drive-in full-time. It was later managed by Mr Martin, who lived in the house next to the venue. But travel to Kalgoorlie, only 56 kms away, became easier with better roads and more people owning cars, so eventually the Kambalda drive-in patronage declined, and it was closed. The dome concession building was re-located to the West Kambalda township where it is in use as a video store. The drive-in site in the late 1990s had almost reverted to bush.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1969/70 – 1971
Public Health Department building permit, Battye 1459
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Peter Thomson (1986)
Photos: 2 exteriors (one of screen, one of concession building), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

TOWN HALL, Kambalda

Kambalda Town Hall 1999

One of the rich gold rush areas of the late nineteenth century was Red Hill, where a town was surveyed and gazetted in December 1897. The history of that first town suggests it was quite a thriving community, of more than 300 people, and very close to the site of the present Kambalda. However, by the end of 1907 that township was deserted as the gold petered out, and it was not till the summer of 1964-5 that the discovery of nickel produced a new interest in the area. The first shaft was sunk in January 1966, and a small town grew up around this, in some cases using again the street names from the first town. This time it was a company town, owned by Western Mining Corporation, officially opened on 15 September 1967.

Among amenities that the company provided was a beautiful new, air-conditioned Town Hall – a large structure, clad in ridged steel, with a kitchen and toilet block added on one end. It was strategically located in the middle of the shopping precinct between Larkin Street and New Clayton Street.

Peter Thomson was operating the Beverley Drive-in when he visited Kambalda and found more than two thousand people permanently living in the township and about the same number of construction workers living in the single men’s quarters. The Town Hall had a built-in bio-box, so Thomson tendered for the provision of films in this venue. He shifted to Kambalda in 1967, the company providing him with a house and he providing the town with film supply. Entrance was fixed at 70c, as the company wished this facility to be accessible to everyone. The three hundred seats were usually full on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, but Saturday was quiet as many people went in to Kalgoorlie.

Screenings continued two nights a week even after the drive-in opened, but closed when Thomson left the town in 1970.

Sources: Interview (Margaret Howroyd): Peter Thomson (1995)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1999 (Graeme Bertrand)

KALGARIN

KARLGARIN TOWN HALL, Melba St, Karlgarin

The Municipal Inventory explains the history of films in Karlgarin:

A townsite hall (site of Catholic Church) was constructed by volunteer labour under the direction of “Skip” Skippari, a Kondinin builder, and vested in the Agricultural Society with three trustees: Biglin, Grant and Medcalf. In 1949, the Karlgarin Hall Building Committee united with the newly formed Karlgarin Community Centre. A 16mm projector and screen were installed into the hall, and the ceiling was lined. Films were run regularly by local men on a roster system. In 1955, community was faced with renovation of the hall or rebuild. They approached the Kondinin Roads Board for assistance to construct a new hall. The former hall was bought by Harry Trundle and reconstructed at his farm (he got the Karlgarin Hill and Pingaring Halls too). The Roads Board contributed £6000, and together with local money, the hall was constructed and opened by Tom Hart MLA on 14 September 1963.

This does not suggest that film screenings continued in the new hall, but Basil Colmer was listed as exhibitor in Karlgarin in the Film Weekly Directory from 1965/6 to 1967/8.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1967/8
Audrey Webb, Kondinin-Karlgarin-Hyden: community, time and place , Shire of Kondinin 1988
Shire of Kondinin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, no.63
Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Shire of Kondinin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, no.63

KARLONING

KARLONING HALL PICTURES, Karloning

Karlonning Town Hall 1997

Karloning was a small settlement thirty kilometres north of Mukinbudin: now, all that remains is the hall and a well. The inscription on the monument in front of the hall reads:

The Karloning Hall was built here by the local community with carpenter Mr George McInnes and officially opened on 1 September 1934 by Mr Warner MLA. The hall served as a school for the district from 1935 to 1946.

Max Bell says films were first screened here in 1924, but does not make clear where this took place. It is very likely that travelling showmen screened in this hall after 1935, and even after the town was deserted, as it was still in reasonable repair in 1997 and had clearly been in use quite recently.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.110
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

KARRATHA

KARRATHA DRIVE-IN, Karratha Rd, Karratha

Karratha Drive In 1986

Karratha Drive In 1997

Karratha Bio Box 1997

Karratha is the administrative centre and also the largest and fastest-growing town in the Shire of Roebourne. It is not a company town, but several companies have contributed to its development, including Hammersley Iron, Dampier Salt, Woodside Petroleum and the North West Shelf Joint Venture Co.

The town only began in 1968, but a drive-in was opened in December 1972 by Westralian Drive-ins, at a cost of $150,000. It held 300 cars and 100 seated patrons and had the capacity to expand to carry a further 200 cars. It was located on the south side of Karratha Rd, the first major structure after leaving the North Coastal Highway. It had a 70ft screen, which – like that at Carnarvon – was designed to lose panels in high winds without damaging the basic structure. Three changes per week were offered over six nights, and takeaway food was provided.

In the eighties, attendance dropped off and screenings became rather erratic, till Jack and Lucy Busellato, who had managed it from the beginning, left in September 1983. Eddie Wheeler managed it in 1984, and again while relieving the projectionist in 1985, but it closed soon after.

In 1993 the property was bought by Noel Wright and Diane Lockett. Their first intention was to live on the property and develop the site as a market place, so they spent some time planting trees and replacing some of the ramps nearest to the screen with a grassed-in area for market use. But all the equipment was still there for a functional drive-in, so they gradually restored this and began screenings again at weekends in 1996.

By then, the Walkington Theatre had been built and was also screening films on weekends, but the two venues both survived, appealing to different publics. Patrons at the drive-in were at first largely families – the children playing games on the grass till they became tired enough to go to sleep in the car, the whole family eating out. Some patrons became regulars: one group brings a settee in the back of the ute, faces the back of the ute towards the screen and sits out on the couch, surrounded by food and drink and friends. After a few months the younger people re-discovered the drive-in, and came in groups – sometimes noisy, but without the rowdy behaviour that had so discouraged drive-in managers in earlier times.

There are no posters and no drive-in sign on the highway to draw the attention of passersby, but the huge screen is visible for miles – its own advertisement! Acknowledging their audience, the new management has selected largely ´P’, ´G’ and ´M’ films, leaving the more adult fare to the Walkington. In 1997, they were cautiously optimistic about the long-range future of the venture.

Sources: Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Hammersley News , 7 Dec. 1972
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): N.J.Woods (1985), Noel Wright & Dianne Lockett (1997), Eddie Wheeler (1997)
Informant: Lucy Busellato (1997)

Photos: 2 interior (bio-box), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

1 exterior, colour, 1986, Roy Mudge

WALKINGTON THEATRE, Millstream Rd, Karratha

Walkington Theatre 1997

The Walkington Theatre opened officially on 22 August 1986 next to Karratha College, and in the same building as the Karratha Community Library. In the programme for that occasion, the origins of the theatre are explained:

The Walkington Theatre represents the culmination of the dreams of many people and it is due to the cooperation of the Shire of Roebourne, Woodside, the WA Arts Council and Karratha College that the dream will be realised. It began in 1982 with the College planning a small lecture theatre attached to the library. The College architect, Mr Bruce Tomlinson, approached the Shire Clerk, Mr Frank Gow, with the idea of providing a community theatre. The then Shire President, Cr Dennis Criddle, approached the late founding Director of the College, Dr Al Walkington with the proposal to develop a performing arts theatre in conjunction with Mr Tomlinson. The Shire President gained the funding support of the Arts Council and Woodside, and the project began to take shape. The drawings were approved by a joint meeting of the Shire and College Councillors in June 1984.

Subsequently, when the costs of the June 1984 project escalated, the Shire President, Mr Robyn Crane and Mr Frank Gow sought and obtained increased funding support from Woodside and the Minister for the Arts, Mr Ron Davies.

In the end the complex, which was described as a joint venture of the Shire of Roebourne and the Karratha College, cost $2.7 million, of which Woodside provided $900,000. Management of the complex was in the hands of a Committee comprising representatives of the Principal of Karratha College, the Shire of Roebourne, and the state Minister for the Arts. The theatre held 450, and was intended for use primarily for live performance, both to provide high quality entertainment for the district and to encourage local productions. In July-August 1997, the programme included jazz bands, percussion workshops for students, the WA Youth Orchestra, the West Australian Ballet, the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s production of David Williamson’s The Club, Circus Oz, and the Hooley Dooleys for the children.

At first, films were included in the schedule only to fill in the gaps in bookings of live performances, so in the first year, only four films were screened, but these included Crocodile Dundee, which was a huge success. The original projector was a Westrex Century head dating from the late forties, and a Strong Lamphouse and Rectifier, installed by Eddie Wheeler. In 1995, a Simplex 35mm projector and a Strong Super Lume-x lamphouse on a VIP Projection Pedestal were installed, costing $42,000. The sound system in the cinema was upgraded to six-track stereo.

Regular screenings began in 1990, and from 1997, monthly posters advertising both films and live shows were provided. First-release commercial films were by now regularly scheduled for every Friday and Saturday night (in competition with the Karratha Drive-in), and art-house product was screened on Sunday nights in the Flicks programme. The town could obviously support such programming.

Sources: Programme booklet, Official Opening, Walkington Theatre, 22 August 1986
North West Telegraph, 5 April 1995, p.8
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Eddie Wheeler (1997), Noel Wright and Diane Lockett (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

KARRIDALE

HALL, Karridale

In the silent days, Owen Terry and Bert McLean ran a circuit which included Karridale, as well as Augusta, Witchcliffe, Margaret River and Cowaramup. In Karridale they screened in the hall and camped overnight. They set up an outdoor venue, similar to that in Augusta – screening onto a sheet hung on the back wall of the hall.

One of Allan Jones’ travelling picture show vans visited Karridale in the forties and fifties. Though this was a large, commodious hall, Jones described the seating as planks set up on packing cases, and liable to pinch or leave splinters!

The township of Karridale was completely burned out in bushfires in March 1961, and films were not screened there again.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1957/8
Gail J. Cresswell, The light of Leeuwin: the Augusta-Margaret River Shire History , Augusta-Margaret River Shire History Group, 1989
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Irma Whitford): Allan Jones (1978)
Informant: Bill Stanes (1997)

Photo, Alan Jones in front of Karridale Hall, n.d, property of AMMPT

KATANNING

AGRICULTURAL HALL/ MECHANICS INSTITUTE/ TOWN HALL, 22 Austral Terrace, Katanning

Katanning Town Hall 1997

Interior of Town Hall

Interior of Town Hall

Interior of Town Hall 1996

Mechanic’s Institute

The foundation stone for the Agricultural Hall was laid on 22 August 1896, and the building was officially opened in 1897. After a public meeting in 1899 the interests of the Agricultural Hall committee and the Mechanics Institute were merged and the hall became known as the Mechanics’ Institute and Public Hall. In 1903, after some controversy, it became simply the Mechanics Institute, and at that time the Roads Board was using part of the building for offices. This was probably the venue for the early presentations by travelling exhibitors, such as the Salvation Army Biorama Company (in September 1900, November 1900, September 1902 and February 1904), and Stevenson’s Royal Biograph (in January 1905).

In 1907 a new hall was constructed next door, with the Mechanics Institute renovated but no longer used as a hall. Merle Bignell (p.238) describes how the new building included: “four shops, a main entrance, a spacious cloakroom, a ticket office, a large stage and dressing rooms.” Inside, it had painted stage backdrops, a panelled ceiling and electric lighting. It was opened on 27 May 1907, in time for the Taits to show The Kelly Gang in July 1907, Robbery under arms in January 1908, and for the Corricks to perform there in December 1909. When West’s began their first country circuit in 1909, Katanning Mechanics Institute appeared on the list every Wednesday. Merle Bignell speaks of ´an ugly tank-like box’ (p.241) which had been installed as early as 1908 to house the projection apparatus.

From early in 1910, Kings Pictures were screening weekly in the Institute, managed first by H. Brown, then by J.Punch, who in 1912 converted the skating rink into King’s Hall. When that conversion was completed, King’s Pictures moved into King’s Hall and G.Galbraith took over the Thursday screenings in the Mechanics Institute, calling them Royal Pictures. By November 1913 the business was called Passmore’s Pictures, managed by S.H.Passmore, and by April 1914 it was Tivoli Pictures, managed by H.Delavale, which seems to have gone into recess for some time in 1914-15, but opened again in October 1915. It was renamed Katanning Pictures in March 1916, when it was taken over by Messrs Braund and Hales, and Katanning Pictures was run from August 1916 by the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Provident Association. One story has it that Robert Braund passed over the business during the war as a gesture to the war effort, and was distressed to find that after the war the group managing the films refused to restore the business to him. By now the venue was usually known as the Town Hall with screenings for the benefit of veterans, variously known as Provident Pictures and Repatriation Pictures, and lasting into the twenties.

One informant can remember that about 1920 there were free pictures for children on Saturday afternoons in the Town Hall, but no-one can explain why these were free… Several can remember either Miss Purkiss or Gordon Beck playing the piano for the silent movies. Piesse describes how his sons caught mice in the sheds on the farm and took them to the theatre to release during the pictures.

In November 1927 the front section of the hall was entirely rebuilt, providing a second storey at the front of the building, for new Municipal Offices and a bio-box and upstairs foyer and balcony for the hall. Town Hall Pictures and/or Repatriation Pictures continued, and in April 1931 sound films arrived, first at the Lyric, then at the Town Hall. Various private managements renamed the Town Hall. From November 1931 it was known as the Golden Gate Theatre, then, when Nelsons took over in December 1933, it was refurbished and re-opened as the New Plaza Theatre: in December 1935 the last night of Town Hall Talkies was advertised and the new Plaza Theatre was to open the following Tuesday, 10 December 1935. In April 1938, however, ´Town Hall Pictures’ were advertised as returning to the Town Hall where a complete new sound system had been installed: the following week, Katanning Pictures (Town Hall Pictures renamed again?) began advertising again in conjunction with the Lyric gardens. It is now very difficult to sort this out without new information coming to light.

The big hall is beautiful: high moulded plaster ceiling, panelled walls, jarrah floor. It has a large downstairs foyer, with a small room under the stairs now used for cleaning equipment but once the concession. At the top of the impressive staircase is a second foyer, with entrance to the lounge seating: the former entrance to a balcony above the verandah which once ran along the facade has now been filled in and the external balcony removed. The old supper room was under the stage, with entrance by stairs either side of the stage: these stairs are now covered by the stage extension, and the supper room is used as dressing rooms for stage presentations. The Katanning Town Hall crest is conspicuous above the proscenium arch. The rows of padded seats could be pushed back to the rear of the lower hall when the space was needed for dances.

In the forties, H. F. and Les Kanzler leased the hall for films and this permanent booking on the hall at weekends meant that any local dances had to take place at Broomehill. People who worked for Les Kanzler at this time as projectionists included Ross Page, Doug Brooks and Peter (Pud) Hanna. Kanzler screened two changes weekly: Wednesday night (sometimes a re-run), then Friday/Saturday (and occasionally Monday if the film was a blockbuster).

Ainslie Evans remembers that her father was ‘manpowered’ during the war to do community work, which took the form of acting as fireman at the cinema. The family lived eight miles out of town, so the government paid for the petrol: this delighted the children, as the availability of transport and free tickets meant that the whole family would go. Her father’s axe and torch were kept in a small cupboard near the door, and the first thing he did before each screening was check that all doors could be opened from inside.

Local residents remember the Town Hall pictures with affection. Friday was shopping day, when the families who lived out of town would come in for the day, complete their shopping, then have dinner at the local cafe, with everyone dressed up for the occasion. Sometimes the whole family would then go to the pictures: or Mum & Dad would drop the young people off at the pictures and go home themselves, leaving the young people to find a lift home with a neighbour, or perhaps Mum and Dad would go off to play cards and pick up the young people after the pictures. One young man, while he was still single, would ride his horse in four miles to town, tie it up at the stables (or to the rings on the verandah posts at the Federal Hotel), and walk up to the pictures.

There were usherettes to show you to your seat, though they were not in uniform. There was a certain social distinction between those who sat downstairs and those who paid the higher prices upstairs. Ainslie Evans remembers that while she was growing up, if you paid for yourself you went downstairs, but if you went with a boy he paid for you to go upstairs: that he was willing to do this meant the boy was really serious! If you were on your own and had not paid for a coveted upstairs seat, you could slip quickly upstairs at interval and appear on the balcony – a very innocent deception. Mrs Slater had a shop in the foyer, and this would be rushed at interval: one favourite was Silver Sammys (caramel covered with chocolate at one end), or penny chewing gum.

Babies could be left in the cloakroom at the entry – called the ´crying room’, though it was not the kind that allowed a parent to tend to a baby and still watch the film: instead, the fireman would call the mother out if the baby cried. Or you might leave the baby asleep in the car outside, in which case a slide would appear on the screen: ´Baby crying in KA43′.

There were no toilets in the hall. The men’s toilets were outside and behind the hall and men did not have to pay. The women’s toilets were across the road, and cost 1d: so the first person had to pay, then each person in the queue would keep a foot in the door so they could go in without paying. There were only four pan toilets in this block, and on a good night they would all be overflowing by the end of interval.

People could remember paying 5/- upstairs and 2/6 downstairs, or (earlier) 2/- upstairs and 1/2 downstairs. Children sat in the front on wooden seats. Adults sat in padded seats upstairs and wooden one downstairs: all closed automatically when you stood up, so made a great noise! Some people, such as the Hanna family, had permanently booked seats. There was no heating in the hall till recently, so everyone took blankets in cold weather.

Screenings continued at the Town Hall until the drive-in was built in 1961, then there was a long gap.

Roy Mudge started screening at the Katanning Town Hall on 23 January 1996 with Free Willy 2: he then screened every third Saturday till 9 July 1996, his last film being Dunstan Checks In. Steve Marvin then took over, and continues to screen irregularly. He brings his own projector and screens from the bio-box, using the screen on stage. He shows four or five times a year – mainly children’s films (though he did bring Shine).

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1966/7
Shire of Katanning, Municipal Inventory, site no A2218
Considine & Griffiths Architects Pty Ltd, Mechanics’ Institute Katanning Conservation Plan, August 1995
Ross Anderson (ed), Katanning: a century of stories. A collection of anecdotal short stories . Katanning Shire Council, 1988
Merle Bignell, A Place to Meet: a history of the Shire of Katanning , University of Western Australia Press, 1981, p.241
Great Southern Herald 1907-1920
Correspondence: Mrs Sandra Wilcox
Interview (Colleen Pead): Mrs Maria Harvey (1986)
Informants: Autumn Club (1997), Ainslie Evans (1997), Pat McGrechen (1997)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photos: 1 exterior, before 1927, b&w, Merle Bignell, A Place to Meet: a history of the Shire of Katanning, University of Western Australia Press, 1981, p.?
1 exterior (Town Hall), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
2 interiors (Town Hall), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand 1 exterior (Mechanics Institute), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

1 interior, colour, Ron Mudge,1996
1 exterior, b&w, 1926 (renovations in process), Katanning Historical Society
1 exterior, b&w, 1928 (renovations completed), Katanning Historical Society
Several exteriors and interiors, 1897-1995, b&w, Considine & Griffiths Architects Pty Ltd, Mechanics’ Institute Katanning Conservation Plan, August 1995

GREAT SOUTHERN RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE RECREATION CENTRE THEATRE, 22 Austral Terrace, Katanning

The Great Southern Residential College opened as a hostel for High School students on 2 October 1964. In the seventies, recreation facilities were built, including a large sports stadium, and at the back of this stadium a theatre was added. It had raked seating, holding 120, with a built-in bio-box and a screen with curtains. The project was started by Dennis McKenna and Troy Jones, and operated as a cinema for about two years.

In 1997, there were plans to re-start film screenings, both for the residents and as a fund-raising venture.

Sources: Informant: Pat McGrechen (1997)

KING’S HALL, Aberdeen St, Katanning

King Halls 1997

Holly’s shed faced Aberdeen St, but with a postal address in Austral Terrace: it was located behind the Mechanics Institute but slightly closer to Clive St. About 1909, this shed was converted into a roller skating rink, with a jarrah floor. In August 1912, J.A.Punch, who was managing Kings Pictures, moved from the Mechanics Institute to this roller skating rink, which had been converted for films, and renamed it Kings Hall. For some time Kings Pictures operated there in competition with various managements at the Mechanics Institute, though on at least one occasion (in October 1916) the Mechanics Institute exhibitor screened in the King’s Hall while the Institute was otherwise occupied (by a performance of The Mikado). Kings Pictures was taken over by Mr Lambert in August 1915, and it is not clear when regular screenings ceased in the hall.

In 1997 the building, faced with modern bricks, was still standing, though difficult to recognise as Kings Hall.

Sources: Merle Bignell, A Place to Meet: a history of the Shire of Katanning , University of Western Australia Press, 1981, p.248?
Great Southern Herald 1912-1916
Informant: Ainslie Evans (Katanning, 20 August 1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

LYRIC THEATRE, Austral Tce, Katanning

Lyric Theatre 1997

Rear of Lyric

On 1 October 1925 the Lyric Theatre was opened, in Austral Terrace, opposite the railway station and between Albion and Broome Sts. At first, this was a gardens run in the summer months, with screenings in the winter being moved to the Town Hall. It was conducted at first by Repatriation Pictures and later in the twenties by George McLeod, who also owned the hotel.

It had the usual high fence and deckchairs. Katanning weather was less favourable to outdoor entertainments than some of the more northern parts of the state, so after only a short time (perhaps two to three years), the building was roofed. It was a large auditorium, with a foyer larger than usual in such buildings and a sprung floor which made it suitable for dancing. The deckchairs continued to be used inside the new building. In April 1931 sound films arrived, first at the Lyric, then at the Town Hall.

(Problems after this – there seems to have been some dispute in the thirties about the lease on the Lyric, but it is not clear why. Then there is confusion between the Lyric and the Town Hall over which one was renamed the Plaza and for how long.)

Local residents remember the Lyric operating in the thirties as a large multi-purpose venue, with the Town Hall the main cinema in the town. Saturday afternoon pictures at the Lyric cost children 6d, and their parents might also give them one penny to spend. On Sunday nights entrance to the films cost a silver coin donation, but on other nights the building was used for other purposes: Monday & Friday were auctions, Tuesday dancing, Wednesday skating. During film screenings, a fireman in uniform was always in attendance, and smoking was not allowed. However, smoking was allowed during other entertainments in the building, which was also used during World War 2 for boxing matches. One referee for these matches, and trainer for the local football club, was Dave Walters – a large and imposing man who also acted as usher in the cinema, ever ready to break up a disturbance or interrupt unseemly conduct by shining his torch on the culprits.

In 1930, Masters Pictures, run by Meggy Masters from Kojonup, ran the Lyric and the Town Hall for a short time, but, despite pleas in the Great Southern Herald for support from the local audience, the business failed, and was taken over by others. (Autumn Club members say this happened after World War 2, after Masters had won Tatts) The chief projectionist before and during World War 2 was Bruce Dunlop, and his assistants were Max Tonkin, Scott Wilson, Herb Wanke, and Ziggy Squires (who was killed in the war).

After its use as a cinema ceased, the building became a second-hand shop, then Wesfarmers, then in 1984 it was purchased by the BKW CO-op.. In 1997, the Lyric building was still there, though unrecognisable: the ladies wear section of the BKW Co-op had been built inside the theatre (like a Chinese box), so the ceiling of the old hall could still be seen inside the storage section at the back of the shop, and the roof of the old theatre was clearly visible from the rear of the building.

Sources: Post Office Directory 1913-1949
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.110-11
Ross Anderson (ed), Katanning: a century of stories. A collection of anecdotal short stories . Katanning Shire Council, 1988, p.475
Everyone’s 9 May 1928, p.34
Great Southern Herald 1916-1938
Informants: Autumn Club (Katanning, 20 August 1997), Ainslie Evans (Katanning, 20 August 1997), Pat McGrechen (Katanning, 20 August 1997)

Photos: 2 exteriors, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

STRATHFIELD DRIVE-IN, cnr Oxley St and Carew St, Katanning

Drive In 1980′ s

Drive In 1980′ s

Drive In 1980′ s

This drive-in for 284 cars was built north of the town at the intersection of Oxley and Carew Sts, and opened on 8 February 1961, with a charity gala. Special arrangements had to be made for the installation of a diesel power generating unit, obtained from the SEC pending the arrival of the South West Power Scheme in the area. The drive-in was owned by Great Southern Drive-in Cinemas Pty Ltd, with Perth engineer (and partner in West Australia’s own sound equipment firm – Greater XL-Tone Amusements) R.Yelland as managing director, L.F(B?) Kanzler (brother of Bert Kanzler who operated the Town Hall/Plaza in Katanning?) as director-in-chief, and Morris A. Blake as director.

It had a children’s playground and a concession building that served meals (their fish and chips was particularly fondly remembered). In the early days, it was so popular that it was necessary to arrive early to be sure of entry. The usual drive-in stories circulate of attempts to avoid paying by covering children with a rug in the back seat or putting adults into the boot of a car.

After television arrived in the district attendance fell off and screenings were provided only three then two nights each week, till it closed altogether in the late seventies? In 1997 the fence was still standing, but apart from that only the concession/bio-box remained, incorporated into the house built on the site.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1960/61 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Film Weekly , 31 March 1960, p.9; 5 May 1960, p.6
Great Southern Herald , 3 February 1961
Max Bell, Kino, no.19, March 1987, p.10
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.140
Informants: Autumn Club (1997)

Photos; 3 exterior, colour, 1980’s Max Bell

KELLERBERRIN

AGRICULTURAL HALL, Leake St, Kellerberrin

Kellerberrin Agricultural Hall 1997

The Agricultural Hall was opened on the corner of Leake and Bedford Sts in 1898. It is of random stone construction, and has been used as a school, a court house, and most recently as the town museum. There is no record of this hall being used for picture screenings, probably because of the presence of the Olympia and later the Bijou/Regent. There are also no records of screenings in the new Town Hall, opened in Massingham St, beside the Shire Offices, on 3 May 1959.

Photo: 1 exterior (Agricultural hall), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

BIJOU/ REGENT AND GARDENS, Massingham St, Kellerberrin

Bijou 1997

Perth entrepreneur Thomas Shafto opened a purpose-built cinema on 31 December 1929, in Massingham St, one building block from the south-east corner of Scott St. The building was designed by S. Rosenthal, built of local stone and leased to C. H. (Harry) Sherman. Across the road from the theatre lived a small boy who was bedridden at the time of the building of the theatre: Sherman was so sorry for him that he rigged up speakers so he could listen to the opening show. The local community had been invited to name the new theatre in a competition, with the prize to be a three months free pass. The theatre was duly christened the Bijou, and when the winner generously donated her prize to the local public school, to be awarded each week to the best pupil, no pupil to be allotted the prize more than once, the management matched her generosity by extending the award from three months to a year, and providing a similar pass for competition among pupils of the Convent school:

The building itself comprises an entrance vestibule flanked by shops, with cloak rooms next entrance to the theatre proper. The first floor is utilised as residential quarters for the lessee….The theatre is provided with a level floor for dancing and covers an area of 70ft by 40ft. The whole of the walls are finished white with curved fibrous plaster ceiling with ample perforated ventilation panels in same, secured to steel principals. One feature of this ceiling is the absence of steel rods across same, a defect common in many other halls. High windows, pivot-hung, are fixed on the side walls to give thorough ventilation. A roomy biograph box housed the projection plant, which is of the most up-to-date pattern…

Special attention has been paid to the lighting, the theatre being supplied with ornate semi-indirect lighting giving a soft light, and the outside of the building being flood lit.

A feature of the interior is the ornate proscenium and perforated panelling on sides of same and over the exit doors, relieving the simplicity of the interior. (Eastern Recorder, 3 January 1930)

Synchronised music and sound effects were provided from the first screening. There was also a stage and kitchen, making the premises suitable for all manner of community activities on those nights of the week when films were not being shown. At the opening, plans were to screen on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and to hold a weekly cabaret on Mondays.

In April 1931 the lease of the Bijou was purchased by E.P.Nelson, of Kalgoorlie, who appointed Eddie Lappin as manager. He re-opened the theatre, now named the Regent, on 9 May 1931, with a promise of talkies as soon as possible. Around 1937-8, he also opened a gardens at the back, with entry through the theatre, the screen located against the back wall of the theatre, and the bio-box at the far end of the gardens.

At the beginning of the war the venue closed for a short time till it was purchased in 1939 by Consolidated Theatres, who appointed as manager Arnold Cook – who had, as a small boy, listened to the opening of the Bijou many years before. During the war the theatre had its own lighting plant and two generators, one for lights and one for arcs. The old electricity plant was just behind the theatre.

Cook left the job for some time while working in Perth and was replaced by Les Fiedler, who re-located the gardens’ bio-box. He cut ports into the back wall of the theatre stage, so it was now possible to project from the stage onto the screen now positioned at the rear of the gardens where the old bio-box had been. This was more convenient for the operator, but it made the screen more vulnerable to high winds – sheets would occasionally blow off, though this did not happen during a screening.

Cook did not immediately come back to the Regent after his return to Kellerberrin. Then he borrowed money to purchase the lease from Consolidated and opened in his own right on 1 September 1948. The last screening of the Regent Theatre and Gardens was on 19 May 1963, only days before the opening of the drive-in.

In 1997 the building still stood, with alterations to the facade but otherwise intact, and was used as business premises and a dwelling.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1962/3
Post Office Directory 1931-1949
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.120
Eastern Recorder 1928-1963
Interview (Ina Bertrand): R. Yelland (1985)
Informant : Arnold Cook (1986, 1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

HENWOOD’S HALL/ OLYMPIA PICTURES, Sewell St, Kellerberrin

At Kellerberrin, Olympia Pictures operated in the Olympia Hall through the twenties. The hall, on the east side of Sewell St between Hammond and Forrest streets, was owned by S.C.Henwood who also owned the electricity plant. Shortly after the Bijou opened in competition, Henwood sold his interest in the company to A.C.Hart. The new management renovated the Olympia, improving the seating and heating and providing new curtains and a new screen for the re-opening on 14 March 1930. They promised ´comfort and convenience’ for patrons:

Excellent music is being provided by a local orchestra and a Strine machine is being installed for effects and vocal parts of pictures. Long intervals will not be permitted, and screen songs are to be introduced to encourage the public to sing and be happy – in fact, the management is out to make patrons thoroughly enjoy every evening they spend at the Olympia. (Eastern Recorder, 14 March 1930)

Prices were reduced and plans were announced for the introduction of talkies. However, soon after this the Olympia burnt down.

Sources: Eastern Recorder 1928-1930
Informant: Arnold Cook (1997)

HILLVIEW DRIVE-IN, Massingham St West, Kellerberrin

Kellerberrin Drive In 1980′ s

Kellerberrin Drive In 1980′ s

Kellerberrin Drive In 1980’s

Projection room 1980’s

This drive-in opened 24 May 1963, with a capacity of 150 cars. It was constructed and managed by Arnold Cook, who moved across from the Regent Theatre, which closed just before the drive-in opened. The drive-in screen was 60′ x 25’10”, 16′ above the ground. It was the first all-steel screen in the west, made by a local steelworks, with zinc anneal sheets pop rivetted to the metal frame, and it stayed perfectly square even during the Meckering earthquake. The drive-in was leased to another operator in 1983 and closed in June 1985.

In 1997 only the ticket box remained, and a house had been built on the site.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1963/4 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.136
Max Bell, ´Western Australian country drive-ins’, Kino, no.43, March 1993, p.28
Eastern Recorder , 16 May 1963
Merredin Mercury , 1965
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)
Informant: Arnold Cook (1986 & 1997)

Photos: 2 exteriors, b&w, 1991 (Max Bell, ´Western Australian country drive-ins’, Kino, no.43, March 1993, p.28)
1 interior (biobox), b&w, 1991 (Max Bell, ´Western Australian country drive-ins’, Kino, no.43, March 1993, p.28)

4 exterior, colour . 1080’s , Max Bell

KELMSCOTT

KELMSCOTT HALL, Kelmscott

In the thirties, Saturday night was picture night in the Kelmscott Hall, run by the Hatfields. In 1949, R.R.Perrie, who was screening regularly in the Armadale hall and gardens, contracted with the Road Board to provide weekly screenings in the Kelmscott Hall for a period of five years: Saturday was still the regular picture night, but certain Saturdays (Easter, Show Week and the third Saturday in May, June, July and September) were excluded and would be replaced by another picture night for those weeks only.

Local historian Daphne Popham explains:

Kelmscott picture shows were held in the Kelmscott Hall, but never very consistently. Indeed, newspapers from the 1940s onwards printed speculation about the possibility of them starting, or re-starting, and published a number of plaintive enquiries. Mr Tilka showed films for a while in the ‘fifties, but to a rather irregular timetable.

Sources: Armadale-Kelmscott Road Board records, held by Armadale-Kelmscott Historical Society
City of Armadale, Municipal Heritage Inventory, no.165
Daphne Popham, First stage south: a history of the Armadale-Kelmscott district, Town of Armadale 1980, p.148
Informant: Armadale-Kelmscott Historical Society

KELMSCOTT OPEN AIR PICTURES, Kelmscott

This venue was on boggy ground, near the river, and operated during the twenties. Woolworths is now on the site.

Sources: Informants: Armadale-Kelmscott Historical Society

KENDENUP

HALL, Kendenup

This was listed as on the Kanzler circuit for a short time in the early fifties.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1950/51 – 1951/2
Photo: 1 exterior, b7w, n.d., Rhonda Glover, Plantagenet: ´Rich and beautiful’…: a history of the Shire of Plantagenet , WA, Shire of Plantagenet, 1979, p.123, plate 18

KENWICK

KENWICK PICTURES, Kenwick

There are references to picture nights being run for local groups such as the RSL Women’s Auxiliary as early as 1949, and to the Parents and Citizens Committee running regular weekly screenings in 1950. Bart Mott’s Star Entertainments Circuit visited the town from 1951/2 to 1952/3. Reeves and Howie are listed as proprietors of the Kenwick Pictures, in the local hall from 1953 to 1958. An Alfresco gardens was built in September 1957, but it is not clear whether this operated as a film venue, and if so whether it was in conjunction or in competition with the pictures in the hall. The hall was on the circuit run by F.Waldron from 1958/9 to 1960/61.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1950/51-1960/61
Coastal Districts Star 1 November 1956, 12 September 1957
South Western Advertiser, 30 June 1949, 11 May 1950
West Australian, 1954 – 1955

KINGSLEY/ GALAXY DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Goollelal Drive, Kingsley

Kingsley 1997

Kingsley 1997

The Kingsley drive-in opened 1973. The name was almost immediately changed to the Galaxy and from 1978 it operated as a specialist R-movie venue. By 1994 it was the only surviving drive-in cinema in the suburban district, and is still operating, with general product.

Sources: Kino, no.25, September 1988, p.23; no.49, September 1994, p.31
West Australian, 1973 – 2000

Photos: 2 exteriors, colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)

KIRUP

KIRUP HALL, Station St, Kirup

In Station St, Kirup, on the north-east corner of the highway, is a large public hall. The external walls are timber with cement sheet above, and the roof is of corrugated iron. The whole structure is painted pale grey. There does not appear to be a bio-box, and there have been various additions (such as a supper room). The basic structure looks about 1950 vintage, but could be earlier.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.111
A.C.Frost, Baylya-Balinga: a history of Balingup, Donnybrook-Balingup Shire Publishers 1979, pp.49-50

KOJONUP

AGRICULTURAL HALL, Spring St, Kojonup

The Agricultural Hall was a simple brick structure, built in 1897 in Spring St, north of the barracks. It was almost immediately handed over to the Road Board, but was neglected enough that complaints were being made by 1900. In 1903, alterations were approved, which lengthened the hall by twenty feet, and added a stage, a ladies’ room, and a room for the use of the Road Board. These alterations were completed by April 1903, but in 1909 the Road Board moved into new separate offices. The Corricks stopped in the town in December 1909, presumably screening in the Agricultural Hall, and Tivoli Pictures presented at least one screening there in 1914.

The hall was later converted into a private home, and eventually demolished.

Sources: Merle Bignell, First the spring: a history of the Shire of Kojonup , Western Australia, UWA Press for Kojonup Shire Council, Perth 1971, pp.165, 194-5

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Merle Bignell, First the spring: a history of the Shire of Kojonup, Western Australia, UWA Press for Kojonup Shire Council, Perth 1971, Plate 36

KOJONUP DRIVE-IN, John St, Kojonup

Kojonup Drive In 1988

Kojonup Drive In 1980’s

Kojonup Drive In 1980’s

Kojonup Drive In 1980’s

Joe Rourke built the drive-in, at the end of John St, which runs to the east of Forsythe Rd. It opened with provision for 150 cars on 10 April 1964 and then Rourke closed his screenings in the hall.

The drive-in had Simplex projectors with 14″ arcs and a screen built by Melville Engineering. The cafe served take-away food before the show and at interval, and seats were provided under the cafe verandah. The venue screened four nights a week, with changes of programme on Wednesday, Friday/Saturday and Sunday. Rourke managed this drive-in himself, and placed managers in his other venues.

When Joe Rourke died in 1972, the drive-in was sold to Allan Jones of Busselton, and in the nineties had been on the market for some time: in 1997 the concession building was being used as a residence, but all the facilities were still in place (ramps, ticket box, screen), if rather down-at-heel.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1964/5 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.136
Max Bell, Kino, no.43, March 1993, p.31
Great Southern Herald , 10 April 1964
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Allan Jones (1978), Alan Larkin (1985), Brian Rourke (1997)

Photos; 1 ,colour, 1988. Roy Mudge
3 colour , 1980’s Max Bell

MEMORIAL HALL, Albany Highway, Kojonup

Kojonup Memorial Hall 1997

The Kojonup branch of the Returned Servicemen’s League was formed in 1919, and local historian Merle Bignell (pp.211-214) describes how this contributed to pictures in the town:

These men, overwhelmed by their own good fortune, wanted most of all to establish some substantial monument to their fallen comrades and, with this in mind, land on the corner of the highway and Broomehill Road was purchased from the publican, Albert Sims, for £35.
It was suggested that an obelisk be erected there, inscribed with the names of all from the district who had died in the war. To raise the necessary funds various functions and raffles were held. Then some bright spark hit on the idea of running silent movies and this they did most successfully for almost two years.
They were shown in the Theatre Royal and Miss Ivy Krakouer and Miss F.Doig (later Mrs Levi Treasure) took turns to collect the door money and play the piano. The films and projector were managed by two pairs, Arnold Potts and J.E.H.Robinson (the resident Agricultural Bank inspector), or Levi Treasure and Tom Davis (a Boer War veteran who was farming on the Collie Road). Sometimes, the local police constable had to be present to turn disappointed customers away when there was a full house.
The inadequacies of the existing public buildings were quite obvious and when it was suggested that the money raised might be better spent on a large public hall in Kojonup which would meet the requirements of the district for many years to come, it was enthusiastically supported by the returned men especially when the idea of incorporating in the building a Hall of Honour, in memory of the fallen, was included.
Consequently a deputation of J.E.H.Robinson and Arthur Liddell waited on the Road Board at their meeting of 7 September 1921 to submit the idea and explain that they were prepared to hand over £300 they had collected to decorate the Hall of Honour. The Road Board members were sympathetic but finances were not abundant just then and they would not promise anything.

Negotiations between the RSL and the Road Board continued, leading to a referendum on 15 November 1924, which indicated overwhelming public support for the building of the new hall. Architect F.J.Coote of Kendenup was engaged, and builder A.Thomson of Katanning, and so the Memorial Hall was built on the Albany Highway, on the north-east corner of the intersection of Harrison Place. The foundation stone was laid on 11 November 1925, and the venue was officially opened on 20 August 1926.

P.J.(Joe) Rourke began weekly screenings in the hall in the early thirties. Rourke’s circuit was based in Kojonup in the early forties, visiting also Denmark, Cranbrook, Tambellup and Gnowangerup. After the war, it contracted to just Kojonup, Denmark and later Mount Barker, and all these venues were permanently equipped with Raycophone J3 projectors.

In the Kojonup hall, seats could not be booked, but four people always had their own reserved seat: these included Dr Abernethy and the matron of the hospital, so that if they were wanted for a medical emergency they could be found quickly.

Screenings in the hall ceased in the late sixties: Brian Rourke says they stopped when the drive-in opened in 1964, but Roy Mudge says both hall and gardens were still operating in 1968, and at that time the bio-box was built out into the hall on pillars. After screenings ceased, the projectors from the Kojonup hall went to Guildford Grammar School, where the Rourke boys had gone to school.

Sources: Merle Bignell, First the spring: a history of the Shire of Kojonup, Western Australia , UWA Press for Kojonup Shire Council, Perth 1971
Post Office Directory 1945-7, 1949
Great Southern Herald, 13 June 1914, 10 April 1964
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Roy Mudge (1997), Brian Rourke (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (Memorial Hall) Merle Bignell,First the spring: a history of the Shire of Kojonup, Western Australia, UWA Press for Kojonup Shire Council, Perth 1971, Plate 38
1 exterior, b&w, 1971, Merle Bignell, First the spring: a history of the Shire of Kojonup, Western Australia , UWA Press for Kojonup Shire Council, Perth 1971 Plate 39

KONDININ

KONDININ DRIVE-IN, Graham St, Kondinin

Kondinin Drive In 1986

In December 1925 the first Kondinin primary school, which had been located on the north-west corner of the junction of Graham and Nichol Sts, was relocated to north Karlgarin. On 28 April 1966 the drive-in was opened on the site, with provision for 120 cars. It was operated first by Jack Llewellyn, and from 1970 by Graham Ford, till it closed as attendance was affected by television and video.

In 1997, the bio-box and concession building and ticket box were still there, but the site was otherwise derelict.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Shire of Kondinin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, no.114
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.136
Narrogin Observer, 28 April 1966
Informant: Brian Richard (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1986, Roy Mudge

KONDININ HALL, Jones St, Kondinin

The new Kondinin Hall was designed by architects Horsfall and Coote, and opened on 1 September 1934. It was a red brick building with a corrugated iron roof, and with the stage and kitchen constructed out of timber salvaged from the first hall in Rankin St. Paddy Baker’s film screenings, which had begun in the town before 1940, were transferred to the new hall and continued there till the mid-sixties, when they were taken over by Basil Colmer.

In the sixties, renovations were made at the front and back of the hall, leaving the old hall enclosed by the additions. Screenings ceased in the late sixties.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1967/8
Audrey Webb, Kondinin-Karlgarin-Hyden: community, time and place , Shire of Kondinin 1988
Shire of Kondinin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, no. 18
Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. Shire of Kondinin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, no. 18
1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Audrey Webb, Kondinin-Karlgarin-Hyden: community, time and place , Shire of Kondinin 1988, p.171

KONDININ ROADS BOARD HALL, Rankin St, Kondinin

Kondinin Hall interior 1996

Kondnin Hall 1996 projection

The Kondinin Hall was built in 1917 in Rankin St, near the corner of Gordon St, to a design of Alexander Rankin. It was administered by a local committee, until taken over by the Roads Board in 1927, and was used for all the social activities of the district. It was built of timber, with a corrugated iron gable roof, and a section added on one end for the stage and on the other end in 1929 for a bio-box, to make life easier for Paddy Baker, who screened there every fortnight on a Friday.

This building was demolished and the timber used for the construction of the stage and kitchen in the new hall, built in Jones St.

Sources: Shire of Kondinin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, no.133
Audrey Webb, Kondinin-Karlgarin-Hyden: community, time and place , Shire of Kondinin 1988
Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, 1929, Audrey Webb, Kondinin-Karlgarin-Hyden: community, time and place , Shire of Kondinin 1988, p.160

2 , colour, interior, 1996 , Roy Mudge

KOOKYNIE

TOWN HALL, Cumberland St, Kookynie

Kookynie was one of the boom towns of the eastern goldfields – large enough by the start of the twentieth century to be gazetted a town in 1901. By 1905 it had a population of 1,500, substantial buildings and all major services: schools, a hospital, six hotels, shops, fire brigade, sporting teams, etc. Photographs of the Town Hall show a small corrugated iron building, with access in the front wall through a door flanked by two small windows. No evidence of a bio-box can be gleaned from photographs of the exterior, and there is no photo of the interior: no-one has mentioned the inside of the hall in reminiscences to the local historian. The Salvationa Army Biorama Company visited the town in October 1903, March 1904 and December 1904, but it is not clear which venue they used. Photos of the Town Hall exist in 1907 and 1909, so it was probably here that Bartlett’s Electric Biograph and Blind Entertainers performed in January 1907. However, it may have been the Mechanics Institute, which was the bigger hall, used for dances and parties.

Sources: Reminiscences of R.W.Bradstreet (unpublished)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photos: 2 exteriors (Town Hall), b&w, 1907 and 1909 (Goldfields Historical Society)

KOOLAN ISLAND

OPEN AIR PICTURES, Koolan Island

From 1951/2 to 1957/8 Film Weekly lists the Rowells of Derby as screening at Yampi Sound, which was probably Koolan and/or Cockatoo Islands. From 1963/4 to 1968/9, they are listed as screening at Koolan Island specifically, as part of their small circuit. I can find no further information about this connection.

Like Cockatoo Island, Koolan Island was a company town, built and owned by BHP, to house their shifting population of workers, varying from about 400 to about 800. The cinema was an open air venue, centrally located among the townsite amenities – behind the main supermarket, between the club and the swimming pool. As BHP operated continuous 24-hr rolling shift-work for all the workers, the cinema screenings were offered two or three times a week so everyone had a chance to come and see each film. It operated all year round: in wet weather a screening might be cancelled, or the audience would scatter for home when the rain became too heavy, but in lighter rain patrons would all rush for shelter under the biobox, determined to see the end of the movie.

The venue held about 150 canvas deckchairs, placed on a slope, with no perimeter fence. Entrance fees were small, and no-one seemed to mind if the children slipped in without paying at all. At the back, there was a small kiosk and a timber bio-box, built on poles. The equipment was old (about 1948 vintage) and unreliable: even the technicians from Perth could not improve it, because no spare parts could be purchased. By the end, the carbons had to be manually manipulated and the sound system could not be adjusted to real clarity, making the projectionists’ task quite difficult.

Projectionists were employed by the company: they booked the films, collected and prepared them for screenings, screened, then prepared the films for return to Perth. Pay was modest, but it was an interest outside work, and provided much-appreciated pocket-money. Terry Walters, who was one of these projectionists from 1987 to 1992, remembers:

There was one night when Edwin Bingwa and I were sitting there together and there was a particularly interesting part of the movie, and we both missed the first spot, and the second spot came on and there was a mad scramble, and we both lost it, and the screen went black! It was a really exciting part of the movie, so there was an uproar from down below. And we had watched a Peter Sellers movie the week before, where Inspector Clouzot had said “I fooooled you, didn’t I?” And we both turned around simultaneously and said “We fooooled them, didn’t we?”

While Cockatoo Island was operating, films were switched between there and Koolan Island, but after Cockatoo closed in 1985 the films came from Derby and were returned to Perth.

In the early eighties, it was usually half to three quarters full, with an occasional full house for a popular film like Crocodile Dundee. It was commercial television that finally made the cinema unviable. The town had always had some television: the ABC and mining television, which provided an occasional movie and some local news. These had not proved much competition for the cinema, but once GWN arrived the community began to lose interest in the cinema. Even eliminating the entrance fee made little difference, but the island manager wanted to keep it going. So in 1990 the Lions Club stepped in, taking over the Progress Association kiosk next door as their headquarters, and operating the cinema with volunteer labour and the support of the company for maintenance costs. It became a family venue, with a sausage sizzle available, so the whole family could come down for tea and a movie.

These screenings continued till the island closed in 1992. The whole town was demolished and the island reforested, leaving no trace of habitation.

Sources: Ina Bertrand, ‘Going to the pictures in the Kimberley, part 2′, Kino 73, Spring 2000, pp. 26-27
Film Weekly Directory 1951/2 – 1957/8, 1963/4 – 1968/9
Informants: Andrew Ensor (1999), Terry Walters (2000)

KOOLYANOBBING

HALL, Koolyanobbing

In the late sixties and into the seventies the Progress Association was listed as exhibitor in the hall. Before the distributors would provide a film supply, they asked the nearest 35mm exhibitor (Jim Goodin, in Southern Cross) if he had any objection. He replied that he had no objection so long as the Progress Association screened only films that he had already screened in Southern Cross.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)
Informant: Jim Goodin (1998)

KOORDA

AGRICULTURAL HALL, Birdwood St, Koorda

Koorda Agricultural Hall 1997

The first hall in Koorda was a small timber construction built in the bush at the southern end of town in 1917: it was used for every community activity, including as a schoolhouse. Then, in 1924 the Agricultural Hall was built onto the eastern side of the old hall, facing onto Koorda St, and the old hall became the supper room. In 1958, the main street was completely re-aligned, so that that section of Koorda St was absorbed into a municipal precinct taking up the whole area between Railway St and Allenby Avenue, south of Birdwood St. A new, large, red-brick hall was built across the Birdwood St frontage of this precinct, facing onto Allenby Ave: the old main hall was demolished, and the first hall was renamed Pioneers Hall and became the centrepiece of a Pioneers Park.

In the thirties, the Koorda Agricultural Hall was on Paddy Baker’s circuit. Screenings took place weekly, on Sunday night after tennis and tea at Aitken’s place (Mr Aitken was then Chairman of the Roads Board).

The Koorda community remember Baker fondly: he gave the takings to charity occasionally, and never charged for children. Baker’s own memories of Koorda were perhaps less fond:

I got blown up in a garage at Koorda on Christmas Eve 1928 – smashed my elbow and I carried my arm strapped to my waist for over a year, paralysed. Except for a fortnight off at Wyalkatchem hospital I carried on as usual – changed tyres with one hand, drove the car, threaded the film on the machine and so on, sometimes using my nose as another hand. I had to do all this of course or there would have been no show and no living for me. (quoted in Broomhall, p.244)

“Baker films – as old as the industry” was spliced on the front of every programme. Baker had his own transportable projectors, which had specially-made bases that he left in the halls, and he carried modified projectors that he could screw onto the base. Then he bought a pair of second-hand projectors and installed them permanently in the hall: Len Thompson overhauled them and got them running perfectly.

The venue was not particularly comfortable: seating was on forms, only some of which had backs (some are still in the town museum), and people took cushions and rugs if they wished to be warmer or more comfortable. As film was the main entertainment in the town at the time, everyone went: children slept under the seats in the hall or in cars in the street, which was considered quite safe.

Baker screened in the old hall till it was pulled down, and in 1958 he moved into the new hall: from 1955 Len Thompson was assistant projectionist. Local farmer and amateur photographer George Lodge had occasionally run the pictures if Baker was not available, and tried to continue on his own after Baker stopped when the drive-in opened. However, Lodge had trouble getting film supply, and did not have a projectionist’s licence, so this attempt was short-lived. He was more successful when he started private screenings at his farm, with people sitting on hay bales in his shed or taking their own chairs.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41-1945/6, 1950/51-1959/60, 1963/4-1964/5
Koorda Tourism Development Committee, Welcome to Corn Dolly Country, n.d.
Hellen Antonio-Crake, Koorda: a district emerges, Koorda Shire Council 1974
F.H.Broomhall, Mount Marshall: a history of the district and its people from the earliest times to 1942 , Shire of Mount Marshall, 1983, p.244
Informants: W. Aitken (Koorda, 27 August 1997), Marj Delane (Koorda, 27 August 1997), Len Thompson (Koorda, 27 August 1997)
Photo: 1 exterior (Pioneers Hall), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

KOORDA DRIVE-IN, Koorda St, Koorda

Koorda Drive In 1997

Koorda Drive In 1987

Koorda Drive In 1987

Koorda Drive In 1987

Candy Bar ,Koorda Drive In 1987

Projection Room, Koorda Drive In 1987

The Shire of Koorda built the drive-in and paid for it with a loan of £2,500. It opened in October 1965 (Antonio-Crake p.84), on the south-east corner of Orchard St and what is now Aitken Rd (then Koorda St). Paddy Baker was the first lessee, and he employed two local men, Len Thompson and W.J. (Jim) Weymouth, to operate it for him.

Baker sent the films up from Perth, and Thompson and Weymouth would send them on to another of Baker’s drive-in circuit, at Trayning: Koorda opened on Friday and Saturday, and Trayning on Sunday. The venue, which held 110 cars, filled several times: Len Thompson remembers three overflow nights on The Sound of Music, and two nights on Gone with the Wind.

There was seating for about thirty inside the kiosk, and the people from the township often used this: cars would come from all around the district. The gates opened at 6 p.m., when the kiosk started serving meals, and the film would start at 8 p.m. Lil Weymouth was cook until she died, and then the kiosk was let out on contract, as it had not been a great money-spinner.

While they were on the local power supply the voltage might drop away 30-40 volts, and the conversion from AC to DC also entailed a drop in voltage: if the voltage dropped the automatic feed on the carbon arcs would also stop, the arcs would pull apart and the light would fade on the screen.

But it was not such technical problems that led to the demise of the drive-in: like most such venues, Koorda closed because of the drop in patronage after television. Where they had been getting about ninety cars on a good night, and perhaps thirty to forty even on a bad night, after TV they were lucky to get six people! So the venue closed about 1983.

In 1987 it re-opened: Steve Marvin of Perth screened once a month at first, then less regularly in the nineties, selecting dates to fit in with other community activities in the town. The Shire still owned the venue and renovated it in the mid-90s, so that it looked quite smart. The speakers hung from their stands in a sign of faith that vandals would not interfere, and patrons still travelled from other towns in the surrounding districts whenever a show was on. Chris Simmons reports that Dennis McKenna operated the venue monthly over the summer for several years, and that Chris was himself the projectionist for part of this time, coming up from Perth to screen at Mukinbudin on Friday night, then on to Koorda on the Saturday night. Chris was screening at Koorda over the summer of 2000-2001.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Hellen Antonio-Crake, Koorda: a district emerges, Koorda Shire Council 1974
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.136
Max Bell, Kino, no.21, September 1987, p.22
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)
Interview (Peter Morris): Paddy Baker (1978)
Informants: W. Aitken (1997), Marj Delane (1997), Chris Simmons (2002), Len Thompson (1997)
Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

3 exterior , colour, 1987 , Roy Mudge

2 interior, colour, 1987 , Roy Mudge

KUKERIN

PIONEERS MEMORIAL HALL, Kukerin

Kukerin Pioneers Hall 1997

Kukerin Hall 1992

Kukerin Hall interior 1992

Kukerin Hall 1992, projection area

Dumbleyung was the base for a circuit in the twenties that went along the outer Great Southern railway and spur lines, operated by N.S.Harvey at first, but sold to Percy Byass in mid-1928. Unfortunately, his operation closed when he was burnt out at Kukerin only two months later and lost all his equipment and his vehicle. Around 1943, J. A. (Jack) Wilson, travelled in an ex-army ´pie truck’, in a circuit that included Kukerin and Newdegate, and around 1946 this circuit was operated by Vince Lucas and in the late fifties and early sixties by Paddy Baker.

Films began again much later, in the new hall, officially opened 11 May 1966, which had a built-in bio-box. Although no films have been screened there for many years, the projectors, now owned by the Progress Association, are still in the bio-box.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41, 1958/9 – 1962/3
Informant: Alan Thiel (Lake Grace 1997)
Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior, colour, 1992, Roy Mudge
2 interior, colour, 1992, Roy Mudge

KULIN

KULIN DRIVE-IN, Johnson St, Kulin

Kulin Drive In 1987

Kulin Drive In 1987

Kulin Drive In 1987

In the sixties, the Shire of Kulin began investing in what local historian William Greble calls: ´amenities which could be called “luxuries” in the sense that they were not designed primarily to satisfy the economic necessities of life in Kulin.’ (p.215) This included a drive-in theatre, as well as a sporting pavilion and swimming pool.

The drive-in, opened 10 March 1966, and catering for 150 cars, replaced Paddy Baker’s screenings in the hall. This was one of those venues built on Shire land with Shire funding, then leased to a private operator, first Graham Ford, then Brian Richard (from about 1977), then Lyn Parker (of Lake Grace, from about 1980). Parker would run the same film one week in Lake Grace and the following week in Kulin.

William Greble (pp.237-8) describes how the drive-in contributed to changing social interaction within the town:

On evenings when films were shown, car-loads of young people would arrive, independently of their parents and up to an hour after the screening had started. Often, the film would be forgotten as they joked, drank beer, talked about the courting occupants of other cars or about the possibilities of ‘conning up’ girls at interval, or visited friends in other cars. At the interval, young people congregated in the refreshment kiosk, often staying there half an hour after the start of the second feature.

The venue closed in about 1983, which must have left a gap in the social life of the young people of the town.

Sources: W. E. Greble, A bold yeomanry: social change in a wheat belt district – Kulin 1848-1970 , Creative Research in association with Kulin Shire Council, Perth 1979
Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.136
Narrogin Observer , 3 March 1966
West Australian 30 July 1997, p.7
Informants: Lyn Parker (1997), Brian Richard (1997)

Photos; 3 exterior, colour, 1987, Roy Mudge

MEMORIAL HALL, Johnston St, Kulin

Kulin Memorial Hall 1997

The first hall in Kulin was the Agricultural Hall, a timber building with a corrugated iron roof built in Day St in 1919. It does not seem that films were ever screened there.

The Kulin Roads Board was formed in 1926 and in 1928 the present hall was built in Johnston St, on the corner of Gordon St. The Municipal Inventory describes it thus:

The place is a brick construction with a corrugated iron roof. The hall is a pavilion with a gable roof. The hall entry and the Roads Board offices form a continuum across the Johnston St frontage, with a hipped roof. The spaces are not internally connected, a parapet wall separates them, and they each have a separate street entry. The parapet feature is rendered and painted a light cream colour. The remainder of the frontage is rendered upwards from a string course level at about 12 courses. An arched entry leads onto a covered porch on the south end of the frontage. A double door then opens into the former Roads Board office and Council Chambers. The main hall entry is also a covered porch, with two sets of double doors with fanlights above. The hall has a timber floor, decorative lined ceiling on the rake, and steps up to the stage, each side. The stage is located at the opposite end of the hall from the entry. Behind the stage is an extensive kitchen area extending the entire width of the hall, under the main gable roof. The building is an example of the architects still using European craftsmanship in the carpentry, brickwork and monumental decoration. It was a relatively rare occurrence at the time.

The foundation stone was laid on 20 March 1928, and the building was intended to be a memorial for World War 1. The rail connection to Narrogin was opened in 1915, and trains arrived each Thursday, which became market day and the day that films were screened in the hall. Kulin was on Paddy Baker’s circuit from 1928, and he put on a free show once a year on school sports’ day. Local historian William E. Greble describes how the Kulin Electricity and Cinematograph Co was owned and managed by local businessmen, who arranged that the town’s street lights could be turned off if the power was needed for the film screenings. Screenings in the hall ceased when Baker opened the drive-in in 1966.

In recent years, projection equipment was again installed, taken out of the Tardin Agricultural College, but in 1997 that had not yet been used.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
W. E. Greble, A bold yeomanry: social change in a wheat belt district – Kulin 1848-1970 , Creative Research in association with Kulin Shire Council, Perth 1979
Shire of Kulin, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, nos.4,34
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.112
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Roy Mudge (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

KULJA

HALL, Kulja

The town of Kulja grew up around the railway and in the thirties the community purchased the Kirup Hall and relocated it to Kulja. Paddy Baker screened there till the town died in 1971 when the Government sold off the houses built for the railway workers. The hall was badly damaged in 1979 by cyclone Hazel. Perhaps it was not rebuilt, as there is now no hall there – just the wheat bin.

Sources: Koorda Tourism Development Committee, Welcome to Corn Dolly Country, n.d.
Hellen Antonio-Crake, Koorda: a district emerges, Koorda Shire Council 1974
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.112
Winifred Knapp, Who’d be a Farmer’s Wife, self-published?, n.d., pp.47-8

Photos: 1 exterior (1979), 1 interior (n.d.), b&w, Winifred Knapp, Who’d be a Farmer’s Wife, self-published?, n.d., p.47

KUNUNOPPIN

KUNUNOPPIN DRIVE-IN, cnr Wilson & Couper Sts, Kununoppin

This drive-in, with facilities for only fifty cars (the smallest in the district), was built by a group of local farmers. It opened in 1964, operated by J. Tilka, and was dismantled in 1983.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.136

KUNUNURRA

OPEN AIR PICTURES, Coolibah Drive, Kununurra

Kununurra Drive In 1997

Kununurra Drive In 1997

Kununurra is the eastern-most township in the Kimberley, on the road between Wyndham and Darwin. The town was founded in the early 1960s, to house the workers building the Ord River irrigation scheme and the big dam now known as Lake Argyle. From very early, a small open air picture show, seating 150 people on canvas deckchairs in an area half the size of the present venue, was operated by the company which built the diversion dam (Christiani, Nielson and Clough): it was at that time a service provided free by the company to its employees.

The Kununurra Progress Association (KPA) then bought the venue from the company, and ran it as an amenity for the town, as well as to raise money for other community activities and amenities. They set the entrance fee at around $20 for a family. Dennis O’Brien, who worked for the PWD in the 1960s and 1970s, was co-ordinator for the Picture Gardens, on behalf of the KPA, from at least 1972. The co-ordinator usually did the projecting, but if he was not available they would find other people in the community: the projectionist was paid, but other members of the committee all worked voluntarily. There was not a great turnover in volunteers: people gave time generously and prided themselves on being on the gate.

The whole town went to the pictures – it was where people met. The films travelled around among the various picture gardens in the north (Broome, Derby, Hall’s Creek, Wyndham, Kununurra), and sometimes a reel would be mislaid, and they would ring up and ask where it was and could it be sent on in time for the next screening!

The venue was surrounded by a mesh fence, and the bio-box was at first built of timber, but became dangerously infested with white ants. Also, there was sometimes trouble with vandals in the venue and with thieves breaking into the cars parked in the street outside. So, about 1983, the KPA leased the block of land next door, re-fenced the larger area, relocated the screen from facing south-east to facing north-east, and built a new bio-box and a new canteen. They considered building a proper drive-in, but the cost of installation of speaker stands was prohibitive, so they simply opened up the larger area to cars, and kept broadcast sound for all patrons – whether on the deckchairs or in their cars. The larger venue also had a stage: a simple corrugated iron box, to one side of the screen and facing south-east. All sorts of performers used this stage – imported companies (ballet, opera, etc) and local theatrical performances, by both schools and amateur groups.

Many local activities benefited from money raised by the KPA in the Picture Gardens. The Ambulance Service was staffed by volunteers, but all its equipment and running costs were provided by the KPA, until the St John Ambulance took over in the late eighties. Many local clubs were supported with seeding grants of up to one third of their costs, and others were provided with establishment loans. In their annual distribution of funds, the KPA had sometimes up to $40,000 to allocate. They met regular commitments first (the Ambulance, and annual promises as clubs were developing), then distributed the rest on application.

In the early years of the venue, screenings were twice a week – on Wednesday and Sunday – but people complained because the children were falling asleep in school on Monday morning, so they changed from Sunday to Saturday (which did not please those who were involved in sport on Saturday). Screenings started at 7 p.m. because it got dark so early. The venue operated all year, regardless of weather. If it mizzled the screening continued: some people would shelter under the roof over the stage, and look ‘sideways’. But if it really rained hard the screening would stop and ‘pass-out’s would be given for a later screening. In colder weather the locals would wear long trousers and jumpers, and take blankets – the tourists, who usually came from colder climes anyway, did not seem to feel the cold.

Television came about 1983/4 and the income from the Picture Gardens slumped. Though its parent body, the KPA, went through a difficult time in the mid-80s, the cinema screenings continued irregularly, still run by the co-ordinator appointed by the KPA. From the mid-90s audiences began returning to the cinema, as people realised the social value of a night out. But it was no longer the only entertainment in town…

By the early 1990s young people had vandalised the venue (cutting canvas on seats, breaking into the bio-box, etc). Another problem was the lights on the nearby football ground, which intruded onto the screen: a compromise was worked out, that, if the pictures were running on a football night, the one light which most affected the screen would be turned off. Then, in 1998, a storm took the roof off the bio-box and the rain affected the equipment: it was touch and go whether the cinema could continue. The SES provided emergency cover, while the KPA decided what to do. Roy Pipe called a meeting of the old KPA, and established a steering committee, which called a public meeting. The 75 people who attended were told that the equipment had to be serviced, the bio-box rebuilt, and this would take a continuing commitment. One group of people wanted to see the land sold and the money put towards a new football club, but the KPA constitution did not allow this – the land had to be put to the use of the whole community. So a group (including many young people) decided to start up the KPA again, and to develop the Picture Gardens venue as a safe community facility for young people, incorporating the drive-in for evening use, but also with a skate ramp, basketball courts, driver training rinks, and cafes where the young people could meet but also learn hospitality skills. Tess Nekrasov (editor of the Kimberley Echo) was appointed cinema co-ordinator, and the venue was closed till volunteers could repair and renovate in preparation for re-opening. An agreement was reached with Sun Pictures in Broome, to ensure better film supply. Ron Tutt came up from Perth to provide a two-day intensive course for volunteers in how to maintain and operate projectors, and entered into an agreement with the committee to look after maintenance on their equipment. The venue re-opened in August 1999, with seating for 100 walk-ins and room for 100 cars.

Tess Nekrasov, who continues as a committee member of KPA, reports that:

in that first season in August-November 1999, the Picture Gardens screened two movies on Friday and Saturday nights, and recovered all previously accumulated debts. The venue now operates at a profit. Since 2000, the venue has operated on Saturday nights during the Dry season, usually with two films. Additional screenings are organised to coincide with key community events such as the Ord Valley Muster in May and NAIDOC Week in June/July. The KPA employs a part-time coordinator, Narelle Susac, and the facility is operating independently. Some film programming is shared with the Wyndham Picture Gardens… The grounds are also used for concerts and recently, the biggest-ever underage disco in Kununurra, run by the Blue Light committee, attended by almost 800 teenagers. A landscaping plan is now underway, with a bore providing water for a new lawn in front of the screen. Furthermore, the KPA is in the process of launching an arthouse film society that will use 16mm/rear projection equipment. There are still some members of the community who think we should sell the land and move elsewhere, but the sentiments from the wider community are unequivocally “stay put”..

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1962/3 – 1971
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.110
Ina Bertrand, ‘Going to the pictures in the Kimberley’, part 3, Kino 74, Summer 2000, pp.39-41
Interviews: Diane Donohue (1999), Margaret Lawson (1999), Tess Nekrasov (1999)
Informants: Neil Butcher (1999), Tess Nekrasov (2003)
Photos: 1 exterior (biobox, seating, screen), b&w, undated (early sixties?), Battye 816B, Series TB4596
3 exteriors, colour, 1999, Graeme Bertrand

KWINANA

KWINANA COMMUNITY ARTS CENTRE, Sulphur Rd, Kwinana

The Kwinana Community Arts Centre was officially opened on 12 March 1991. It contained a small theatre, which was occasionally hired for commercial film screenings by visiting exhibitors. In 1995, the Arts Centre purchased its own projection equipment and began regular screenings, every Friday and Saturday night, with additional screenings for special occasions like school holidays and seniors’ screenings.

MELODY DRIVE-IN, Office Rd, Kwinana Beach

The management of the Melody theatre (the Ray family) built a drive-in on the corner of Patterson St and Office Rd, on the boundary of Rockingham, and often informally referred to as the Rockingham drive-in. When it opened in 1961, the theatre had facilities for 450 cars, but this was reduced to 240 in 1971. In the eighties, it was sold to Jim Woods of Westralian Drive-ins, who installed new equipment, which was sold off after closure (some going to Murdoch University). Date of closure is not clear, but it was no longer in use by the mid-eighties. In 1997, the screen still stood in a sea of grass growing along the ramps.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1961/2 – 1971
Public Works Department, building permit (Battye 1459)
Kino, no.34, December 1990, p.24; no.35, March 1991, p.24; no.41, September 1992, p.27
West Australian 1964 – 1970, 1981 – 1982, 1985
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Jack Bidstrup (1985), Lindsay Morris (1997)

KWINANA BEACH HALL, Kwinana Beach

A.E. and D.Briggs’ circuit visited Kwinana between 1954/5 and 1957/8, before the new hall was built in 1958 with a screen and film projection booth.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1954/5 – 1957/8
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes,Sussex, 1986 p.31

Quicklinks

LAKE GRACE

HILLCREST DRIVE-IN, Stubbs Rd, Lake Grace

Lake Grace Drive in 1980’s

Laurie Thiel, who was screening in the Lake Grace Hall, purchased forty acres of freehold land from P.E.Trevennen, east of the town, on the north side of Stubbs St. Part of this was acquired for the new road, so the final size of the drive-in site was 23 acres. The land had been used as a rubbish dump, so while the drive-in was being planned an old carbody was left overturned on the corner of the site, the slogan ´Site of proposed drive-in, rubbish dumpers keep out’ visible from the highway.

The drive-in was then built, on a hill, with the screen at the lowest point, mounted on a ´tabernacle’ so it could be lowered for painting. The capacity was extended three times: from 160 cars to 180 cars, and finally to 230 cars. There was no playground, but the bio-box/concession building was large and well-equipped.

Lyn & Ann Parker bought the drive-in from Laurie Thiel in April 1977. They screened three or four nights each week at first, but as the effects of television and video were felt, this dropped back to twice a week. The young men of the town used to gather in the back rows on either side – one left the back seat of a car there permanently as a seat. Rowdy behaviour included setting off skyrockets from the top of the screen, and poking backsides over the top of the screen onto the image. Sunday was a good night, because all the sports matches were on Sunday afternoon: people then came to the drive-in, had dinner there and stayed on for the film. Also, the hotel closed at 7 on a Sunday, and the lights of cars could be seen coming up the hill immediately after 7 p.m. The Parkers ran the drive-in till 1986, then demolished the screen and converted the concession building into a house.

Some time after the drive-in closed, Lyn Parker again briefly screened films in the town: in 1987-8, he mounted a projector on a trailer and showed films in the football pavilion, screening through windows from under the verandah.

But in 1997 all film screenings in the town had ceased.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1964/5 – 1971

Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.136
Wagin Argus, 28 January 1965
Informants: Lyn Parker (1997), Alan Thiel (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1980’s, Max Bell

TOWN HALL, Bennett St, Lake Grace

Lake Grace Town Hall 1997

Lake Grace Hall interior 1998

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Lake Grace Hall 1998

Lake Grace Hall 1998

An old photo in Rosie’s Cafe in the main street of Lake Grace shows a crowd outside the original timber hall which stood where the CWA hall now stands: it is not clear when this was built or whether it was ever used for films. The foundation stone for the new Lake Grace Road Board Hall on the north-east corner of the junction of Bennett and McMahon Sts, was laid on 29 November 1929, and there is a photo of this also on Rosie’s wall. It shows a substantial stone building with an attractive facade and a bio-box clearly evident above the flat section at the front of the hall: this front section, including the bio-box, was removed in a later renovation.

Screenings by travelling showmen in the Lake Grace hall were conducted from 1930 by a Mr Stevens, from before 1940 to about 1946 by J. A. (Jack) Wilson, then by Vince Lucas to about 1952. Wilson and Lucas both travelled in an ex-army ´pie truck’, in a circuit that included Kukerin and Newdegate. After this, L. F. (Laurie) Thiel began permanent screenings: he put in an acoustic ceiling at the back of the hall and installed projectors in the bio-box. The hall was not heated: in winter it was so cold that people brought rugs. Thiel screened on Saturday and Sunday nights each week, and sometimes Friday: a different programme was shown on Wednesday night.

Screenings ceased when the Hillcrest Drive-in opened in 1965.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.113
Informants: Lyn Parker (1997), Alan Thiel (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (on wall of Rosie’s cafe)
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
2 exterior, colour, 1998, Roy Mudge
1 interior, colour, 1998, Roy Mudge

LAKE KING

HALL, Lake King

Lake King 1997

The Lake King hall stands next to the primary school, near the road from Newdegate. It is a small, timber building in excellent repair, with the exhaust pipe for a bio-box clearly visible above the facade. There is no foundation stone to give information about its origins.

Bart Mott operated his travelling picture circuit as far south as Hyden and Lake King, but it is not clear when he started or finished.

Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

LANCELIN

HALL, Lancelin

Lancelin 1981

Lancelin 1981

In the late sixties, John Marsden was working six nights a week at the Windsor, and screening on Sundays on his own behalf. He tried various towns, including Capel, Brunswick Junction and Dwellingup, before shifting to Lancelin, where he transformed a room into a bio-box, put portables into it, and started screening in summertime. After some time, he closed here and moved on to Gingin.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1969/70
Interview (Ina Bertrand): John Marsden (1997)
Photos: 2 interior, colour, 1981,Roy Mudge

LAVERTON

TOWN HALL AND GARDENS, Laver St, Laverton

Laverton was another boom town of the eastern goldfields, reaching a peak of prosperity around 1913-15, with several thousand residents. So many enlisted during World War 1, that the whole district slipped back, fragmenting, while the population gathered around the individual mine sites (Lancefield, Ida H, etc). The town prospered again between the wars, as the smaller settlements gradually disappeared, but it had once again declined by the 1950s to about 120 residents. The third boom occurred with the discovery of nickel at Windarra in 1969: Poseidon shares rose and fell, but the mine continued for twenty years until the nickel ran out, then the company continued to process ore (both nickel and gold) from other areas. Little of the old town remained by then, so Western Mining demolished what was beyond repair and built new homes and facilities.

The first Laverton hall was built in Laver St, diagonally opposite the main hotel. It was about 60ft long and 40ft wide, built of corrugated iron over a timber frame, and with a jarrah floor. In later years it was lined with timber to about 3ft high and caneite panels above that, and had a caneite ceiling. The acoustics were excellent, and a piano was kept on the stage. The bio-box was built on poles outside and above the entrance, and the screen was on the stage at the far end of the hall: behind the stage were the kitchens, with entry by outside stairs.

There were big doors in the middle of each side wall of the hall: those on the south side gave entry to the picture gardens, which ran at right angles to the hall. There may have been a bio-box in the north-east corner, beside the door from the hall: the gardens screen was across the south wall. Seating in the gardens was on individual or double deck chairs – some longer decks were kept around the sides of the hall, which was used for other community activities such as dances and balls.

The earliest screenings in the town may have been those of the Salvation Army Limelight Department, which visited in October 1902 and November 1904. But the Laverton hall and gardens, each holding 250, were not opened for regular screenings by Consolidated Theatres till 1935 or 1936. Their screenings, probably managed by Abe Pinder, took place one night each week until about 1948, then the gardens seems to have closed, but screenings in the hall were taken over by L.J. (Link) Sullivan till 1951/2, then by A.D. (Alf) Peterson. Picture night in the 30s and 40s was Thursday, which was also mail day – the day when the train arrived from Kalgoorlie. In the 50s pictures were on Saturday nights, and may have become less regular as the population declined, till screenings ceased in 1961.

When the town was resurrected in 1970, there was no sign left of the gardens, but the Laverton hall was shifted to the present school yard: it burned down a few years later, so there is now no sign of any picture venue in the town.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1960/61

MPDA files 1942
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): R.Yelland (1985), Maureen & Peter Hill (1999)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

LAWLERS

HALL, Lawlers

This tiny settlement near Agnew had an exhibitor only briefly: the Film Weekly Directory of 1940/41 lists A.D.Peterson screening in the Lawless [sic] hall, holding 150. Alf Peterson certainly screened more extensively in other parts of this district – at first in Agnew (before the war), then after the war in Agnew, Leonora, Laverton, and Gwalia.

Nothing now remains of the old township of Lawlers, except one house now used by the Lawlers Gold Mine, and the cemetery. The only people living there are the mine workers, living in transportables on the minesite.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41

LEEDERVILLE

EMPIRE AND GARDENS , 115 Cambridge St, Leederville

Leederville Empire And Gardens 1981

The first films in Leederville may have been screenings by the Salvation Army Biorama Company in September 1902, February 1904 and November 1904. Then Bartlett’s Electric Biograph and Blind Entertainers performed at the Masonic Hall in February 1907. But the first regular screenings seem to have been those of Empire Pictures, which began in May 1909 at the Mechanics Institute. By the summer of 1914-15 they also ran a gardens next to the Town Hall, and screened in the Town Hall during winter. In 1917 they opened new premises in Cambridge St. – a gardens next to the hall and bowling green at No.62, on the north side of the street, where The World’s Pictures had screened briefly in January 1913. They continued to screen in the Town Hall in wet or cold weather.

Then in 1928 Empire Pictures built a theatre and gardens on the south side, between Kimberley St and Northwood St, and closed the old gardens. The theatre fronted onto Cambridge St, and shared a bio-box with the new gardens, which was built behind the theatre, with the screen on the back wall along the Railway Pde fence. Entrance to the gardens was down a laneway on the east side of the theatre.

In the forties the theatre and gardens each held 800 and were part of the Hatfields Pictures circuit. In August 1958 the theatre was badly damaged by fire, and ceased screening. Shortly after, the premises were purchased by Vox Adeon, but for many years afterwards the red-brick bio-box could still be seen in the car park, on the site of the old gardens.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.25, 58

Daily News, 13 August 1958
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1960/61
Post Office Directory, 1918 – 1949
West Australian, 16 February 1907; 1909 – 1958
West Australian News, 25 November 1958
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Colin Hatfield (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

1 aerial view, n.d. from the AMMPT archives

RIALTO GARDENS/ NEW OXFORD THEATRE and NEW OXFORD ARDEN BEAUTIFUL/ MANTRA’S NICKELODEON/ OLYMPIA/ NEW OXFORD/ STAR/ LUNA TWIN/ LUNA OUTDOOR CINEMA, 155 Oxford St, Leederville

Leederville Luna 1997

Leederville Outdoor Entrance 1997

Bill (Bunger) Bellion had screened on the Leederville Oval, and then had opened the Rialto Gardens in Newcastle St in 1926. In 1927 he became manager of the New Oxford theatre, built for E.A.Allwood on the north-west corner of the intersection of Oxford and Vincent Streets, opposite the Leederville Post Office. One feature of his early management of the theatre was special celebrations of the anniversary of the opening. The second anniversary celebration on 6 March 1929 was reported like this:

´Bunger’ Bellion put on a stage band, small ballet, and gave away 25 prizes of varying value and interest. Hundreds were turned away, and this enterprising showman is consequently repeating the idea tomorrow night. (Everyone’s 20 March 1929, p.37)

A Raycophone sound system was installed and talkies were first presented on 30 September 1929.

Bellion continued for a short while to operate the New Oxford Theatre in tandem with the Rialto Gardens. Then he closed that gardens, and in 1935 the New Oxford Garden Beautiful opened, at 669 Newcastle St, on the southern corner of the intersection of Oxford and Newcastle Streets. At that time, the gardens was one of the largest in the state, accommodating nearly 3000 people, in an environment which earned its name. In the forties the gardens held 2000 and the theatre around 1200.

In 1959, the premises were sold to Ampol Petroleum, which converted the gardens site into a service station. The theatre, however, continued to function till 1968. In 1971 it was re-opened as Mantra’s Nickelodeon, for one year, with a capacity reduced to 700. In 1972 and 1973 it reverted to the name Oxford, then in 1974 it re-opened as the Olympia, screening foreign-language films, such as Italian films in early 1978 and Chinese in mid-1978. In 1980 it reverted to its original name and was refurbished with assistance from the State Government for use by the Festival of Perth. 300 new upholstered seats replaced those in the circle, and the old circle seats went downstairs to replace most of the wooden stalls seats.

In 1982 the theatre was twinned, with Cinema 2, seating 150 patrons, constructed inside the former lounge foyer. From 1981 -6, during the day the Oxford 2 became the Star Cinema, an adult cinema, offering continuous screenings and live striptease, Monday to Saturday from 10.15 a.m. to 5.15 p.m. advertised separately from the Oxford, but clearly the same venue, ´opposite Leederville Post Office’. A record-breaking season of The Gods Must be Crazy in Cinema 1 in 1986-7 enabled the lessees (Cyril Watson and Roger Hunt) to purchase the theatre, and give it general maintenance and repainting. In 1988-9, Cinema 2 was renovated, the floor raised to improve sightlines, new aisle lighting installed and the ceiling insulated. Further renovations occurred in 1991 (mainly in Cinema 2) and in 1992 the whole building was painted inside and out, and further renovations included a new screen and ticket box and the restoration of the circle.

In 1995 Max Bell reported:

New Oxford, Leederville, taken over by Valhalla (Melbourne) Group and Lumiere (Perth) and renamed Luna Twin. Theatre entrance and foyer changed, new carpet installed, new smaller candy bar. Indirect lighting replaced older style lighting and chandeliers in the foyer. Cinema 2’s screen moved back to increase seating to nearly 200. Cinema 1 has new blue curtains. 70mm to be installed in the main cinema… New picture gardens opened nearby in Oxford St, Leederville, called Luna Gardens in the Park. Very basic, canvas deckchairs, portable bio box, large screen and Dolby surround sound system… (Kino, no.51, p.31)

The following year he reported that the Luna Open Air Gardens had moved from the school grounds to Leederville Oval, bringing the history of the venue full circle to Bunger Bellion before World War 1! However, a new Luna Gardens was opened on 26 December 1996, entrance through a shopfront in Oxford St, beside the theatre. When the gardens re-opened for the 1997-8 summer season, the entrance had been again re-located, through the former candy bar.

In 1999, it was reported that Coastal Cinemas (Fremantle) had joined with the Luna Cinemas Group, and that the Luna had been refurbished and re-opened, managed by Andrew Lippiat. Luna 2 was refurbished in 2000, with new carpets and wall drapes. Over the summer season of 2001-2, Luna Palace Cinemas operated the outdoor venue as Outdoor Next Door.

Sources: Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459

Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.36-8, 61-2
Max Bell, ´New Oxford, Leederville’, Kino, no.39, March 1992, pp.14-15
Everyone’s, 7 March 1928, p.18; 18 April 1928, p.30; 16 January 1929, p.24; 20 March 1929, p.37; 18 September 1929, p.12; 12 February 1930, p.25
Film Weekly, 16 July 1959, p.9
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/5 – 1971
Kino, no.16, June 1986, p.23; no.19, March 1987, p.23; no.27, March 1989, p.23; no.35, March 1991, p.24; no.42, December 1992, p.32; no.43, March 1993, p.31; no.47, March 1994, p.31; no.49, September 1994, p.31; no.51, March 1995, p.31; no.55, March 1996, p.31; no.59, March 1997, p.31; no.60, June 1997, p.35; no.63, Autumn 1998, p.34; no.68, Winter 1999, p.35; no.73, Spring 2000, p.35
Post Office Directory, 1927 – 1949
West Australian, 1928 – 1982, 1999 – 2000
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner)): Graham Norton (1981)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Jack Gynn (1981)
Interview (Hilton Lague): Reg Starr (1978)
Interview (Bill Turner): Alan Chester (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

1 exterior (gardens site), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior, b&w, Kino, no.39, March 1992, p.15 (L.R.Tod)
2 interior, b&w, Kino, no.39, March 1992, p.15 (L.R.Tod)
1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, p.61)
1 exterior (Luna twin), colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)
1 exterior (Luna Outdoor entrance), colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)

LEINSTER

LEINSTER DRIVE-IN AND OPEN AIR THEATRE, Worrung Rd, Leinster

Leinster Outdoor Cinema 1999

Leinster Outdoor 1999

The town of Leinster was built from scratch in 1977-8, for the workforce of Western Mining, and is still a company town. The drive-in was one of those facilities provided by the company to ease the difficulties of living so far from urban amenities. However, after a few years it had closed, and had become derelict.

In the mid-90s, Western Mining circulated community groups with an offer to upgrade the drive-in equipment if any group would run it: the Community Group tender was accepted. The Community Group is an incorporated body, formed in 1995 to raise money to provide facilities for the town. Western Mining kept their promise to upgrade facilities and the Community Group arranged for Ron Tutt to select and book the films and to organise their transport from Perth. The venue re-opened in October 1996, with a screening of Balto and Twister.

The Community Group runs the kiosk, and deputes another group (perhaps the Ambulance Service or something similar) to man the gate: profits are shared, and are used by the Community Group to provide facilities for the town, such as subsidising performances from Perth, or providing television sets in the transit houses where mine workers stay until their own furniture arrives from Perth. They also put money back into the venue, for instance spending about $15,000 in 1998, to upgrade sound (they have both radio and broadcast) and projection (replacing carbon arc light with zircon). They screen every two weeks in summer, about every 3-4 weeks in winter.

The venue has a large area in the middle of the field, enclosed

by low pole fencing, for seated patrons. These can bring their own seats, or they can hire one of the 100 deckchairs rented out by the Group. To one side is a grassed area, with a roofed section covering picnic tables and electric barbecues. Patrons can eat before a screening, or the area can be used for barbecues at other times: this is particularly useful to people living in the single quarters, who cannot have a party without disturbing the neighbours.

On (re-)opening night they provided a double feature and had 390 people (of 1,500 people in the town). They did very well at first, which meant plenty of money was raised, but were not doing so well by the middle of 1999 – about 150 people each screening. It takes 80 volunteer hours for each screening – collecting and returning film, making up the programme, working in the kiosk and on the gate, cleaning afterwards. Iain Dawson is manager and projectionist: he also is a secondary teacher, and as there are only a few teenagers in the town (maybe 10), he trains them in the projectionist booth.

Sources: Kino, no.58, December 1996, p.31
Informant: Trish Lynch (1999)

Photos: 2 exteriors, colour, 1999 (Graeme Bertrand)

LEONORA

FEDERAL & GARDENS/NEW FEDERAL & GARDENS/GLIDEAWAY, Tower St, Leonora

The townsite of Leonora was shifted three times, with the present site officially registered in April 1898, only a short distance from another townsite – Gwalia, built around the Sons of Gwalia goldmine. Leonora was gazetted as a municipality on 21 August 1900, and became the commercial capital of the district (perhaps because it was not dependent on a single mine). It boomed in the early years of the twentieth century, with a population reaching as high as 30,000. The Sons of Gwalia mine continued in production until 1963, so both towns survived much longer than some of those built around shorter-lived mines.

The first films screened in Leonora may have been those of the Salvation Army Biorama Company, which visited the town in October 1902, March 1904 and November 1904. There was also the Burns-Johnson fight, screened on Monday and Tuesday, 22 and 23 February, 1909. By April 1910 Wonderscope Pictures were advertising regular screenings in Leonora, presumably in the Federal Hall. This imposing stone structure with a brick facade had been opened in March 1901, in conjunction with Barnes’ Leonora Hotel (which had been built in 1896). It was located on the west side of the main street (Tower St), one building block south of Forrest St, and was used for most of the community activities in the town.

On 30 June 1910, the King of the West Picture Show exhibited films of the funeral of King George, only 54 days after the event took place in London, and by November that company (now known as Pride of the West) was exhibiting regularly, in the Federal Hall. This was probably a touring show, however, in December a local man (Harry Bradshaw of Gwalia) announced that he had purchased a projector and would be providing pictures in the Federal Hall (as well as Gwalia) in future, with Mr W. Fletcher as projectionist.

By January 1911, the main competition was between Bradshaw’s Excelsior company (screening in Gwalia) and the Olympia company (screening in Leonora), but the Excelsior was doing well enough to cause a fall in tram revenues, as fewer Gwalia people travelled to Leonora for the pictures. This may have been the time when Bradshaw took over the Gwalia operation, as by 1919 his company was screening in both towns. It seems likely that all the Leonora picture shows at the time were in the Federal Hall in winter, and in the Glideaway skating rink in summer, where Theatrescope Pictures (probably a new name for Bradshaw’s Excelsior Pictures) was advertising in January 1914.

Bradshaw’s name is remembered as the key picture show man for many years in Leonora, at least to 1920. He then relinquished his business to Peoples Pictures, a local Gwalia committee, set up by the Co-operative Stores, which screened at the Glideaway in Leonora on Tuesday evenings (as well as on Saturdays in Gwalia).

However, Bruce Barlow’s Wondergraph Pictures were advertised at the Federal Hall in August 1912, and Barlow remained the registered exhibitor in Leonora till 1936, when Bob Yelland’s Consolidated Pictures took over, possibly managed by Jim Schofield. The relationship between Barlow and Bradshaw is not clear – one possible explanation is that Barlow operated the Olympia company, and sold out to Bradshaw, but that Barlow’s name continued to be registered with Film Weekly as the exhibitor.

In 1946, Alf Peterson took over both the Leonora and the Gwalia venues, and by this time we know that in Leonora the Federal Hall was used in the winter and the gardens next door were used in the summer.

The Federal Hall, Leonora, was designed by Mr Will Kelly, who was described as ‘a talented comedian and dancer’. It was built of stone, with a brick facade, described in the Heritage Inventory thus:

The front elevation is painted tuck-pointed brickwork divided into bays by square pilasters that extend to a rendered parapet. The central section of the facade features a wide flat arched section that bears the name of the building, ‘Barne’s Federal Theatre’. The parapet conceals a gabled roof with four roof skylights along the ridge, and skillion roofs.

It had a wooden floor, a stage, and a bio-box inside the hall on poles above the entrance. The ranks of wooden seating had hinged seats that sprung up noisily whenever a member of the audience stood up. Films travelled to and from Perth by train, arriving on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in time for screenings on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The hall was unheated, so blankets and cushions were advisable for comfort.

Seating in the gardens was on deckchairs, and refreshments were supplied from the café further up the street, run by Alf Peterson and Beryl Demasson. The original gardens was next to the hall, then that was closed and replaced with another, on the east side of Tower St, two blocks up, between Trump and Rochester Streets. This move simplified the catering arrangements, at least when the pictures were in the gardens, as patrons could simply crossed the street for refreshments at interval. After any screening (hall or gardens, Gwalia and Leonora), the shop would be very busy right up till midnight, serving coffee, hamburgers, etc…

It was a comparatively simple matter to shift the gardens: both the old and the new venues were very basic, enclosed with a corrugated iron wall, and with a simple bio-box situated in the front wall. Either Alf Peterson or Ken Winter was projectionist at Leonora, while the other was projecting at Gwalia, and films were switched between the two venues. Peterson ran the Leonora hall and gardens till the drive-in was opened in 1960.

Sources: Shire of Leonora Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, pp. 39-40

C.W.F.Turnbull (compiler), Gwalia-Leonora, Western Australia, 1895-1963, Leonora Tourist Committee 1990,
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1960/61
Kalgoorlie Miner 6 April 1910
Interviews (Colleen Pead): R.Yelland (1986), Alf Peterson(1986), Harold Morgan (1986)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Beryl Demassen (1999)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.47>
2 exteriors (Federal Hall), colour, 1999, Graeme Bertrand

SATELLITE DRIVE-IN, Sadie Canning Drive, Leonora

Leonora Satellite 1987

Leonora Satellite 1980’s

Leonora Satellite 1960’s

Leonora Satellite 1960’s

Leonora Satellite 1960’s

Leonora Satellite 1960’s

This drive-in was opened on the south-east corner of the junction of Sadie Canning Drive and the highway, on 1 March 1960 by Alf Peterson who had operated the New Federal Hall and Gardens. The decision to construct a drive-in was made in an effort to reduce the running around needed to keep venues in both Gwalia and Leonora operating, switching films between them.

The drive-in was called the ‘Satellite’ because it was so far outside the town, and because satellites were in the news at the time. Peterson did most of the construction himself, with assistance from various contractors, and using second-hand materials as far as possible, for economy. The metal for the screen supports came from an old mine being pulled down at Laverton, an electrician did the wiring, and Peterson put in the speaker stands himself, cementing each stand-pipe into a four-gallon drum let into the ground. He built a big corrugated iron shed, open on the long wall, with broadcast speakers mounted along the roof, and filled it with deckchairs for seated patrons. Food was served from a stall along the back of this shed. Cars entered the venue, were driven round the back of the shed, and a ticket collector stood there with a bag to collect the money: there was no ticket box and no fence of any kind, but the community was small and basically honest. The bio-box was free-standing in the middle of the ramps, with toilets on either end, the whole constructed again of (mostly second-hand) corrugated iron. At its peak, the venue screened three nights per week – Wednesday and Sunday (with the same film, for the benefit of the mine workers, who could not get to town in the middle of the week), and Saturday (with a different film). There was a free film screening for the children every Christmas and also at the time of the annual sports carnival, held on the flat area at the front of the ramps.

In its first season, the venue held sixty cars and one hundred seated patrons, and was very successful – full in hot weather and half full in cold weather. In 1971 the Film Weekly Directory listed its capacity as seventy cars and forty seated patrons. At its peak, it was a very popular venue, with most of the local population attending regularly and people driving in from the stations up to 70 kms away.

However, the Sons of Gwalia mine closed in 1964: the township of Gwalia virtually disappeared, and many people also left Leonora, till the combined population of the two towns was only 338 in 1966. The drive-in dropped back to one night per week (Sunday), and Alf Peterson considered looking for a picture show in Esperance, but after a few years the town came back (under the impetus of nickel discoveries and oil exploration) and the café was very busy so the drive-in stayed open till 1983. It was demolished in 1985, and the land (which had been leased from the Shire), was cleared before being passed back.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1960/61 – 1971
Public Health Department, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.140
Daily News 22 August 1960
Interview (Colleen Pead): Alan Larkin (1986)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Beryl Demasson (1999)

Photos: 2 exteriors, colour, n.d. (1980s?), Beryl Demasson
4 exteriors, b&w, n.d. (1960s?), Beryl Demasson

Quicklinks

MADDINGTON

CENTENARY HALL, Maddington

Early film screenings took place in the Roads Board Hall. Maddington Centenary Hall was opened 18 January 1930: ´The hall is a splendid building and is a monument to those responsible for its erection. Men may come and men may go but the hall will be there for ever.’ (Swan Leader 17 January 1930) In March 1930, screenings began regularly on Thursday nights, but these ceased early the following year when Mr Stout the proprietor could not pay the rent on the hall, which may have been one local manifestation of the world-wide depression. By 1934, the Hart brothers were providing the weekly Thursday night screening, then from at least 1940 to about 1952 it was Bart Mott’s Star Entertainments, followed from 1953 to about 1958 by A.E.Randell, then by F.Waldron to about 1961. Despite that earlier press claim of immortality, the hall was demolished in 1983 to make way for McDonalds.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1960/61
Swan Leader 17 January 1930; 24 January 1930; 14 March 1930, 28 March 1930; 20 March 1930; 28 September 1934

Photos: Swan Leader 24 January 1930

TWILIGHT DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Dellar Rd, Maddington

This was built in 1972 by an independent exhibitor, T.M.Rainch. In the late seventies and early eighties it survived by specialising in R-movies, and it is not clear when it closed. By 1997 the land had been cleared, and part of it had been used for a housing estate.

Sources: Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
West Australian, 12 August 1970, 23 September 1970, 1972 – 1985

MANDURAH

AGRICULTURAL HALL, Pinjarra Rd, Mandurah

The Agricultural Hall was built on the south side of Pinjarra Rd, east of the bridge. This was a stone building with a brick facade and a corrugated iron roof, substantially altered over the years. It was used for film screenings in the very early years, before the Hotham Valley Hall was used for this purpose. It still stands, in use by the Council (in 1997 as the Rangers Office).

Sources: Peel Region, Heritage Inventory, p.105

AMBASSADORS THEATRE AND GARDENS, Mandurah Terrace, Mandurah

The Ambassadors Theatre and Gardens was built in Mandurah Tce, on the north side of the intersection with Smart St. It was run by the Tuckey family, or leased to others, and both the theatre and gardens did well, screening up to 6 nights per week in the summer months. The gardens seated 300, on about a quarter acre block of deckchairs on grass. The theatre closed in about 1962, and the gardens continued for a further three or four years, closing in the late sixties.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1966/7
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, pp.99-100
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985), N.J.Woods (1985)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Owen Tuckey (1986)
Informant: Linda Bowron (1997)

BOARDWALK 6, Ormsby Rd, Mandurah

In 1987 it was announced that a small twin cinema would be built in Mandurah, but nothing came of that proposal. Some years later a $23 million performing arts centre was built in Ormsby Rd, in a spectacular location overlooking the water. It contained an 800 seat theatre with flytowers for live performance.

In 1997 a new six-cinema complex was built for Readings Cinemas, next door to – and facing – the Performing Arts Centre, but not quite as spectacular in location.

Sources: Max Bell, Kino, no.22, December 1987: p.23 no.52, June 1995, p.30; no.59, March 1997, p.31; no.63, Autumn 1998, p.35
West Australian 1999-2000

HOTHAM VALLEY HALL, 9 Pinjarra Rd, Mandurah

The first permanent film show in Mandurah was conducted by Mrs Lanyon in the Hotham Valley Hall, on the south side of Pinjarra Rd, east of the Agricultural Hall. This was a small red brick and stone hall, built in 1898. It had a good dance floor, so was used for dancing and other social occasions as well as for pictures.

In 1928, Mrs Lanyon moved on to the Capitol and sold the Hotham Valley hall to the Tuckey family, who renovated the building and placed the date (1928) prominent on the facade. The first sound films in Mandurah were screened here and the Tuckey family continued to screen here until the fifties. The Hotham Valley Hall has since been demolished.

Sources: Ronald Richards, Murray and Mandurah: a sequel history of the old Murray district of Western Australia , Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah, 1993, p.493
Informants: Linda Bowron & Beryl Slade (Mandurah, September 1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, approx.1930, Ronald Richards, Murray and Mandurah: a sequel history of the old Murray district of Western Australia, Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah, 1993, p.493

MANDURAH DRIVE-IN, Dower St, Mandurah

Mandurah Drive In 1989

Mandurah Drive In 1989

Mandurah Drive In 1989

Mandurah Drive In 1989

Mandurah Drive In 1989, Projection Room

Mandurah Drive In 1980’s

Mandurah Drive In 1980’s

Mandurah Drive In 1980’s

Local exhibitor Owen Tuckey, and Alan Larkin of Harvey and Bridgetown were shareholders with others in Mandurah Drive-in Pty Ltd, the company formed to build the drive-in. It opened in Dower St on the north-east corner of Pinjarra Rd in September 1960, with provision for 344 cars.

In January 1981, Colin Langley became manager, and was there when the venue closed in August 1989. In 1990 it was put up for sale, was reopened in 1993 by Coastal Drive-ins and closed again in June 1994, shortly after the biobox was gutted by fire. The carpark of the Forum Shopping Centre is now on the site.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1960/61 – 1971
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.137
Kino, no.29, September 1989, p.23; no.31, March 1990, p.23; no.43, March 1993, p.31; no.49, September 1994, p.31
West Australian 1961 – 1962
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Colin Langley (1997), Alan Larkin (1985)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Owen Tuckey (1986)

Photos: 4 exterior, colour, 1988, Roy Mudge

1 interior of bio box 1989 colour, Roy Mudge

3 exterior, sepia, 1980’s, Max Bell

MEMORIAL THEATRE/ CAPITOL HALL & GARDENS, cnr Sutton & Pinjarra Rds, Mandurah

Soon after selling the Hotham Valley Hall in 1928, Mrs Lanyon built a new hall and began screening in competition with the Hotham Valley Hall till the outbreak of war. The Capitol was located on the north side of Pinjarra Rd: from the Anglican Church on the corner of Sholl St to Sutton Rd there was a picture gardens, a house and a hall, all owned by Mrs Lanyon. The hall opened in 1928 and was used for many community purposes, including film screenings, for many years: in 1931, she built a gardens next door. Mrs Lanyon conducted a touring picture show, which included the Capitol and gardens in its circuit, then the screenings were run by Mr Waters.

At the end of the thirties, this venue was operated in the summer months as part of Bart Mott’s Star Entertainments circuit. For one summer, Charles Legg, who had injured his arm and was unable to go on the circuit as usual, screened there on his own behalf: he did not do very well, except with Dad and Dave, which he screened on a wet Saturday night.

The building was demolished and now a small shopping centre runs through the site from Pinjarra Rd to Church Rd.

Sources: Post Office Directory 1935/6-1949
Ronald Richards, Murray and Mandurah: a sequel history of the old Murray district of Western Australia, Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah, 1993, p.494-5
Interview (Colleen Pead): Owen Tuckey (1986)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, approx.1938, Ronald Richards, Murray and Mandurah: a sequel history of the old Murray district of Western Australia, Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah, 1993, p.494

OPEN AIR PICTURES, Mandurah Terrace, Mandurah

Mrs Nel Blakeley (nee Lanyon) provided local historian Ronald Richards with a photo of an open air picture gardens, dated about 1925, which she described as ´built on land next to the Brighton Hotel’. The photo clearly shows that the gardens is next to a two-storey building, though there is not enough detail to clearly identify the hotel. Ronald Richards describes how mosquitoes were controlled in this venue by smouldering cow dung. It seems that this gardens was located where the hotel beer garden is located in 1997, and possibly was run in conjunction with the Hotham Valley Hall, which means it probably closed in 1928 when the Tuckeys purchased the hall.

Sources: Ronald Richards, Murray and Mandurah: a sequel history of the old Murray district of Western Australia , Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah, 1993, p.493-4
Photo: Ronald Richards, Murray and Mandurah: a sequel history of the old Murray district of Western Australia , Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah, 1993, p.493

MANIANA

MANIANA HALL, Maniana

Screenings were being offered at the Maniana Hall over the summer of 1959-60, and possibly longer than this. Plans for a gardens adjacent to the hall were approved, but there is no record that this was ever opened.

Sources: Film Weekly, 7 January 1960, p.3
West Australian, 1959 – 1960

MANJIMUP

MANJIMUP DRIVE-IN, Pritchard St, Manjimup

Manjimup Drive In 1988

Allan Jones built the Manjimup Drive-in on the southern side of Pritchard St, opposite the junction of Rose St. It opened in 1961 with provision for 200 cars, and was very successful. After Allan Jones’ death in 1982, the family company Jones Cinewest Drive-ins, continued to operate this venue along with others, but it was open only intermittently by the time the site was sold in 1993. The land was subdivided for an industrial estate.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1961/2 – 1971
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, pp.136-7
Kino, no.19, March 1987, p.10; no.52, June 1995, p.30
Informants: Ron Jones (Busselton, September 1997), Margaret McIllhatten (Manjimup, September 1997)

Photo, 1 exterior, colour, 1988, Roy Mudge

ROBBIES HALL, Ipsen St, Manjimup

Robert (Robbie) Robinson was born in 1862 and arrived in Australia in 1908. He came to Manjimup with his family in 1910 and soon after built ´Robbie’s Corner’, a cafe on the north-west corner of the intersection of Giblett and Ipsen Streets. Behind the cafe, and separated from it by a narrow entrance lane, he built Robbies Hall, which extended along Ipsen St to another, more substantial, laneway. This was a timber hall, with a timber floor and corrugated iron roof, and entrance was in the lane at the back of the cafe. It had a built-in bio-box and rows of unpadded, fold-up wooden seats. Robinson screened the first regular silent films in the district in this hall, on Friday and Saturday nights each week. As he also owned the cafe next door, this would have been the place to buy refreshments at interval (unless he also had attendants in the theatre who sold from trays).

In the twenties, Mr Chinnery screened in Robbies Hall, (which may have been then owned by Davis and Davis, who owned the draper’s shop next door), in competition with Allan Jones at the Town Hall. In the fifties, Jones screened for several years in both the Town Hall and Robbies Hall, before building the Roxy.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1952/3 – 1957/8
Manjimup-Warren Times 29 August 1956
Informant: Mrs D. Jones (Busselton 1985), Margaret McIllhatton (Manjimup, September 1997)

ROXY, Rose St, Manjimup

Allan Jones built the Roxy Theatre, in Rose St, near the north-east corner of the intersection of Rose and Brockman Streets. It was designed by R.M.Neal and Associates of Perth, seated three hundred, and was opened on 24 August 1956:

Terrazzo steps lead to the theatre foyer off Rose-street. The floor is tiled with a pleasing red and buff design by Foys of Manjimup. In the right-hand corner is a small confectionery stall, with a slat-front and shelving which matches the ticket counter opposite. The screen across the main entrance is of the same design. Conveniences for both sexes and a baby pram park, lead off from the foyer, which is decorated in delightful tonings of coral rose, camellia and pottery blue..

The sloping floor has a fall of two feet from back to front…

There are side aisles and fixed blonde-wood seating, with arm rests, bucket backs and Dunlopillo upholstery which highlight the comfortable seats made by Peaker Bros. of Busselton…

Two special high fidelity speakers have been positioned into a recess in the rear wall and they are ample for the theatre which has overall measurements of 95ft. x 40ft.

The proscenium is tinted camellia, while the walls are coloured mushroom and lime yellow and the ceiling in tango. Racophone(sic) projectors are installed in a fire-proof bio-box and a Cinemascope plastic screen measures 29ft x 14ft. The large drape curtains are electrically operated.

The “Roxy” is well ventilated with rows of louvres along each wall, fitted with three feet long aluminium blades. Concealed updraught ventilation runs the full length of the ceiling and where too, special illumination has been installed. (Manjimup-Warren Times, 29 August 1956)

This theatre was the site of Jones’ only fire emergency: an inexperienced operator was about to throw blazing film out of the bio-box onto other films stacked in the corridor, when Jones intervened and smothered the blaze, probably saving the whole theatre. It closed in July 1972, and was sold to Woolworths, who used the site for a shopping complex.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1958/9 – 1966/7
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lews, Sussex 1986, pp.97-8, 121
Allan Jones, Reminiscences of a Travelling Picture Showman , Busselton 1974, pp.8,9
Mrs D. Jones to Colleen Pead (1985)
Blackwood-Warren Sentinel 30 August 1956
Countryman, 30 August 1956
Manjimup-Warren Times 29 August 1956

TOWN HALL, Rose St, Manjimup

The Manjimup Town Hall was opened in June 1927, on the south-west corner of the intersection of Rose and Brockman Sts.

It is not clear whether silent films were screened here, and if so by whom. But Allan Jones was certainly screening here by the early thirties, and after installing sound at Pemberton, he installed X-L Tone at the Manjimup Town Hall, which became the headquarters for Jones’ circuits, eventually acting as the host for two of his four travelling vans. The first sound film to be shown in the town was Diggers, screened in June 1932. The hall screened three nights per week in the thirties, and four in the forties, before Jones built the Roxy and ceased screening at the Town Hall.

In the nineties, occasional screenings resumed, conducted by the Manjimup Arts Council.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1957/8
Allan Jones, Reminiscences of a Travelling Picture Showman , Busselton 1974, pp.8,9
Informant: Margaret McIllhatton (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d.(1933?), 21st Anniversary Manjimup Week Celebrations Souvenir Booklet, 1933, p.18
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

MANNING

WELWYN/MANNING GARDENS, Welwyn Ave, Manning

This was a simple open air cinema, with an imposing brick facade on the street frontage. It opened, opposite the shopping centre in Welwyn Ave, on 23 November 1956 and closed in 1963. It was operated by the Judge family.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, p.59
Jack Honnibal, “The cinemas of South Perth”, typescript, held in South Perth Heritage House
West Australian, 1956 – 1963

Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, West Australian, 21 November 1956

MARBLE BAR

PIONEER AND GARDENS/ AMBASSADORS GARDENS/ MODERN GARDENS/OPEN AIR PICTURE CINEMA, Marble Bar

Gold was discovered at Marble Bar in 1891, and the town grew fast, building a Miner’s Institute in 1898. There was no evidence of films in this building, which was badly damaged in a storm in 1914, and finally demolished in 1918. A new hall was not built until 1925, and was completely paid for by 1930, but again films were not regularly screened there.

This is not as surprising as it seems. Marble Bar has a reputation for being the hottest town in Australia, with a record of 106 consecutive days of temperature higher than 37.8 degrees. Watching movies in a hall, even with windows and doors open, was not comfortable in the days before air conditioning. Even outdoor entertainment, such as offered in an open air picture gardens, was difficult to sustain in the town.

Nevertheless, open air screenings seem to have been offered at least from 1940. One open air cinema was located (at the Comet Mine?) over a mile from town, and operated from 1941-44 by E.J.Jeffreys / E.N.Woods.

Within the town itself, from 1943 to 1951 an enclosure was in use behind the house belonging to A.J. (Sandy) Thompson, who also ran the garage. This enclosure had timber side walls, and a bio-box standing between the Thompson’s yard and the cinema seating, which was in rows of canvas-covered deckchairs. During the war, the cinema, which could hold about 150, was often full, attendance boosted by the men from the RAAF base.

From 1951 S.H.Stubbs operated a new open air venue in the area bounded by Bohemia St, General St, Nicholls St and the Shire Yard. A permit for alterations was granted in 1966, and these screenings continued till about 1973, when Stubbs withdrew. The venue was taken over by Alf Potter, who looked after the booking and projecting while his wife looked after the food. They bought their own (second hand)16mm projectors, but found the cost of films prohibitive, particularly transport costs. If the films came by road, the exhibitor had to pay for a week’s hire even though screening only once: if the films came by air, freight costs were more expensive, but hire was only for one night because the film could be returned next day. So, when the Health Department became insistent about renovating the toilets, the Potters closed the venue, in the early 1970s.

Soon after, Hawkstone Minerals wanted a show for their workers. They agreed to pay film hire and freight, if Potter screened for them, takings to be shared between Potter and the Hawkstone Social Club. Brian Shelton and Alf Potter did it on this basis for about one year, then Hawkstone moved out, so film screenings in the town closed again.

The next screenings in the town were at the school, around 1982-3. These weekly programmes were provided mainly for the school children, using one 16mm. projector, with breaks for reel changes. Bob Kelly was projectionist for about one year then Alf Potter for another year.

This stop-start history of movies in the town finally finished absolutely when TV arrived, in the mid-80s.

Sources: Kathleen Mallett, To the bar bonded: a history of early Marble Bar , East Pilbara Shire & Hesperian Press, 1993
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1971
Post Office Directory 1941/2-1944
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Informants: Len Lever (Marble Bar 1999), Alf Potter (Marble Bar 1999)
Photo: 1 exterior (picture gardens), 1944, b&w, Kathleen Mallett, To the bar bonded: a history of early Marble Bar, East Pilbara Shire & Hesperian Press, 1993, p.309

MARGARET RIVER

HALL, Wilmott Ave, Margaret River

The first public hall in Margaret River was built in 1912 and extended in 1923. It was here that Owen Terry and Bert McLean ran silent pictures in 1929/30: McLean said “We used to have the bio-box up the back of the old hall and used to have to go up steps to it. Films came down on the train from Perth and we ran the projectors from a little lighting plant” (quoted in Cresswell, pp.229-230). Terry and McLean sold their business to a Mr Barnes, who sold in turn, less than a year later, to West’s circuit, which probably introduced talkies to the town.

In 1936 a new hall was built in Willmott Ave, and the old hall was relocated in Gloucester Park and used by local organisations. The first electricity in the town was provided by a private contractor from 1937, which made life easier for cinema showmen like Allan Jones from Busselton, who began showing pictures once a week in the new hall from 23 November 1938.

That hall was demolished to make way for the present Shire Hall in Townview Terrace, beside the Shire Offices, opened in 1955, and Jones’ screenings probably transferred to the new hall until the drive-in opened in 1965.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Gail J. Cresswell, The light of Leeuwin: the Augusta-Margaret River Shire History , Augusta-Margaret River Shire History Group, 1989
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Irma Whitford): Allan Jones (1978)

MARGARET RIVER DRIVE-IN, Bovell Ave, Margaret River

Margaret River Drive In 1985

Margaret River Drive In 1980’s

Margaret River Drive In 1980’s

Margaret River Drive In 1980’s

Allan Jones built a drive-in for 150 cars on the south side of Bovell Ave, just off the Bussell Highway. It opened in 1965, and after Jones’ death in 1982, it was one of those venues taken over by the family company – Jones’ Cinewest Drive-ins. In 1997 it opened over the summer months and in school holidays, like the Busselton Drive-in: first release product was shown first for a week in Cinema 1 in Busselton, then for a second week at the Busselton Drive-in, then for the third week in Margaret River. The company planned to introduce FM stereo sound in time for the 1997-8 summer season.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth, a cinema history, The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.137
Kino, no.19, p.10
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Irma Whitford): Allan Jones (1978)
Informant: Ron Jones (Busselton, September 1997)

Photos: 1 exterior (entrance), 1985, Robert Newton
1 exterior (ramps and screen), 1985, Robert Newton

3 exterior , colour, 1980’s , Max Bell

MARMION (SORRENTO)

MARMION DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Marmion Ave, Marmion (Sorrento)

Marmion Drive In

Northland Developments (in which Alan Chester and Graham Norton were involved) built the Marmion and Odin Drive-in Theatres, and ran them till they were purchased by the City Theatres/TVW group. The Marmion drive-in, which held 600 cars, was opened on the south-west corner of the intersection of Harmon Rd and Marmion Ave, on 30 January 1975, and closed in 1984. By 1997, the land had been used for a housing estate.

Sources: Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
West Australian, 1975 – 1984
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Graham Norton (1981)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)
Interview (Bill Turner): Alan Chester (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

MARVEL LOCH

HALL, Marvel Loch

Film Weekly Directory lists T.H.Enright as the exhibitor here in 1940/41, then Rupert Morris’ circuit operated here from the late forties to the early fifties.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41, 1948/9 – 1953/4

MAYLANDS

LYRIC THEATRE AND ROXY GARDENS, 47 Eighth Ave/ 240 Guildford Rd, Maylands

A Picture Gardens was advertising in Eighth Ave, Maylands in February 1920, but it is not clear if that is the same venue as the Lyric, which opened as a semi-open-air theatre at 47 Eighth Ave, in 1924, with a capacity of 600 patrons, operated by Thomas Snooks. In 1928 a hardtop theatre accommodating 1000 was built by Thomas Coombe (probably on this site). It was a beautiful building, with an impressive staircase and red carpet. Members of Maylands Historical Society recall that it was not possible to book seats at the theatre, but that certain people always sat in the same seat: if anyone else tried to sit there, there would be a great fuss!

In 1933, the Roxy Gardens opened at 240 Guildford Rd with seating for 900, built by H.R. Robinson (who later became Perth Shire Council president) and his sister Miss M.I. Robinson. The cheaper seats in this venue were wooden benches on bitumen, the dearer seats were deckchairs on grass. The screen was located at the rear of the site, and poplar trees were planted along the side wall. In the days of pan toilets, it was possible for the adventurous boys of the district to open the back of the men’s toilet, push the pan aside and crawl in through the hole, replace the pan and so gain free entry to the pictures.

The Lyric Theatre and Roxy Gardens were owned and operated by separate managements till 1934, when the Robinsons took over the operation of the theatre as well as the gardens, which they still owned outright. After that, despite the distance between them they were operated as a single enterprise, with screenings in one or the other depending on the weather. This continued until the Lyric closed in June 1961, and its fittings were dispersed at auction. The Lyric building became first an electrical goods showroom, then a growers’ market, and in 1997 was a Red Shield Op-shop. The upstairs pool parlour was leased out as a flat in recent years. The Roxy closed a year later than the Lyric, in June 1962: the site became a used-car yard, and in 1997 was a Coles supermarket.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.31, 59, 66
Max Bell, ´Maylands (WA), Lyric’, Kino, p.30, December 1989, p.22
Australasian Exhibitor, 12 December 1957
Daily News, 25 January 1962, 8 June 1962
Post Office Directory, 1924, 1932/3
West Australian, 3 March 1920, 1933 – 1961
Maylands Historical Society, July 1997
Informant: Michelle Valdrighi (2001)

Photos: 2 exterior, b&w, undated (after 1962) (Max Bell, Kino, p.30, December 1989, p.22)

MAYLANDS TOWN HALL, cnr Guildford Rd & Eighth Ave, Maylands

Maylands Town Hall 1981

Members of the Maylands Historical Society recall silent film screenings in the Town Hall, which was built in 1920. Robert Hatfield had his first permanent picture show in the Maylands Town Hall, starting in about 1928. Locals remember a fire in the hall connected with the picture screenings, and this may have been the one caused by Hatfield’s pianist, Jack Jones, who was a chain smoker. Hatfields moved on in 1930 and screenings in the hall did not continue after sound arrived.

Sources: Maylands Historical Society, July 1997
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Colin Hatfield (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1981, Bill Turner

PICTURE GARDENS, Whatley Cres, Maylands

Members of the Maylands Historical Society recall a picture gardens in Whatley Cres, one house-block up from the corner of Ninth Ave. It was operating after the first world war, and possibly into the twenties. Oral tradition says that the local children used to climb a tree opposite to look over the fence, or climb over the roof of the lavatory at the back to sneak in.

The shops are still there, and until the mid-nineties a sign was barely visible on the side indicating where the gardens was located, but that has now been painted over.

Sources: Maylands Historical Society, July 1997

MECKERING

PUBLIC HALL, Johnson St, Meckering

The Meckering Public Hall was built on the south-east corner of the intersection of Johnson and Dempster Streets. In August 1928 it was reported that Carter and Collins of Meckering had to abandon the pictures when the hall burned down, and it was to be rebuilt ready for re-opening in December. By the forties, Lucas Touring Pictures visited Meckering, Toodyay and Gingin, weekly. Around 1950, the Fitzgerald circuit visited the town, and in the fifties Graham Ford of Beverley (assisted by eight-year-old Peter Thomson on the slide projector) screened weekly on a Monday night.

It is not clear when the screenings ceased, possibly as early as 1961: they had probably stopped before an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale destroyed the town on 14 October 1968. The Public Hall was one of the buildings badly damaged by the earthquake and demolished after it. No photos exist of the hall before the earthquake, though it appears in some of the photos taken of the earthquake damage.

The town was rebuilt west of the original site, and a new Town Hall was constructed there in 1970, but it is unlikely that pictures have been screened there.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1948/9 – 1960/61
Everyone’s 22 August 1928, p.14
Joseph Placid Stokes, Cunderdin-Meckering: a wheatlands history, Hyland House, South Yarra, 1986
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)

MEDINA

MEDINA THEATRE AND GARDENS, Pace Rd, Medina

This imposing theatre and gardens was built on the northern side of Pace Rd for Medina Pictures Ltd., a company controlled by Joel Moss (of the Mayfair Theatre, Perth), Neil Robinson (WA Manager for RCA Photophone and also of the Regal Theatre, Subiaco) and Duncan Glasfurd. The gardens opened on 26 November 1954 and the theatre on 30 August 1955.
The building cost more than had been expected, and the population of the locality was not yet sufficient to support such an establishment, so it suffered a loss in the first year of operation, began breaking even towards the end of 1956 and made a small profit in 1957. But, under the impact of television, this recovery was only temporary, and the company, after making a loss in the financial year 1959-60, went into liquidation 31 October 1960.
The gardens was sold and became the site for a new Post Office. But in those days of cinema depression, the theatre building was difficult to sell, so liquidation proceedings were drawn out over many years (not fully wound up till 1971) while attempts were made to find a buyer at a reasonable price. In the meantime, Robinson kept the company going with the proceeds of occasional hiring of the premises, including – at least in 1963-4 – occasional use as a cinema, though seating was reduced in the theatre from 800 to 450.

One tenant was the Police Boys Club, which in 1970 applied for permission to once again use the premises for the screening of films. The fate of the building became a major local controversy, but it was not again used for regular film screenings. It was demolished and a tavern built on the site: the new Medina Memorial Hall was built by the shire just next door, on the north-west corner of the intersection of Pace Rd and Harley Way.

Sources: Battye Library file: ´Medina Pictures’
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, 1986 pp. 32-34, 59-60
West Australian, 14 Oct. 1960, 1962 – 1964
Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, April 1957 (Battye TB1754)

MEEKATHARRA

REGAL/ROYAL AND GARDENS, Main St, Meekatharra

Meekatharra Hall 1999

Meekatharra Picture Gardens 1997

Meekatharra Picture Gardens 1997

Meekatharra Picture Gardens 1997

On 3 November 1910, the Australian Workers Association hall was opened on the east side of Main St, between High St and Savage St. It was constructed – as so many of the halls in this area were – of corrugated iron over a timber frame, with a beautiful polished jarrah floor, much appreciated for dances. Unlike many similar halls, it was lined (with pressed metal), and it had a bio-box very early, though possibly not from the start. After the demise of the AWA, the hall was taken over by the Australian Workers’ Union.

On 6 December 1913 the Royal Hall was opened, also on the east side of Main St, but a block further north, between High St and the creek. It was next to the Royal Mail Hotel, separated from it by a wide lane. It was very similar in construction to the AWU Hall, but slightly bigger, and was later used as a Town Hall.

Films were screened in both these structures, occasionally before World War 1, and regularly (twice a week) from 1914. An open air venue was also established on the north side of the Royal Hall. This was a simple enclosure: 10ft high corrugated iron walls all round, entrance in the centre of the front wall, ticket windows opening onto the pavement from the office on the hotel side of the front wall, with the bio-box located above this office. Inside, there was a gallery, providing tiered seating on wooden planks on the southern (entrance) end: these were the cheapest seats, often used by the children. There were also wooden seats (with cushions) along the sides, also cheap, but used by adults. Finally, the dearer seats, the ones that could be booked off a seat plan, were the deckchairs in the centre of the flat front section.

Prams were often parked in the aisles, usually with the hood facing the screen, to shield the child from the flickering light off the screen. Jim Young remembers that on one occasion his youngest son was in his pram in the aisle, when some youngsters threw down a bottle of fizzy drink from the gallery, shaken till it exploded on impact. A piece of glass lodged in the baby’s eye, and the sight was saved only by the skill and quick thinking of the local doctor.

The Royal Hall could accommodate 350 and the gardens 400, though the population of the town was still small. In the very early years, Mr Cook was reported to have attracted his audience to the picture screenings with a technique more common in the city – filming in the town, developing the film and screening it some time later, so bringing into the audience all those who hoped to see themselves on the screen. From at least the twenties, the AWU ran the pictures, employing various managers, charging low admissions and returning the profits to the community. Summer screenings were always in the gardens, but the winter screenings shifted several times over the years, between the AWU Hall and the Royal Hall: there seem to have been disagreements between the AWU Board (who ran the picture show throughout these years), and the hotel management, which had control of the largest hall in town.

In 1930, Ray Dean entered the film business as an assistant at Meekatharra, and when the projector operator abandoned the position Dean took over and was employed by the AWU. He travelled down to Perth to purchase an XL-Tone sound projector for the venue, but moved away from the town in 1931. There were several projectionists employed over the years, but the venture was run from the 1930s to at least 1950 by Tommy Ryan, who conducted it like any commercial venue, except that the profits went back to the community. Ryan was followed by Vic Myers, who ran the show on similar lines. In the late fifties, the Hotel notified the AWU committee that the pictures could no longer be screened in the Royal Hall and gardens as these were to be pulled down to make way for hotel extensions. Around the same time, plans were being discussed for the old Shire Offices to be demolished to make way for a new swimming pool. A public meeting was held, at which it was debated whether to construct a drive-in (which would take five years and cost more) or a new gardens (which could be operating very quickly), and a new gardens won. In 1958, AWU Pictures passed control over to the Meekatharra Picture Fund, which continued to run the show for the public benefit, the first beneficiary being the new swimming pool. They were still registered as screening in 1971, when the Film Weekly Directory ceased publication.

The new gardens was constructed on Shire land on the opposite side of Main St, where it still stands. For a few years, this was the only picture venue in the town, so screenings ceased during winter. Then the new Shire Hall was opened, and screenings again shifted seasonally between the new gardens and the new hall.

Television arrived in the town in 1981, and almost immediately the picture gardens became uneconomic. The affairs of the Picture Committee were wound up and about $30,000 was made available for investment to support the local Ambulance. The unused gardens venue slowly deteriorated.

Then Graham Ford arrived in town to work at the Power House. He came of a film industry family: his father had run the pictures in Beverley and he, himself, had spent a lifetime in various venues, ending with several country drive-ins. He had sold all these off, but was delighted to find the old Picture Gardens still in the main street, and – to his surprise – with the projectors still there and retrievable. He completely renovated the venue: cleaned it up, repaired and re-opened in 1988.

The gardens still stands on the west side of Great Northern Highway, opposite the entrance to Meehan St, at the north end of the town. The ten-foot high corrugated iron fence is painted cream, and has a large sign across the front – ´Meekatharra Picture Gardens – movies showing weekly’. Screenings take place on Friday and Saturday nights, weather permitting. Inside the high fence is a large concrete slab, originally installed for roller skating, but now providing the cement floor on which stand the metal-framed and canvas-covered deckchairs, each seating three people. The screen is white-painted flat iron.

Graham Ford died 12 October 1997, and the following tribute appeared the next day in the West Australian:

It is with great regret that the people of Meekatharra note the passing of Graham Ford. His interest and skill in keeping alive the motion picture enterprise in Meekatharra gave immense pleasure to so many people over the years. He also served the community with ability and integrity in his professional capacity as senior officer with Western Power.

President, Members and Staff of the Shire of Meekatharra.

His partner at the Power Station was Andrew D’Arcy-Evans, who in the later years, as Graham became too ill to manage the picture show on his own, also became a partner in the pictures. After Graham Ford’s death D’Arcy-Evans bought his share of the business. The venue was still owned by the Shire, which had originally built and equipped it: D’Arcy-Evans negotiated a new deal with the Shire Council, that they would maintain the venue and he would own and maintain the equipment, but he insisted on exclusive use. This was agreed to (the young people by now had the new sports centre in which to skate), and the improvements which Graham Ford had begun were continued – extending the screen, obtaining one new projector and new sound equipment, till the quality of the picture and sound in 1999 was as good as any city cinema.

In 1999, Andrew D’Arcy-Evans was keen to continue screenings in the town, and even to extend the business to a circuit, perhaps including Mount Magnet and up to Tom Price.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1040/41 – 1971
Post Office Directory 1949
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex 1986, p.121
Margaret Pinnock, The golden decade: a historical survey of Meekatharra 1909-1919, Teachers College Claremont, 1959
West Australian, 30 July 1997
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Andrew D’Arcy-Evans (1999), Ray Dean (1997) Alan Larkin, R. Yelland, Jim Young (1999)
Informant: Mrs Ford (1997)
Photos: 3 exteriors (Meekatharra Picture Gardens), colour, 1997/9, Graeme Bertrand
1 interior (Picture Gardens bio-box), colour, 1999, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior (Royal Hall), b&w, 1941, P.R.Heydon, Meekatharra: “end of the earth”, Dominion Mining Ltd & Hesperian Press, 1994, p.360
1 exterior (Meekatharra Picture Gardens), colour, 1997, West Australian 30 July 1997 p.7
1 interior (bio-box), colour, 1997, West Australian 30 July 1997, p.7
1 exterior (Meekatharra Shire Hall), colour, 1999, Graeme Bertrand

MELVILLE

MELLWAY DRIVE-IN, 44 Rome Rd, Melville

Melville Melway Drive In 1981

On a ten-acre site in Rome Rd (on the south-east corner of Kitchener St), Melville Drive-in Theatres Pty Ltd constructed a drive-in theatre designed by William and Garry Leighton, and opened 14 March 1958 with provision for 536 cars. In March 1961 the company petitioned the Melville Roads Board to drop the rateable valuation on the property because the cinema had suffered a decrease of 61.7% in attendance over the past year, since the inception of ABW Channel 2 in May 1960 (Australasian Exhibitor, 23 March 1961, p.4). However, the drive-in survived this crisis to become part of the Ace circuit, and its capacity was increased in 1969 to 610 cars. It closed in 1985, and the site is now occupied by a housing estate.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1959/60 – 1971
Public Works Department, Building approval 11 Mar.1958 (Battye 1459)
Max Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986 p.128
Vyonne Geneve, ´William Leighton, Architect’, Kino, no.25, Sept.1988, p.14
Australasian Exhibitor, 23 March 1961, p.4
West Australian 1958 – 1985

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

ROADS BOARD HALL, Stock Rd, Melville

The first regular screenings in Melville were those of South Perth Pictures in 1953. However, the Roads Board Hall was not opened on the corner of Canning Hwy and Stock Rd. till 16 February 1963, so it is not clear which hall the South Perth Pictures were using in the fifties.

Refs: Uren, Malcolm, The City of Melville: from bushland to expanding metropolis, Melville City Council 1975, pp.124-5

MENZIES

TOWN HALL, Shenton St, Menzies

Menzies Town Hall 1999

Menzies is another of the boom towns of the eastern goldfields, founded after the discovery of gold in 1894. By the time it was gazetted as a town in 1896, it had stores, hotels, public buildings and even a newspaper. Though most of the residents lived in timber-framed houses, with internal walls of canvas and external of hessian, painted for water-proofing, the public buildings were more substantial – mostly of local stone. The first section of the Town Hall was built in 1896, and in 1900 the building was extended, providing more space for the municipal offices across the street front, and the Mechanics Institute Hall relocated and extended behind. The building still stands: a hall restoration programme was begun in 1985, and the restored hall was officially re-opened in 1991.

The most famous element of the building was its clockless tower. For many years, the story circulated that the clock was ordered from England, but sank with the S.S.Orizaba: however, no order can be found in municipal records and there is no clock on the list of cargo salvaged from the Orizaba, so the story may simply have been a way to justify the clock’s absence when the money ran out. The tower finally received its clocks in time to start the new millenium (on 1 January 2000).

The earliest screenings in the town were probably those of the Salvation Army Biorama Company, which visited in October 1900, October 1902, March 1904 and December 1904. There is no external evidence of a bio-box, but local residents can remember regular screenings in this hall, sometimes monthly, sometimes as often as every two weeks. One older resident recalls that: ‘Travelling circuses always included the goldfields in their itineraries and a travelling picture show came to town once a month. Saturday night was the “big” night. People thronged the streets. All the shops were open – the band played in the main street and the hotels did a roaring trade.’

In the 1990s, the town is the centre of the vast Shire of Menzies, with a total population of only 500, 140 of whom live in the town itself.

Sources: Tourist brochure

Shire of Menzies, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, December 1996, pp.23-25

Informants: Jenna Henderson (1999); unidentified and undated reminiscences, provided by the Shire Offices.

‘Time won’t stand still in Menzies’, Golden Mail, 24 Sept.1999

Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1999, Graeme Bertrand

MERREDIN

CUMMINS THEATRE, Bates St, Merredin

Merredin Cummims Theatre 1997

Merredin Cummins Theatre 1980’s

Merredin Cummins Theatre 1980’s

Merredin Cummins 1988

Merredin Cummins Theatre Interior 1988

Merredin Cummins Theatre Interior 1988

Merredin Cummins Theatre Interior 1988

Merredin Cummins Theatre Bio Box 1988

The Cummins Theatre was built on the east side of Bates St, between Coronation and Mitchell Sts. It opened on 4 October 1928, constructed of bricks from hotels demolished in Coolgardie, and containing the stage, decking and seating from the old Tivoli Theatre in Coolgardie. It could seat 700 on the lower level, and 300 in the circle, and was equipped with a Krupp-Ernemann projector and with auditorium lighting capable of being dimmed just like Hoyts’ city theatres. Their first talkies were screened 4 November 1929, and these were so successful that they increased screenings from three to five nights each week till the novelty wore off.

James Cummins, who built the theatre, had come from Kalgoorlie, but he leased the premises to locals, William and Susan Brown. They ran a regular film show here, in competition with Hobbs’ show at the Town Hall, until ill health forced Brown to surrender the lease, giving Hobbs the opportunity to buy out his competitor. This was probably just as well, as the town could ill afford two picture shows. Hobbs closed the Town Hall and continued in the Cummins Theatre till the Road Board took over the electricity production for the town and Hobbs sold his interest in the cinema to M. R. Smalpage, who continued to operate it till 1973, when the building was purchased by the Shire of Merredin.

The building was restored in 1992 and additions made backstage to make it more suitable for live performances, and it was managed by Merredin Repertory Club Inc. In the mid-nineties both Dennis McKenna and Steve Marvin presented screenings there, and 16mm projection equipment was installed in 1996, but in 1997 all projection equipment had been removed, in anticipation of a cinema being constructed further up the street. Instead of this, however, they purchased a projector and platter from the Northam Cinema and were running movies again in 2002.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1966/7
Shire of Merredin, Municipal Inventory, 78/18
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Sussex, 1986, p.107
Max Bell, Kino, no.13, September 1985, p.14
F.A.Law, The history of the Merredin district, Merredin Roads Board 1961, p.105
Kino, no.60, June 1997, p.35
Merredin Mercury , 1928-29
Informant: Chris Simmons (2002)
Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.48
1 exterior, b&w, 1997?, Shire of Merredin, Municipal Inventory, 78/18
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
2 exterior, sepia, 1980’s , Max Bell
1 exterior, colour. 1988, Roy Mudge
4 interior, colour, 1988, Roy Mudge

MERREDIN DRIVE-IN, South Ave, Merredin

Merredin Drive In 1987

Merredin Drive In 1987

Merredin Drive In 1987, Projection Room

The Merredin Drive-in was built in 1960 on the south east corner of the intersection of South Ave (the Bruce Rock road) and O’Connor St. It was constructed for M. R. Smalpage, of the Cummins Theatre, and had room for 250 cars. When Smalpage died, the drive-in was leased to Graham Ford who left the town in 1988. It was acquired by John Marsden in 1989, who installed an improved sound system and upgraded the venue, but it closed again in March 1992, the site was cleared and the equipment put into storage.

Now only the fence remains, and a house has been built on the site.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1960/61 – 1971

Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.137
Kino, no.27, March 1989, p.23; no.41, September 1992, p.27; no.36, June 1991, p.24; no.41, September 1992, p.27
Merredin Mercury
West Australian 30 July 1997, p.7
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)

Photos: 2 exterior, colour, 1987, Roy Mudge
1 interior, projection room 1987, Roy Mudge

RATEPAYERS HALL/ DISTRICT HALL/ TOWN HALL/ HOBBS PICTURE GARDENS/ OLYMPIA GARDENS, Merredin

Merredin Ratepayers Hall 1997

The original wooden Ratepayers Hall was built on the north side of Mitchell St, between Bates and Queen Sts. It opened on 23 April 1913, with a Grand Ball and Banquet attended by “all of Merredin’s beauty and chivalry”. It was 60ft by 40ft and films seem to have been screened there from the beginning: Olympic Pictures advertising from 14 May 1913, Hazell’s from 2 September 1913, and H. J. Chegwidden’s Star Pictures from 2 February 1914 to October 1915. J. H. Page, who also ran the town’s electricity supply, obtained the hall lease for pictures in 1921, and renewed this annually, continuing in the hall after renovations in 1925.

At this time, a brick building with a tiled roof was added to the front of the hall, used for Roads Board offices. This opened on 20 May 1925, the whole structure now known as the District Hall. The Heritage Inventory describes it thus:

The building… is symmetrical with the entrance at the foot of the tower and office accommodation either side. The tower has clocks on three sides, gablets on two sides and the words “Merredin District Hall” centrally placed. The date “1925” appears over the entrance, beneath a curved canopy.

When Messrs Hobbs took over the electricity concession they also ran Star Pictures, screening at the Olympia gardens in the summer months, and the District Hall in the winter. It is not clear where the gardens were located, but they could have been beside the hall. Competition from the Cummins Theatre, which opened in 1928, forced Hobbs to go into partnership with E.P.Nelson. The new company refurnished the District Hall with Wilton carpets and electric radiators, and Nelson’s contacts in the film business improved the company’s film supply. Greater Town Hall Pictures opened 11 July 1929, and on 26 August 1929 screened the first talkies in Merredin, on Australtone equipment, though the audience was reported to be only fair. It is not clear when this company ceased operation.

In 1997, only the brick front section remained, used as offices.

Sources: Shire of Merredin, Municipal Inventory, 78/16
F.A.Law, The history of the Merredin district, Merredin Roads Board 1961, p.105
Everyone’s, 23 October 1929, pp.18-19
Merredin Mercury , 1928-29

Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, 1997? Shire of Merredin, Municipal Inventory, 78/16
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

MIDLAND

MIDLAND THREE EASTSIDE/ REGENT, 3 The Crescent, Midland

Midland Regent 1997

This three-plex was opened on 23 June 1995, and sold to new owners, who re-opened the venue as the Regent on 4 April 1996. There were plans to add two screens by September 1997.

Sources: Kino, no.41, September 1992, p.27
West Australian 1993 – 2000

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)

EMPIRE HALL/ EMPIRE PICTURES, Helena St, Midland Junction

In 1910 the Empire Hall was built in Helena St, by the owners of the next-door Freemasons Hotel. It was a large building, used primarily as a skating rink, but also for boxing matches, badminton and other entertainments. It was mentioned irregularly as a film venue between 1910 and 1918, and may have screened films up to the thirties, operated by Ernest and Bert Kanzler (later associated particularly with Albany). After that it remained empty for many years, and was – in turn – a furniture showroom, an extension of the hotel lounge, and finally a showroom for Atkins Carlyle electrical goods. In 1990, renovations to the hotel (now called the Junction Hotel) entailed demolishing the old Empire and incorporating the site into the hotel’s beer garden and car park.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.25-6
Post Office Directory, 1914, 1918
Reporter 1 December 1992
West Australian, 1910 – 1916
Informant: Valma Martin (Swan View 1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, 1910, Betty Harris, Centenary of Midland 1886-1986
1 exterior, b&w, 1986, Betty Harris, Centenary of Midland 1886-1986

RENOWN THEATRE AND OPEN AIR PICTURES, (Old) Great Northern Highway, Midland Junction

From 1916 to 1926 People’s Pictures, run by Alf Herbert and Gilbert Trefry, screened in Midland Town Hall. Then in 1927 they built the Renown Theatre and Gardens, each holding 8-900.

The theatre faced what was then known as Newcastle Rd, later Great Northern Highway, and then Old Great Northern Highway (on the west side of the road, slightly further down from the corner than the Anglican Church, opposite the Council Club Hotel).

As a purpose-built cinema, it had a raked floor in both stalls and circle, and fixed theatre seating throughout. The timber floors were bare, until matting was later run down the aisles. Prams (sometimes occupied with a sleeping baby) would be left in an alcove beside the entrance door. Valma Martin remembers the venue fondly:

The Renown had character. Built as a Picture Theatre, in the late 1920s, after the warships Renown and Prince of Wales had visited WA. The inside of the theatre was painted pale green with a pink trim. It had large drop down windows, and when they did not get stuck Mr Alf Herbert or Mr Gilbert Trefry would come around with a long pole with a hook on the end and drop them down on a hot night to let the cool night air in.
In the very early days, before the talkies, Annie Fahey (later Plews) would play the piano to accompany the picture being shown. She sat at the piano down near the screen and watched it carefully so as to play either fast or slow music, dramatic or happy music. Jessie Pearson worked in the ticket box, her black curls bobbing around. The ticket box was a free-standing box set in the middle of the front of the foyer. There was a fancy steel grille that used to be pulled across when the theatre was not open.
Before the pictures started, music was played. Always the Cuckoo Waltz…(Valma Martin, “Memories” 1980)

Jessie Pearson took over the piano after Annie Fahey married and moved to Meekatharra, and Miss Nyland ran the ´lolly shop’, built within the foyer of the theatre but accessible only from the street. The theatre continued to screen during World War 2, with all the windows covered to meet blackout requirements.

The gardens was built behind the theatre, fronting onto Spring Park Rd. It closed during World War 2, when blackout restrictions made open air screening impossible, and the disused site became more and more rundown. Then it was cleaned up, repainted and re-opened about 1950-53, with the traditional rows of canvas deckchairs for seating. There were aisles both along the outside of the seats and down the centre, but parents would seek out the seats beside the side aisles, where parking of prams was allowed. It was a very popular venue on hot summer nights:

Not even the lattice placed around the top of the fence could stop the local lads from seeing the pictures. They would climb the box trees along the fence line, in the ground of the Church of the Ascension, and watch the pictures. You could hear them talking and laughing up in the trees. (Valma Martin, “Memories”, 1980)

Consolidated Theatres (R.Yelland) leased the venue from 1 July 1954, and redecorated the theatre building soon after:

When it re-opened, it had been painted cream with a red trim. The steel folding grille doors across the front of the theatre had been replaced with folding wood and glass doors. Carpet had been laid on the stairs to the circle. Then the theatre was very popular. It became necessary to make a booking for Saturday night shows. “Sound of Music” was one of the first films to be shown after renovation. (Valma Martin, “Memories”, 1980)

At this time, a door was also opened from the foyer into the sweet shop. Consolidated Theatres operated the venue till it closed on 31 January 1968. The building was then used as a furniture store, till later demolished. In 1997, Good Sammy’s clothing store was on the site.

The gardens closed in the 1960s.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, pp.46, 64
Valma Martin, “Memories”, mss 1980
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1966/7
Post Office Directory, 1918 – 1926, 1928, 1936/7 – 1949
Reporter, 8 December 1992
West Australian, 1955 – 1967
Informant: Valma Martin (Swan View 1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Reporter, 8 December 1992

SWANWAY DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Muriel St, Midland

Swanway Drive In 1981

This was one of the Ace Theatres’ circuit, and could hold 450 cars. It opened on 17 December 1964 on a site selected for the natural sound barriers provided by the trees and shrubs growing on three sides: however, one boundary was the Blackadder Creek, which meant that mosquitoes were a problem, particularly in summer, which was the most popular time for the drive-in. It had the usual cafe and playground facilities, and cost £85,000. It closed around 1984 and was purchased by La Salle College, which raised the level of the ground and used it for a football oval.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1964/5 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, p.129
Sunday Times, 13 December 1964
West Australian, 1964 – 1983
Informant: Valma Martin (Swan View 1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

TOWN HALL/ EMPIRE PICTURES/ PEOPLE’S PICTURES/ STAR ENTERTAINMENTS, Newcastle Rd, Midland Junction

Midland Town Hall Interior 1993

The first Midland Junction Hall was built in 1893 facing Helena St, on the south-west corner of the junction with Newcastle Rd. This may have been where the Salvation Army screened in September 1902, February 1904, October 1904 and December 1904. From 1904 this hall was used for occasional commercial film screenings, until a new hall was built and the old hall became the Carnegie Library (then was demolished and replaced by the Carnegie Garden). When the new Town Hall, holding 5-600 people, was opened early in 1907, on the north-east corner of the junction of Newcastle Rd (later Great Northern Highway, and later still Old Great Northern Highway) and the Great Eastern Highway, screenings transferred there.

Regular Monday night screenings began on 15 February 1909, conducted by King’s Pictures. These were originally managed by Mr Sudholz, then by a succession of managers who took over after he left the company. At some point, these became separated from the parent company and independent of it, but the name ‘King’s Pictures’ continued to be used, screening from September 1910 in the Empire Hall. Meanwhile, West’s Touring Company had inaugurated weekly screenings in the Midland Town Hall also, commencing in May 1909. These, also, continued for several years, but on a Saturday, so now the area had access to films two nights each week. Swan Pictures took over from King’s, and from 1914-1918 Empire Pictures apparently took over both circuits. From 1916 to 1926 People’s Pictures screened here regularly, before building the Renown. It is not clear who operated the venue after that, but Mrs May Pilmoor remembers going to the pictures in the Town Hall in 1936. Star Entertainments opened up in the Town Hall in 1943, and this was taken over soon after by V. C. Lucas who ran it till 1959.

In the forties and fifties, the seating on the level ground floor was on slightly-padded wooden benches, which could be moved to the side of the hall when it was used for other purposes, such as dances. Upstairs, the fixed theatre-type seats were slightly more comfortable, and raked to provide a better view. Pictures were shown on Friday and Saturday nights. Children were admitted at a cheaper rate through side doors to the roped-off front six rows of the stalls: as soon as the lights went out, however, they would slip into better seats further back. Babies were left in prams in the foyer, beside the front entrance, in the care of the usherettes.

Roy Mudge screened in Midland Town Hall, one season in school holidays 1-12 October 1990. He planned to screen there regularly, then found out that the Callisthenics Association also planned regular screenings in their theatre, so he gave away the idea. In 1995, the Midland Town Hall was nominated for the WA Register of Historic Places, and underwent extensive restoration work, but films are no longer screened there.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.25-6
Max B. Grace, “Ercildoune”: Guildford reflections 1906-1925, Access Press, Northbridge 1992, p.58
Betty Harris, Centenary of Midland 1886-1986
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1958/9
West Australian, 1905 – 1916, 1943 – 1959
Informant: Valma Martin (Swan View 1997)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours

Photos: 8 interiors, colour, 1980 (Roy Mudge)

MIDVALE

MIDVALE HALL AND GARDENS, Hooley Rd, Midvale

Apparently this cinema was run from at least 1955 (possibly as early as 1936) till 1963, by Vince Lucas in the local hall, which held 200, and in a gardens next door with a capacity for a further 450.
Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, p.60
Film Weekly Directory, 1958/9 – 1964/5
West Australian, 1955 – 1963

SWAN PARK CINEMA/ MIDLAND FIVE/ ACE MIDLAND CINEPLEX, Morrison Rd, Midvale

The Swan Park Cinema opened December 1990 in Swan Park, Gray Drive, off Morrison Rd, in what is now the Callisthenics Centre. Eddie Wheeler installed the equipment there for N.J.Woods, and screenings were held during school holidays.

In 1992, a new five-plex was opened in what had been the Ten-Pin Bowling Centre, also in Swan Park, but closer to Morrison Rd (postal address 181 Morrison Rd), with the entrance still in Gray Drive. This was called the Midland Five, and the equipment from the Callisthenics Centre was re-located there. On 1 April 1999, two additional Megastadiums were opened, and the venue was renamed the Ace Midland Cineplex.

Sources: Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino no.45, September 1993, p.28
Kino, no.35, March 1991, p.24; no.41, September 1992, p.27; no.43, March 1993, p.31
West Australian 1991, 1993 – 2000

Photos: 1 exterior (Midland 5), colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)
1 exterior (Callisthenics Centre), colour, 1997 (Graeme Bertrand)

MILING

HALL, Miling

There may have been films screened here around 1940, but the first regular screenings were by the Fitzgerald circuit at the end of the forties and beginning of the fifties, followed by Lew Punch from about 1952 to 1958. Punch had ceased these screenings when he sold his circuit to Vic Basham in the sixties, and Basham re-introduced fortnightly screenings to Miling, when he expanded the circuit that he had bought from Neil McKee and Lew Punch. These screenings ceased when the spread of drive-ins made hall screenings uneconomical in the smaller towns.

Sources:Film Weekly Directory 1940/41, 1948/9 – 1957/8
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Vic Basham (1997)

MINGENEW

DRIVE-IN, Victoria St, Mingenew

Min‫genew Drive in 1987

Min‫genew Drive in 1987

This small drive-in (capacity 150 cars) was opened in May 1965 by Ray Dean, on Council land, and operated for him by Rod Croft. It was located at the southern boundary of the town, opposite the primary school.

Esme Campbell sold tickets there, and remembers one occasion when the first patron was an echidna who waddled in off the road, and another when a mother plover led her three chicks across the road in front of the drive-in entrance, so the queue of cars was held up until she had safely passed. It was a very functional venue, with basic facilities of toilets and a concession, where light meals were served as well as sweets and drinks. The venue opened early enough that patrons could eat there before the screening, but they were expected to eat in their cars as no lawns or tables were provided. A sit-in area inside the concession held thirty seats, but was later closed because of the rowdy behaviour of the young people who usually sat there. Alcohol was prohibited, but was often brought in unofficially, and it was not unusual for one of the young men to climb up on the screen and be noticed in the middle of a film hanging by his toes from the top of the picture.

The venue closed in 1984, and none of the buildings remain. Tussock grass or shrubs have grown up in rows through the holes in the bitumen left by the speaker stands. The land is still owned by the council.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex 1986, p.138
Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.94
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997), Alan Larkin
Informant: Esme Campbell (1997)

Photos ; 2 exterior, colour, 1987 , Roy Mudge

OPEN AIR THEATRE, Railway Pde, Mingenew

The first open air venue in Mingenew was located in Railway Pde, between the Mingenew Hotel (on the south-west corner of Shenton St and Railway Pde) and a shop. It was surrounded by a corrugated iron fence, and was a simple open air venue. It was operated by Mr Walker-Taylor in the twenties, and in the winter he screened in the hall, with Mrs Walker-Taylor playing the piano for the silent movies.

It is not clear when this opened, but Mr Taylor-Walker died in 1928, which was probably when it closed. Local people cannot remember there ever being two venues in competition, so this gardens must have closed before screenings began in the new gardens beside the Agricultural Hall.

Sources: Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.94
Informant: Esme Campbell (1997)

ROADS BOARD HALL/ AGRICULTURAL HALL/ OPEN AIR THEATRE/ MINGENEW HALL, Victoria St, Mingenew

The first Agricultural Hall was built in 1895, but it burnt down and was probably never used for film screenings.

The earliest recorded screening in Mingenew was a visit by Vincent’s Empire Pictures in November 1908, which probably took place in the first Roads Board Hall, built in 1906 on the east side of Victoria st, in the middle of the block between King and Irwin Sts. This tiny building still stands next to the Shire offices, and is cared for by the Historical Society.

In 1917, a new Agricultural Hall was built a little further north in Victoria St, its foundation stone laid on 17 December 1917. In 1935, this building was extended to house the Shire Offices, with the original foundation stone re-located into the new facade. A. F. (Tom) Nulsen, of West Touring Talkies, leased exclusive rights to show pictures in the hall once each fortnight, and in 1940 sold his business to Ray Dean, who was screening five nights each fortnight in the hall in the early forties.

In 1948, Dean opened an open air pictures, behind the Roads Board Hall, with entrance still from Victoria St between the Roads Board Hall and the Agricultural Hall/Shire Offices. He began screening there in summer and in the hall in winter. The open air theatre had a gravel floor, on which stood rows of metal-framed deckchairs, each seating four or five people, and the screen was at the eastern end. The only plants were some poplars, along the south side of the high galvanised iron fence. The gardens had a projection booth quite separate from that in the hall.

On 6 March 1959 a completely new Mingenew Hall was opened, still further north in the same block. Screenings in the hall ceased in the mid-sixties, when the drive-in was built.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.94
Informant: Esme Campbell (1997)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior (old Roads Board Hall), b&w, n.d., Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.49
1 exterior (old Roads Board Hall), colour, n.d. (1980s?), Emu Postcards and Souvenirs
1 exterior (Agricultural Hall), b&w, n.d. Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.48
1 exterior, b&w, n.d.(after 1935), Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.49
1 exterior (Mingenew Hall), b&w, n.d. (after 1959), Mingenew Historical Society, Mingenew 1846 – 1986, Hesperion Press 1988, p.49

MOODIARRUP

MOODIARRUP HALL, Moodiarrup Bridge, Dinninup Rd, Moodiarrup

The Heritage Inventory describes this hall, built in 1925, like this:

Located within 50 metres of the banks of the Arthur River just SW of the Moodiarrup Bridge on the Arthur-Dinninup Road. The hall is a long building with a gable roof. Attached to the north east is the kitchen and a porch coves the western entrance. Large Marri trees dominate the landscape on the south of the hall. Built on a flat terrain the surrounding area was used for sports meetings, tennis courts and bowling green.
The builders Charles (Ted) Nordstrom and T. V. Williams were prominent personalities in the West Arthur District – Williams as a Moodiarrup farmer and Nordstrom as a builder, renovator and with his hobbies as a photographer and gardener.

Films were screened there, as described by local historian John Bird (p.171):

Travelling silent picture shows used to come to Duranillin and Moodiarrup at one time. A hessian screen would be put up in the bush, or in a hall if one was available, and the picture shown to the accompaniment of expressive music played by the travelling show’s pianist. The rival travelling showmen Paddy Baker, and Nelson and Mc Cracken used to travel from Perth to Albany and back, stopping each night at a different place to show their films. Duranillin was favoured with a visit by one or other of these showmen, once a month. Later the star talkies replaced silent moving pictures, in the travelling entertainers’ repertoire.

Sources: Shire of West Arthur, Municipal Heritage Inventory, no.5
John Bird, West of the Arthur, West Arthur Shire Council 1990
Photo: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Shire of West Arthur, Municipal Heritage Inventory, no.5

MOORA

MOORA DRIVE-IN, Dandaragan St, Moora

Moora Drive In 1988

Moora Drive In 1988

The Moora Talkie Committee decided to start a drive-in as well as the screenings they already ran in the hall and gardens. Moora Drive-in Theatres Pty Ltd was formed for this purpose. The Moora Talkie Committee bought half the shares, and set up the Moora Talkie Trust to look after these shares and administer the funds. The other half of the shares were owned by a consortium of Paddy Baker and Neil Robinson from Perth, and local Eric Rule who put up the land, bounded by Bishop and Stafford Sts, on the south side of Dandaragan St.

Robinson selected and hired the films, which travelled up by train or road. The venue opened on 21 July 1961, with provision for 244 cars.

Williams from Merredin bought the drive-in from the MTT in 1983: at the time it was still fully functioning, though TV was starting and audiences were declining. Tony Wilmot, also from Merredin though now in Albany, bought it from Williams later.

It is not clear when it closed, but in 1997 the land was vacant, sub-divided into farmlets and up for sale.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1961/2 – 1971
Shire of Moora, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, reference no.6
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex 1986, p.137
Max Bell, ´Moora Town Hall and Gardens’, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.7
Maxine Laurie, Tracks through the Midlands: a history of the Moora District , Shire of Moora, 1995
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Larkin (1985)
Interview (Peter Morris): Paddy Baker (1978)
Informant: Ross Cockman (1997)

TOWN HALL AND GARDENS, Moora

Moora Town Hall 1997

Moora Hall interior 1993

Moora Hall interior 1993

Moora Hall projection room 1993

The earliest film screening advertised for Moora was Vincent’s Empire Pictures, screened in November 1908, probably in the Agricultural Hall, known as the Lesser Hall after the new Town Hall was built. The new hall was designed by W. A. Nelson and built by D. W. Griffiths, and was officially opened on 11 June 1913. The Municipal Inventory describes the hall like this:

The entire place is a brick construction with a corrugated iron roof. The front section is the entry foyer, former offices, and associated spaces, behind which is located the hall. The front is classical in proportion with the central entry portico protruding from the front facade. Double classical columns support the portico’s rendered pediment with the name detailed. The building corners are quoined in render in contrast the majority of face brick. The bricks and sandstone were from Griffiths property.

The hall has a sprung timber floor and a stage, making it suitable for many kinds of social gatherings as well as films. In fact, films were not anticipated in the original design, so no provision was made for a bio-box: discussion began in 1916 about the need for one, but it is not clear when it was eventually built, as a fire in 1922 destroyed the relevant municipal records. An early screening at the new Town Hall was The long chance, screened on 9 September 1916. But the first regular screenings were by Mr Flood. Fred Croft (now living in Coorow) remembers being employed by Mr Briggs who ran the screenings in the early twenties, to walk the streets ringing the bell and shouting: “Pictures tonight in Moora Town Hall, the Best of All”.

Moora Hospital Committee was then formed to raise funds for the District Hospital by screening films, but when the hospital came under the control of the State Health Department it was necessary to keep the finances of the voluntary committee separate, to avoid interfering with government grants for the Hospital. So they formed Moora Talkies Committee, conducted screenings in the Town Hall using voluntary labour, and continued to pass on most of the profits to the hospital.

It was the Moora Talkies Committee which started films in the gardens next door, on the south side of the hall. Hall chairs were taken out there when needed, and the children sat on blankets on the couch grass floor. The gardens was surrounded by a high tin wall, and projectors in the hall could be swung round to project through the side windows onto the screen at the south end of the gardens. Screenings took place every Saturday night.

While the Shire generated power for the town, it would close down or break down about 10.30 or 11 p.m., often before the screening was finished. The patrons would then go to the RSL hall and finish the evening with a dance (some-one would always be able to play the piano). This did not happen after the SEC power came to the town in 1970.

Screenings in the hall and gardens continued for about a year after the opening of the drive-in, then ceased, and the gardens was dismantled. The two Raycophone projectors were bought by Graham Ford when he re-opened Meekatharra Open Air in 1988. But in 1993, Vic Basham began to visit the town about once a month in the summer, screening in the hall. These screenings are not as successful as those which Basham provided in Wongan Hills: the Moora hall had poorer acoustics and no heating, and the Moora community had been affected by several tragic events in recent years.

In 1997 the hall was still in excellent condition and in use as a community facility. Moora Talkie Trust also still exists: it has invested the profits from its previous activities, and still distributes the interest around various local charities.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1966/7
Shire of Moora, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, reference no.6
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.116
Max Bell, ´Moora Town Hall and Gardens’, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.7
Maxine Laurie, Tracks through the Midlands: a history of the Moora District , Shire of Moora, 1995
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Vic Basham (1997)
Informants: Ross Cockman (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (before biobox was built), Shire of Moora, Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, reference no.6
1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (before biobox was built), Maxine Laurie, Tracks through the Midlands: a history of the Moora District , Shire of Moora, 1995, p.83
1 exterior, b&w, 1978, Max Bell, ´Moora Town Hall and Gardens’, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.7
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
3 interior, colour , 1993, Roy Mudge

MORAWA

DRIVE-IN, Valentine St, Morawa

This small drive-in, at the far end of Valentine St, was built by the Shire and leased to Ray Dean. The local Parents and Citizens arranged to operate the kiosk, to provide funds for local schools.

The venue opened in 1965 with a capacity of 128 cars. There was not much room inside the fence: Rae Madden remembers that “If you were in the back row and got over-enthusiastic you went right over the bank and into Burton’s place – or into the drain…” Patrons came from all around to the weekly screenings, until other drive-ins were built in nearby towns, such as Perenjori.

In the sixties, the town boomed with the growth of Western Mining Corporation’s activities. But after this closed, the population declined, from a peak of about 27,000 down to about one thousand in the Shire and only four hundred in the town in 1997. The passenger and freight service of the railways closed in 1974, leaving only the movement of the wheat from the silos. Television reached the town also: the ABC tower became operative on 8 March 1973, and GTW (now GWN) on 22 December 1986.

So patronage at the drive-in (which had never been as popular as the open air venue) declined in the seventies until it became uneconomical for Ray Dean. The Shire continued to screen for a short time (perhaps two years) before they too gave it up and the venue closed.

The site is now used for a tree nursery: 600,000 trees are now being raised on part of the site, and expansion over the rest is planned. The matched pair of Photophone projectors and Peerless lamphouses is held by the Historical Society, which is planning to display one in the expanded museum currently being built, and hopes to sell the other.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex 1986, p.138
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997), Alan Larkin
Informants: Rae Madden, John Pulbrook (1997)

OPEN AIR THEATRE, Solomon Tce, Morawa

Some local people can remember an open air venue on the south-east corner of Solomon Tce and Evans St, but there is doubt about just when it opened. It may have been circuit operator Mr Walker-Taylor’s first venue in Morawa, from which he later moved to the old Town Hall, or which he used in conjunction with winter screenings in the Town Hall. He toured round the district (showing also in Perenjori, Three Springs, Mingenew and perhaps other places) with a Chevrolet 4 Van and his own generator for power. One resident remembers that the first movie shown there was Sunshine Suzy and it rained all night. The seating was in deckchairs in banks of four, and the walls were hessian.

It probably closed in 1928 when Mr Walker-Taylor died and George Tilley opened his own open air venue next to the old Town Hall.

Sources: Informant: Rae Madden (1997)

TOWN HALL AND GARDENS, Winfield St, Morawa

Morawa’s first Town Hall was a timber building on the north-west corner of the intersection of Prater and Winfield Sts, where the Post Office stands in 1997. This may have been where Mr Walker-Taylor screened in the twenties (after the open air venue in Solomon Tce, or in conjunction with it), with his wife playing the piano accompaniment for the silent movies.

There were three vacant blocks beside the Town Hall in the twenties, then Arnold James’ newsagency and billiard room. Behind these was a laneway, and behind the vacant blocks, facing into Dreghorn St, was G.H.Tilley’s power supply business. When Mr Walker-Taylor died in early 1928, Tilley bought the projectors and Cecil Lucas continued the screenings on Tilley’s behalf, in the hall and in an open air theatre, which Tilley opened in the vacant block. Screenings took place in the hall in winter and in the open air in the summer. Don Fallon remembers paying 3d to sit on the ground to watch the movies there in the thirties.

In 1933 Nulsen’s West Touring Talkies began exhibiting in the town. It is not clear whether Tilley continued till then, and if so, whether he moved his winter screenings to the new Town Hall, built in 1930. Perhaps Tilley was not prepared to invest in the new talkie equipment?

The Tilley family maintained their connection with pictures. Son Ray became a projectionist and worked at the Astor, Mount Lawley. Son Ken later screened (16mm?) films for friends in the gardens of his home in Morawa, obtaining his films from Shell Oil, Kodak, BP and Castrol.

Sources:Informants: Rae Madden, Don Fallon, John Pulbrook, Ken Tilley (1997)

TOWN HALL AND GARDENS, Prater St, Morawa

The Shire Offices were on the south-west corner of the intersection with Dreghorn St, when a new Morawa Town Hall was built in 1930, slightly further west, with some vacant land between the two buildings. The new hall was designed for film screenings: the built-in bio-box extended past the wall so that the same projector/s could be used for the gardens. The open air venue was then built with an entrance in Prater St between the two buildings, and the seating behind the Shire Offices, along Dreghorn St. Part of the walls of the gardens were provided by the two buildings and the rest was a high galvanised iron fence. It was known locally as the Gardens Theatre, but there was no planting and the deckchairs stood on a simple gravel floor.

It is not clear who were the first to screen there, but it may have been George Tilley at first, or Nulson’s West Touring Talkies from the beginning. West’s was bought by Ray Dean in 1940 and this Hall and Gardens was on Ray Dean’s circuit in the forties and fifties, when he travelled in his Ford V8 36 truck, around a wide circuit. The Morawa hall and gardens was later managed by Ray Dean jnr, and closed only when the drive-in opened.

The Town Hall has now been extended, covering part of the site of the gardens. It is still an imposing building, with the older section still visible and the new front section rendered and painted cream. The bio-box has become a storeroom for the Shire, so is no longer used when films are shown there. In 1997, monthly screenings were organised by the Anglican Church – charging for a ´sumptuous supper’ instead of an entrance fee. The 16mm? projector and the screen are placed on the floor of the hall for these screenings, but they were very popular as no other film screenings were by then available in the town.

Sources: Frank Goldsmith, The history of Morawa, Morawa Shire Council 1961 p.49
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997)
Informants: Rae Madden, Don Fallon, John Pulbrook, (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

MORLEY

ACEWAY DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Beechboro Rd, Morley

Aceway Drive In 1981

Aceway Drive In 1981

Aceway Drive In 1981

Aceway Drive In 1980’s

Aceway Drive In 1980’s

When a property development company bought the Wirrina Drive- in, and announced plans to develop the site as a shopping complex, Ace Theatres took over the lease of the Wirrina and operated the cinema till they had constructed a replacement a short distance away – the Aceway, which opened in 1980 at the south-east corner of Beechboro and Benara Rds. It was demolished in March 1988, to make way for a shopping complex at first known as the Carramah Community Centre, and in 1997 called Beechboro Central.

Sources: Kino no.24, June 1988, p.23
West Australian, 1981 – 1987
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1978)

Photos: 3 exteriors, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

2 exteriors, colour, 1980’s, Max Bell

GREATER UNION 8, Galleria, Old Collier Rd, Morley

Morley Greater Union interior 1997

Morley Greater Union exterior 1997

A multi-plex with eight screens opened in September 1994 in the Morley City shopping centre, the Galleria. Built by Village in conjunction with Greater Union, the cinema entrance is at the foot of Wellington St, facing Walter Rd. In March 2000, 2 Senstadiums opened within the complex.

Sources: Kino, no.24, June 1988, p.23; no.25, September 1988, p.23; no.27, March 1989, p.23; no.41, September 1992, p.27; no.43, March 1993, p.31; no.48, June 1994, p.32; no.50, December 1994, p.35; no.51, March 1995, p.31
West Australian 1995 – 2000

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 interior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

WIRRINA DRIVE-IN THEATRE, Johnsmith St, Morley

Morley Wirrina Drive In 1981

This was built on the corner of Walter Rd, Collier Rd and Johnsmith St, by Metropolitan Cinemas Pty Ltd, a local company of which R. Yelland was a major figure, independent of both the major drive-in chains of the time – City Theatres and Ace Theatres – and opened on 24 March 1959. The name was said to be an aboriginal word meaning ‘somewhere to go’, and the cinema was designed by W.G.Bennett and Associates.

A projection box and control room built above the concession building and a 600-seat lounge building for the convenience of nearby residents and riders of motor scooters are among the unique features of the 500-car Wirrina Drive-in…
Seating in the lounge is positioned to give maximum view while the high-sited control-room allows drive-in officials to keep a close watch on the functioning of every part of the theatre and to correct any problems which may arise without delay.
Spacious concession building backs the patron lounge and provides a wide variety of foodstuffs and confectionery, etc.
A receptionist is also on duty to provide reading and writing materials for patrons.
Children’s playground is located near the concession building for utmost convenience and includes a miniature train among its attractions for youngsters…
Color tones throughout Wirrina are attractive, an unusually effective touch being provided by the foam rubber seating in the lounge with its green backs and red seats.
Dominating the Wirrina scene is the screen which stands 60 ft above the ground and is stressed with steel and concrete.
Measuring 32ft by 90ft it is believed to be the only screen of its type in Australia and is designed to give the brightest and sharpest picture possible. (Film Weekly, 2 April 1959)

However, the property was purchased by a developer, and the lease taken over by Ace, who continued to run the cinema till their replacement was built – the Aceway. The equipment was then transferred to the new drive-in and in 1980 the Wirrina was closed permanently. The Myers carpark of the Morley Galleria shopping complex is now located on the site.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1959/60 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, p.129
Australasian Exhibitor, 19 October 1967, p.6
Film Weekly, 19 March 1959, p.3; 2 April 1959
West Australian, 1959 – 1980
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)

Photos: 4 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

MORNINGTON MILL

HALL, Mornington Mill

The Salvation Army Biorama Company visited the town in October 1904, but regular screenings did not begin until this venue was added to Allan Jones’ circuit, then passed on to the Kanzlers in the early forties, then South West Pictures (A.H.Jeffries) from the late forties to the late fifties.

Sources: Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours
Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1944/5, 1948/9 – 1959/60

MOSMAN PARK

COTTESLOE BEACH TOWN HALL/ BUCKLAND HILL PICTURE GARDENS/ MOSMAN PARK AND GARDENS/ CAMELOT OUTDOOR CINEMA, Lochee St, Mosman Park

Mosman Park Hall 1997

The Cottesloe Beach Town Hall was built in Lochee St, on the south-west corner of Solomon St: it was a two-storey red brick box – functional, but not very attractive. The official opening took place on 4 April 1921, with a free picture night in the main hall for ratepayers. Films had already been shown in this 450-seat venue from 19 March, when the regular weekly show had commenced, managed by Tom Platt.

Jack Platt (Tom’s son) recalled later:

Thirty-three years ago, on March 19th, 1921, my late father and his partner presented to the district the first picture programme in the new Town Hall. The programme was a Paramount picture ‘We Can’t Have Everything’ which starred now forgotten favourites Kathlyn Williams, Sylvia Breamer, Theodore Roberts and Raymond Hatton. Those were the silent days – a full orchestra was in attendance with overture at 8 p.m. The feature film was supported by a Mack Sennett two reel comedy, Burton Holmes Travelogue, Paramount Magazine and Paramount Newsreel. Admission in those days Adults 1/- (plus 1d tax) Children 6d.
The Management ran two nights weekly – Wednesday and Saturday. The first Wednesday showed a small profit, but every Wednesday after a dead loss, in fact Saturday’s profit had to pay for Wednesday’s loss. After several months’ trial Wednesday screenings had to be dropped… On the opening Saturday night 245 adults and 194 children were present, but afterwards the average audience comprised 150 adults and 90 children. Possibly the seating helped to reduce the audiences. They were hard jarrah forms with back rest, in fact the children of those times referred to them as 6d jarrahs.
…The late Mr F.L.Martin and myself were projectionists at the show. Laurie Martin had taught me to project pictures at Claremont in 1920. The projection room…was so small that he had to get out of the room to let me in alongside the machine and then get back himself.

At the end of 1922 the Platts lost the lease, and it is not clear who carried on in the Town Hall, while the Platts moved to the Alexandra Hall in January 1923. Their new premises had fewer (350), but more comfortable, seats than the Town Hall, so the venture was successful, and eventually the two shows amalgamated their management, continuing to screen in both venues until the introduction of sound.

Then the Town Hall venue closed for a few years, re-opening with sound in 1932, and now leased by L.M.Hatfield, who was already running the Cottesloe District Pictures and was able to programme for the two venues (and later for the Lido Gardens as well), even switching programmes among them. In 1933 Hatfields also opened the Buckland Hill Picture Gardens, next door to the hall: this had been renamed Mosman Park Picture Gardens by 1939, when the hall was renovated, using the popular art moderne style on the facade and converting the interior of the main hall into a cinema. The hall ceased to be used as a cinema some time after television arrived in Perth, until Peter Thomson, who had worked at assistant or relieving projectionist for the Hatfields at Mosman Park, re-opened the gardens on his own behalf as a hobby. He did this for three summers, up to 1962/3. The Mosman Park Council continued to use space in the building for municipal offices, until in 1965 they moved to a new Administrative Centre, and the hall was again renovated. As the Mosman Park Reception Centre, or Camelot Lodge, it was leased to a catering firm (Camelot) and for use as a place of worship for a local church. Mosman Council considered restoring the building as a theatre, or as a Town Hall with projection facilities, or as a live theatre with meeting rooms and the adjacent gardens site used for screening films or for live theatre and other functions…

The final decision was an arts centre in the hall and pictures in the gardens. While the gardens was under reconstruction and the hall being renovated, a fire in Council storage facilities destroyed some of the theatre artefacts that were to have been replaced in the theatre building. However, the theatre re-opened in 1993 for live performances, and the gardens re-opened with a short film festival in February 1995. A new screen was erected in the gardens in early 1996 in anticipation of the introduction of regular screenings. In 1996, when these began, the venue was called Camelot Outdoor Cinema, and it has opened for the summer each year since then. The gardens area is a really delightful setting, with restaurant facilities.

Kino (no.71) reported a new development in the summer of 1999-2000:

A special small venue for screening 16mm films has commenced in the upstairs dress circle area in the Camelot hardtop. The original bio box ports were reopened, allowing two machines to throw pictures on a screen painted on the wall separating the dress circle from the rest of the theatre. Future screenings planned.

Over the summer season 2001-2, the Camelot Outdoor Cinema screened weekly change programmes, adverising with the Outdoor Next Door (to the Luna, Leederville).

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.35-6, 60-61
Max Bell, ‘Mosman Park Pictures’, Kino, No.8, June 1984, p.21
Jack Platt, ‘Memory lane… and movies’, Mosman Park Review, June 1954, pp.13 – 15
Elizabeth Tuettemann, Between River and Sea: a history of Mosman Park, W.A., Town of Mosman Park, 1991
Community, 27-31 December 1996, p.2
Film Weekly Directory, 1936/7 – 1960/61
Kino, no.28, June 1989, p.23; no.31, March 1990, p.23; no.34, December 1990, p.24; no.39, March 1992, p.25; no.40, June 1992, p.26; no.44, June 1993, p.36; no.45, September 1993, p.31; no.46, December 1993, p.30; no.51, March 1995, p.31; no.52, June 1995, p.30; no.55, March 1996, p.31; no 56, June 1996, p.31; no.63, Autumn 1998, p.34; no.70, Summer 1999, p.35; no.71, Autumn 2000, p.35.
Post Office Directory, 1936/7 – 1949
West Australian 1963 – 1965, 2000
Interview (Bill Turner): Arthur Hatfield (1981)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, Kino, No.8, p.21 (Max Bell)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior, b&w, 1986 (Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, p.35)
2 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 interior (Camelot Outdoor Cinema), colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior (Mosman Park Hall 1921), 1 exterior (Alexandra Hall, 1925), 1 interior (Alexandra Hall 1924) Jack Platt, ‘Memory lane… and movies’, Mosman Park Review, June 1954, pp.13 – 15

MOUNT BARKER

MOUNT BARKER DRIVE-IN, Dean St, Mount Barker

Mt Barker Drive In 1977

Mt Barker Drive In 1986

Screenings in the Mount Barker hall had suffered from the opening of the drive-in in Albany – the novelty had drawn patronage south. So the Mount Barker drive-in was built on Shire land on the east side of Dean St, opposite the intersection of Nunarrup St. It was leased by Joe Rourke, who had been screening in the hall, and opened in July 1963. There was room for 150 cars, but the ramps were too steep: drivers had to put the nose of their car over the hump to watch the screen comfortably, and this meant putting the speaker in the back window. There was a small sit-in area under a roofed section of the concession building, and take-away food was served from the cafe before the show and at interval. This concession was operated at first by Keith and Rhonda Gillam, then by Eric and Pat Randell. Irwin Simons operated the gatehouse, and Norman Mills moved from the hall as operator, also acting as cleaner the day after each screening and putting up the weekly posters.

The venue had Simplex projectors with 14″ arcs, and a screen built by Melville Engineering. It screened four nights a week, with three changes of programme (Wed, Fri-Sat, Sun), till 1965 when television reduced patronage and so the number of screenings each week. Terry Scott took over from Norman Mills as operator in 1965, then in 1972, after Rourke’s death, the lease was taken on by Albany Investments. But the town was too close to Albany to survive the competition from the (by now) three drive-ins in the larger city: Mount Barker drive-in closed for a time, then was re-opened for about 12-18 months in the mid-eighties by an elderly man from Denmark (possibly Mr Courtney), before closing permanently. The bitumen of the ramps was ripped up and the land slowly reverted to bush: in 1997 it was for sale as a housing estate.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1963/4 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, p.137
Kino, no.19, March 1987, p.10
Great Southern Herald , 10 April 1964
Informants: Norman Mills (1998), Max Paget (1998), Mrs Rourke (Bullcreek 1997), Irwin Simons (1998), Phil Smith (1998), Dorothy Williss (1998)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Brian Rourke (1997)

Photos: 4 exterior, b&w, 1977, Roy Mudge

1 exterior, colour, 1986, Max Bell

PLANTAGENET HALL, Muir St, Mount Barker

Mt Barker Plantagenet Hall 1997

Plantagenet Town Hall 1980’s

Local historian, Rhoda Glover, says the first hall was a timber building, relocated from Torbay, and opened on 27 September 1893. However, the photo captioned as this hall in 1898 is of a corrugated iron hall, like the one Glover later describes as the Agricultural Hall, built in 1900. It is not clear whether films were screened in either of these halls.

In 1927 a new hall was built on the same site, and altered several times over the years, as described in the Municipal Heritage Inventory:

…a large hall with brick walls and corrugated iron roof. The facade is finished with roughcast mortar. It has side balconies that have been enclosed for storage. The foyer was added prior to 1957. There is a local soapstone wall built on the front of the foyer. Inside there is a stage, dressing room, kitchen and lower hall.

Certainly films were being screened from the beginning in this hall, with Tom Pickles playing the piano. It had no bio-box at first, till one was built out into the hall on pillars above the entrance, with the stairs leading down into the auditorium. Seats were in ranks of three, made of wood and meagrely padded: there were cushions for hire (in the fifties these were eighteen inch squares of foam rubber), but people avoided them as ´fleabags’.

In the thirties and forties, screenings in this hall were only held on Saturdays, except for an occasional season of two nights on a big film. The hall was usually full, particularly if a technicolour film was anticipated, and the screenings were the highlight of social life in the town. Seats were often booked permanently, or could be booked each week at the newsagent or at Warn’s (formerly Haworth’s) bakery and tearooms. In the early days Haworth’s tearooms would open for interval, selling drinks, sweets and icecreams. Then Les Bavin began selling from a tray in the hall, and later still Mr & Mrs Len Rowe began a small kiosk, between the hall and the railway, which was continued by Barbara Wallis.

Usherettes showed patrons to their seats – young women, smartly dressed but not in uniform, including over the years Olga Haese, Gladys Crisp, Dorothy Young, Millie Thorn, Joan Duckett and Phyllis McMeekin. Some people had the same seats each week, held for them with a ´reserved’ sign. Busloads of people would come in from Porongarup, where there were two guesthouses (Karribank and Bolganup), full of visitors during summer and school holidays. During the war, the land girls (dressed in their best) would be brought in on the back of farm trucks, with the family seated in relative comfort in the front.

Raycophone projectors were in use, and local advertising slides were accompanied by a record, played on a turntable.

Bert Kanzler of Albany owned the show from the early thirties at least, employing Billy Millons as operator and Roy McCallum as doorman, till at least 1939. Les Tucker came in to help Millons then took over from him as operator and worked there till he died in August 1953. Phil Smith, who had moved to Mount Barker as newsagent, was by then the manager of the picture show, which was now screening Wednesday and Saturday, with an occasional extra night on a Friday for a big film. Norman Mills came in to help Tucker as operator and took over in 1953. Both Tucker and Mills worked at the farmers co-operative in charge of the coolstores where the apples were kept, and therefore also of the power plant: till the fifties, the Shire bought electricity from them for the town. Joe and Kath Rourke of Kojonup bought the show from the Kanzler family in about 1940, and screenings continued in the hall till the drive-in opened in 1963.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Post Office Directory 1935/6
Shire of Plantagenet, Municipal Heritage Inventory, no.29
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, p.116
Rhoda Glover, Plantagenet: ´Rich and beautiful’…: a history of the Shire of Plantagenet, WA , Shire of Plantagenet, 1979
Interview: Plantagenet Historical Society members (14 September 1997)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Brian Rourke (1997)
Informants: Norman Mills (1998), Max Paget (1998), Connie Perry (1998), Mrs Rourke (1997), Terry Scott (1998), Phil Smith (1998), Dorothy Williss (1998)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
1 exterior, b&w, (1898? – see comment above), Rhoda Glover, Plantagenet: ´Rich and beautiful’…: a history of the Shire of Plantagenet, WA , Shire of Plantagenet, 1979
2 exterior, b&w, 1996, Shire of Plantagenet, Municipal Heritage Inventory, no.29
1 exterior, colour, 1980’s, Max Bell

MOUNT HAWTHORN

MOUNT HAWTHORN PICTURE GARDENS/RITZ AND GARDENS, Oxford St, Mount Hawthorn

The Mount Hawthorn Picture Gardens opened in 1925 in Oxford St, near the then bus terminus. In 1937 this venue was renamed the Ritz Gardens.

Some time later, a theatre was built on the south-east corner of the intersection of Oxford St and Scarborough Beach Rd. New gardens were then opened diagonally across the intersection, beside Edinboro St. Both theatre and gardens now held 1000, and both closed in May 1960.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, pp.46-7, 64
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1958/9
Post Office Directory, 1925 – 1949
West Australian, 1927 – 1961
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Alan Crew (1997)

MOUNT HELENA

MOUNT HELENA HALL

On the far western outskirts of the Perth metropolitan area, the tiny hamlet of Mount Helena had regular screenings in the hall from possibly as early as 1948 to 1961. These were run by G.M.Blinco.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory, 1948/9, 1955/6 – 1960/61

MOUNT LAWLEY

INGLEWOOD PICTURE GARDENS, 763 Beaufort St, Mount Lawley

This venue was situated on the east side of Beaufort St, between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, so is clearly not to be confused with either the Piccadilly Gardens, or the Lyceum. It was a ´gardens’ only in name, being rather a vacant quarter-acre building block between shops, with a cyclone fence along the street frontage, allowing passers-by to look through at the screen. It was opened in 1925 by Mr Dunleavy, and carried on by James McKerchar who was later to be connected with theatres round Fremantle, but it closed during 1928.

Sources: Post Office Directory, 1926 – 1928
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Lou Starr (1985)
Interview (Mark Turton): James McKerchar (1978)

LYCEUM/ STATE/ ASTOR, 663 Beaufort St, Mount Lawley

Astor exterior 1981

Astor facade 1962

The Lyceum was opened on 5 November 1919:

This building, the Lyceum Theatre, at the corner of Beaufort and Walcott streets, which was opened last night, measures 100ft by 45ft, by 26ft. 6in in height. Comfortable seating accommodation has been provided for 1,060 persons – 300 in the dress circle, and 760 below, and liberal space has been allowed between the rows of seats. Mr Alexander, who was his own architect and builder, has paid particular attention to ventilation, by a liberal supply of windows, inlet vents in the walls, and large exhaust vents in the ceiling, and he claims to have produced the coolest building in the State. (West Australian, 6 November 1919)

The owner, Simon Bremner Alexander, then leased the theatre to the Wheatleys, and an open-air venue was developed next door. In 1920, the theatre was available for hire on Tuesday and Thursday nights for dancing: floor space of 45feet square was offered, as well as the services of the theatre orchestra under Harold Betteridge. But by 1928 this was no longer possible, as it was one of only four venues in the suburban area screening films every week-night. Silent pictures continued in the gardens after the introduction of sound to the theatre.

In 1930 the venue was renamed the State Theatre and State Summer Gardens, and towards the end of the decade the theatre was completely renovated, to a design of architects Baxter-Cox and Leighton. The souvenir programme for the re-opening on 12 May 1939, was full of superlatives:

The spacious entrance foyer
Facing Beaufort Street one enters the spacious entrance hall, some 60 feet deep by 30 feet wide. The walls are of stippled texture in a soft dove grey tone with silver relievings, while the ceiling is in fawn with tonings of Eau de Nile. The whole of the floor is in mosaic tile. Booking offices are on either side. Chromium bordered display announcement boards, with their bright posters add just a colour (sic). The lighting is soft, being obtained from ceiling well lights and decorative box lights.
The circle stairway
The Dress Circle and Dress Circle Lounge are reached by a richly carpeted stairway leading up from the right of the entrance hall. The wall effects are similar to the main hall and heavy chromium plated handrails add just the right amount of brightness.
A luxurious lounge…
On reaching the top of the stairway one enters the luxuriously appointed Dress Circle Lounge. It is almost as spacious as the main hall, but is carpeted with a rich pile carpet, of a lightly patterned Indian red tone. Two modern long quarterised windows, reaching to the floor face into Beaufort Street. Luxuriously upholstered lounge suites and easy chairs are an invitation to patrons to adjourn to this restful lounge for a smoke or a talk during the period of interval. Palms and soft toned window treatments with the soft lighting from artistic diffused lights create an atmosphere for comfort and relaxation. An open air balcony extends from the lounge overlooking Beaufort Street.
The Dress circle
This is entered from the lounge and is spacious and well arranged. Every seat is fully upholstered in brown toned Genoa velvet and being well set back are particularly comfortable and restful. The circle rises to the back affording a full unobstructed view of the screen.
The main theatre
On entering one appears to look down over a sea of seats, due to the fact that the floor descends to the front of the theatre, so that those at the back may have an unobstructed view of the screen. The walls are constructed of a special acoustic tile, to ensure perfect sound reproduction in every part of the theatre. The main aisle is covered with heavy pile carpet and soft lighting is obtained from inset well lights in the fawn toned roof of the building. The seats in the main theatre are all upholstered in leather, well set back for comfort, are of full standard width and isolated from each other by arm rests…
Sound and projection equipment
The projection and sound equipment room is situated above the Dress Circle, being reached from a stairway from the Dress Circle Lounge. From here the very latest Raycophone dual projection apparatus, installed by Harringtons Ltd in conjunction with Raycophone Sound Equipment operates. Clear, brilliant and particularly sharp pictures are obtained by the use of the latest automatic motor driven high intensity arcs, a relatively new feature in screen production. Adding greatly also to the clearness and brilliance of the picture is the use of a specially imported Sonora cellular screen. Set behind this special screen is the latest Raycophone multi-cellular horn reproducing from the synchronised sound system. Both the projection of the picture and the clarity of the sound from this modernly equipped control room is a revelation of the progress that sound and projection engineers have achieved since the first installation in the old State Theatre.

In 1941, in response to a decree of the state government, that no private company could use the term ´State’ in its title, the venue was again renamed and it became the Astor Theatre and Gardens. In 1941, the venue was operated by Frank Tyler, and the assistant projectionist was Ray Tilley. Goldfield Pictures took over the lease in the late forties, knowing it had only a short time left to run, but believing that they could win an extension. However, Stan Perry (at that time resident manager in West Australia for Hoyts) won it instead, and set up screenings in co-operation with the owners, the Alexander estate. Goldfields, however, did not relinquish their film contracts to the new lessees. Instead, they bought the Rosemount, North Perth and took the Astor film supply to that venue, switching between North Perth and the Civic, Inglewood, which they also operated. Perry had entered this venture on his own behalf, not as a Hoyts employee, and soon found that he could not get product. After only six weeks he asked Goldfields to take it over again, and they operated it until City Theatres acquired it from them in 1969.

Extensive alterations at this time reduced the capacity of the theatre to 540, though the gardens remained at 880. The gardens were closed in 1970, but the theatre continued, sometimes screening films (foreign-language films, for instance Italian films in early 1978, and some repertory film seasons), and sometimes housing concerts and other live shows. It was twinned during 1982, and the Astor 1 became an adult cinema, specialising in R-rated films, while the Astor 2 specialised in Italian-language films. The venue closed in 1985, with the lower hall being used for bingo, but was refurbished during 1986 reverting to a single theatre with stalls (seating reduced to accommodate a karate school), lounge and dress circle. In 1988 screenings ceased once more, and it seemed likely that the cinema would be demolished. A public outcry prevented this, and the venue was eventually purchsed by Sydney businessman Ron Regan. Screenings began again on 27 July 1989 after extensive reconditioning, that seems to have continued over several years.

For in 1991, the theatre was completely refurbished again, to the design of Philip McAllister, for new owners Howard and Miriam Altman. Its art deco elements – not mentioned, or even recognised as such in the programme description above – made it particularly attractive for such a development, and the project was architecturally a great success. In 1992, it was proposed to twin the theatre by building an additional cinema inside the dress circle, and this was reported to be screening by June 1993, seating fifty patrons, but by the end of the year the whole building and adjacent shops were up for sale. It is not known if they were sold at this time, but they were again advertised as for auction in May 1997, and still advertised for sale in July 1997. Late in 1997, Palace Cinemas merged with Ace, and the Astor twin began screening as a Palace Cinema.

Sources: Max Bell, ‘Astor’, Kino no.72, Winter 2000, p.25
Vyonne Geneve, ´The vulnerability of our Art Deco theatres’, Kino, no.28, June 1989, p.6
Vyonne Geneve, ´The refurbishment of the Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley’, Kino, no.36, June 1991, pp.4-7
Vyonne Geneve, Significant buildings of the 1930s in Western Australia, Vyonne Geneve, June 1994, National Trust of Australia (WA)/ National Estate Grants Programme, vol.1
Philip McAllister, ´The Astor, Mount Lawley’, Kino, no.36, June 1991, pp.4-7
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.40
Everyone’s, 8 February 1928, p.27; 14 August 1929, p.18; 5 February 1930, p.20; 12 February 1930, p.25
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/5 – 1971
Guardian Express, 19 November 1985
Kino, no.14, December 1985, p.23; no.15, March 1986, p.22; no.18, December 1986, p.24; no.21, September 1987, p.22; no.22, December 1987, p.23; no.25, September 1988, p.14; no.26, December 1988, p.23; no.27, March 1989, p.27; no.28, June 1989, p.23; no.29, September 1989, p.23; no.31, June 1990, p.23; no.42, December 1992, p.32; no.43, March 1993, p.31; no.44, June 1993, p.36; no.46, December 1993, p.30; no.53, September 1995, p.31; no.60, June 1997, p.35; no.62, Summer 1997, p.35
Post Office Directory, 1921 – 1949
West Australian, 1919 – 2000, 9 January 1920, 28 February 1920
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ron Elsegood (1985), Arthur Stiles (1985)
Conversation: Ken Tilley, Morawa

Photos: 1 programme, Lyceum Theatre and Summer Gardens 14 January 1922, b&w (Battye?)
1 exterior (Astor), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

1 exterior (Astor facade), b&w, undated (1962? Mexico Olympics) (Arthur Stiles)
1 interior (undated), 1 exterior (1980), Kino no.72, Winter 2000, p.25 (Max Bell)
2 interiors (Astor), b&w, 1991, Kino no.36, June 1991, p.7 (L. R. Tod)
1 exterior (Astor), b&w, 1991, Kino no.36, June 1991, p.7 (L. R. Tod)
1 exterior (Astor), b&w, 1988, Kino, no.28, June 1989, p.9 (Byron Geneve)
1 exterior, 1 interior, b&w, 1980, Kino, no.72, Winter 2000, p.25 (Max Bell)

MENORA GARDENS, 362 Walcott St, Mount Lawley

Menora Gardens 1981

The Menora Gardens opened at 348 Walcott St, next to the Walcott St Hall, in 1947, with seating for over 1000. The theatre, holding a further 800, was added, opening in August 1954. The theatre and gardens were operated by the Machlin family (father Abraham, sons Jack, Amos and Max). By the time the theatre and gardens closed in late 1961, the capacity of the gardens had been reduced to 800 also. In the sixties the building was converted for use as a squash court, and in the 1980s it was a restaurant.

Sources: Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.32
Max Bell, ´Menora cinema and gardens’, Kino no.58, December 1996, p.29
Film Weekly Directory, 1948/9 – 1961/2
Post Office Directory, 1947, 1949
West Australian, 1947 – 1963
Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
2 exteriors, b&w, 1954 and 1960s, Max Bell, ´Menora cinema and gardens’, Kino no.58, December 1996, p.29

MOUNT MAGNET

HALL AND GARDENS, Hepburn St, Mount Magnet

Mt Magnet 1997

Mt Magnet Hall 1986

Mt Magnet Gardens 1986

Mt Magnet 1986

Mt Magnet 1986

Mt Magnet Gardens projection room 1986

Mount Magnet is one of the older towns in the area, but its fortunes still rise and fall with the fortunes of the mines. In the main street, on the south-east corner of the intersection of Hepburn and Naughton Sts, a building was constructed in 1896 for the Miners’ Institute. The land was donated by the government, who also provided £500 of the £600 it initially cost. It was some time before the interior was completely finished, but the hall became the centre of the town’s social life, used for dances and meetings, and eventually for the new moving pictures. This was probably where the Salvation Army Biorama Company screened in September 1900, September 1902, January 1904 and December 1904.

In 1934, the Anzac Memorial Hall was built with the former Miners Institute incorporated into the complex as a Lesser Hall. Ray Dean remembers working for a circuit showman whose route took in Mount Magnet in 1930 (though he cannot remember his name – Maurice Gait?). Consolidated Theatres opened in Mount Magnet in about 1937, and constructed a gardens beside the hall. The hall and gardens could each accommodate 250 people, and screenings were twice weekly in the mid-forties. From 1944-46 Les Hill was registered as the exhibitor. At various times in the sixties and seventies the Shire is listed in the Film Weekly Directory as the operator of the picture show, in either hall or gardens: at other times Consolidated Theatres was listed.

On 3 December 1969, a fierce fire completely destroyed both the Memorial Hall and the Lesser Hall (Miners Institute) despite the efforts of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. When the next hall was built, the gardens was retained behind an extension of the red brick facade. One side wall of the gardens is the brick wall of the new hall, the other side and the back are corrugated iron. The entrance is in the middle of the front wall, in a small section set back from the street, dark and cavernous because the bio-box is built over it.

In 1997, both the hall and the gardens still belonged to the shire. The hall was hired out for weddings and other social events: there was no longer a projector there, though there was still a screen (described by one local as ´not fit to use’).

The gardens was leased to Basil Colmer, who had been running monthly screenings there since 1993: he lived in Perth, but travelled across from Leonora where he worked. He still used one of the two original projectors, modified to take a full film so there was no need for a second projector. Seating was on metal-framed deckchairs in ranks of four but with individual canvas seats. It has held up to 150 people on a good night.

Local historians, Lorna Day and Karen Morrissey, provide more detail about the cinema:

In Mount Magnet, Sunday night came to be known as “esky night”, when the workers from Leightons attended the movies. On cold nights, large drums of timber are set alight in 44 gallon drums to keep patrons warm.

Mount Magnet has on occasion been known to lend special effects to some movies. Twice in one year, while a thunderstorm raged on the screen, a thunderstorm brewed over Mount Magnet. Thunder and lightning crashed overhead and as the rain poured down in the movie, rain drenched the patrons of the cinema who, undaunted, remained until the end of the movie. On another occasion, Crocodile Dundee was being screened. As scenes of the remote and rugged Territory filled the screen, a duststorm swirled through the cinema. To add to the animated effects of that night, many of the filmgoers were related to one of the movie’s main stars, Ernie Dingo, who was greeted with cries of “Uncle Ernie” whenever he made an appearance. (p.249)

This must have been a reference to ´Crocodile’ Dundee II (1988), as Ernie Dingo was not in the original Crocodile Dundee (1986).

Posters on the front wall of the gardens warn people in advance of a screening, but there had been none for several months before August 1997 and the weeds were taking over the gravel floor inside the fence. The Mount Magnet Future Directions Committee is interested in encouraging the venture. They hope to build a pergola at the entrance, to enhance the street-scape and hopefully attract patrons, which would then make the venue more viable and provide funds for further improvements inside.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1971
Shire of Mount Magnet,Municipal Inventory, place no.20 (Outdoor Picture Theatre)
Post Office Directory 1944-46
Lorna Day & Karen Morrissey, Drawn to Mount Magnet: Wannars, Dolly Pots, Shears, Shire of Mount Magnet, 1995
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex 1986, p.116
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997), Alan Larkin, R. Yelland
Informant: Marilyn Eastland (1997)
Limelight Picture Show Tours, http//:www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand
4 exterior, colour, 1986, Roy Mudge

MUCHEA

HALL, Muchea

Fitzgeralds Pictures screened here from about 1948 to about 1951.
Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1948/9 – 1951/2

MUKINBUDIN

MUKINBUDIN DRIVE-IN, North Rd, Mukinbudin

Mukinbudin Drive In 1980s

Mukinbudin Drive In 1980s

Mukinbudin Drive in Feb 1987 before reopening

Mukinbudin Drive in Feb 1987 before reopening

Mukinbudin Drive In Oct 1987 reopening

Mukinbudin Drive In Oct 1987 Candy bar

Mukinbudin Oct 1987

Mukinbudin Oct 1987 projection room

The story has it that there was first a drive-in like those reputed to be at Dunsborough, Koorda and Wyalkatchem: cars were driven onto the recreation ground and grouped around a screen, with the sound broadcast from loudspeakers. Confirmation of this is still needed.

However, in 1964 a more conventional venue was opened on Shire land, north of the town, with facilities for 150 cars and fifty seated patrons. It was operated by J. Tilka, and closed in the early eighties, but was kept in good repair and was re-opened for occasional use in October 1987 by Steve Marvin (who also ran the drive-in occasionally at Koorda). Later Dennis McKenna ran this venue seasonally, with monthly screenings in summer on a Friday night (the projectionist then moving on to Koorda on the Saturday night). Chris Simmons reports that the site is now owned by the local TeleCentre, and that he ran movies in both Koorda and Mukinbudin over the summer of 2000-2001.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1968/9 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex 1986, p.138
Kino, no.13, September 1985, p.14; no.22, December 1987, p.23
Informant: Chris Simmons (2003)

2 exterior, black and white, 1980’s Max Bell
5 interior and exterior , colour, 1987, renovations , Roy Mudge

MUKINBUDIN MEMORIAL HALL, Shadbolt St, Mukinbudin

Mukinbudin Memorial Hall 1997

The Memorial Hall and Community Centre is a prominent red brick building in Shadbolt Street, in the middle of the block between Conway and Ferguson Streets. The foundation stone was laid on 11 October 1935, the architects Hobbs, Forbes and Partners and the building contractor W. Baxter and Sons.

Between the wars, Paddy Baker’s travelling circuit visited Mukinbudin, and during the Second World War, the town was on Charles Legg’s circuit for a short time. Rae Madden (now of Morawa) remembers that in the hall in the forties the children sat on the floor and the adults on chairs. After World War 2, Rupert Morris’s circuit included Mukinbudin, Nungarin and Chandler to about 1953, and in the mid-sixties J.Tilka screened here for a few years.

Screenings in the hall ceased after the drive-in opened, and the building is used in 1997 for a senior citizens centre and offices.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41, 1948/9 – 1953/4, 1963/4 – 1966/7
Informant: Rae Madden (1997)
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Charles Legg (1997)
Photo: 1 exterior, colour, Graeme Bertrand 1997

MULLALOO

OPEN AIR, Mullaloo

Ned Crisafulli remembers that his family screened in the Centenary Hall in Wanneroo, the Yanchep Hall and ´for the campers at Mullaloo in the summer on other nights’:

The Mullaloo show attracted a good many campers from Whitfords too. People would gather under the stars and within the sound of the waves in a hollow on the Mullaloo foreshore to watch the movies.
Our biggest crowd would have been about 300 I suppose for the Mullaloo show. (Daniel & Cockman, p.77)

Sources: Greg Daniel & Margaret Cockman, The story of Wanneroo, Shire of Wanneroo 1979

MULLALYUP

HALL, Mullalyup

This hall was opened in 1907 (and used by Fred Leach who also screened in Donnybrook).
Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.116-117

MULLEWA

DRIVE-IN, Stock St, Mullewa

Mullewa Drive In 1987

Mullewa Drive In 1987

Ray Dean built this drive-in on Council land on the east side of Stock St, north of Stokes St, in 1966. It held around 130 cars, and screened twice a week at first, but this dropped back to once a week.

In 1997, the roadside sign, fence, ticket box, concession building, speaker stands and the frame of the screen were all still in place, but the venue was derelict, and the site in use as a store for road gravel and metal.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1965/6 – 1971
Public Health Department, building permit, Battye 1459
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex 1986, p.138
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997), Alan Larkin
Informants: June Morgan, Paddy Barden, Faye Keefe (1997)

Photos; 2 exterior, colour, 1987, Roy Mudge

TOWN HALL, Maitland Rd, Mullewa

Mullewa Agricultural Hall 1997

The Agricultural Hall was built in 1912 and in 1913 was taken over by the Roads Board and renamed the Mullewa Town Hall. The earliest pictures in the town seem to have been in the Agricultural Hall, presented fortnightly by the Pioneer Picture Co in 1919.

The foundation stone for the new Mullewa Town Hall, on the south-east corner of the junction of Maitland and Jose Sts, was laid on 26 June 1935. Bill Oliver, who ran the power house before the town was put onto SEC power, ran pictures in this hall, with George Chappell working for him, but it is not clear when. It was on A.F.Nulsen’s West Touring Talkies circuit in 1938, purchased by Ray Dean in 1940, and operated by Dean from then till the mid-sixties. For most of this time, screenings took place twice a week.

The Lesser Hall was built on the right hand side of the main hall, in Maitland St in the late fifties.

By then, there was an open air theatre built on the other side of the Town Hall, in Jose St. It was surrounded by a high corrugated iron fence, and had deckchairs for most patrons, with hard seats for the aboriginal patrons at the back. The entrance was in the middle of the front wall, with the bio-box on the right of this and up some external stairs. There was no food sold, but families would make a night of it by coming in from the farms and eating in the town before going on to the pictures. Paddy Barden remembers boxing matches being staged in the venue because they were not allowed in the Town Hall. He also thinks the floor was probably couch grass, which grew easily in the district. Demand was always high, so it was wise to book ahead at Nora Cox’s Livewire Firm (a drapery and general business).

This venue was used in the summer months and the Town Hall in the winter, until Dean built the drive-in.

The Shire Offices were later extended beside the hall, into the gardens site. The bio-box is still there, but is not usuable. In 1997, the Mullewa Association for Progress was running films fortnightly in the Town Hall to raise money to pay for the professional painting of murals in the town. These screenings were on 16mm, with the projector and a temporary screen put in place each time.

Sources:Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1964/5
Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes Sussex 1986, p.117
Bert Keeffe, Eastward Ho: to Mullewa and the Murchison, Mullewa Shire Council and Bert Keeffe, 1995
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Ray Dean (1997)
Informants: June Morgan, Paddy Barden, Faye Keefe, Graeme Brittain (1997)
Photo: W.D.Barden, Mullewa through the years 1861-1961, front cover photo, b&w
1 exterior, colour, 1997, Graeme Bertrand

MUNDARING

HALL AND GARDENS, cnr Nichol & Jacoby Sts, Mundaring

In the late thirties, Bob Perrie’s circuit included Mundaring. Then Modern Cinemas circuit, operated by Roch Evans, covered Mundaring, as well as Boddington, Williams and Chidlow. Evans sold before World War 2 to Charlie Legg, who developed the circuit till it covered from Mukinbudin to Albany, screening fortnightly in each location.
In Mundaring, the hall had only backless forms at first, then later chairs, and patrons went to Henderson’s shop for refreshments at interval. Legg provided his own power with a Swift car engine coupled to a DC generator placed outside. The projection box was above the entrance to the hall.
In 1949, Legg sold the business to Lew Punch, who developed two travelling circuits – one in the wheatbelt (Dalwallinu, Williams, Wandering, Jarrahdale, Serpentine, Buntine, Kalannie, Wubin, Chidlow) and one in the north (as far as Bindoon). He, too, provided his own power plant, and travelled with his wife, who sold the tickets. In Mundaring, he built an open-air venue on the block behind his house at 2 Craig St, and next to the Harts’ shop in Jacoby St, where patrons of the cinema bought their sweets at interval. He screened either in the open air venue or in the Hall depending on the weather. Both venues held 160 seats, and by then refreshments were provided by the Misses Digby who trundled ´across Great Eastern Highway with icecream in big padded canvas bags, plus lollies on a trolley and cool drinks.’ (Judy Love)

In the fifties, Mrs Lawson, who lived at Mundaring Weir, would walk five miles to Mundaring Hall for pictures, with her baby in the pram and a toddler walking beside her. She calculated it took 20 minutes per mile provided the toddler was prepared to walk: she would also carry her good shoes to change in to when she arrived, because this was a special occasion which required being dressed in your best.

In 1958 Punch sold the business to J. O. (Johnny) Irwin, but it was never the same once television was available in the district, and closed about 1961.

Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1960/61
Correspondence with Mrs Judy Love, Mundaring & Hills Historical Society, 19 June 1997 (including notes of interviews with Charlie Legg and Lew Punch)
Informants: Mundaring & Hills Historical Society (3 September 1997)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Ken Alexander (1986)

KOOKABURRA GARDENS, Hills Forest Activity Centre, Mundaring

After a lifetime in the movie business, Lindsay Morris decided in the mid-1990s that the time was ripe for a revival of open air screenings. He looked around for suitable land near Mundaring, and considered other sites in the State Forest before leasing land from CALM, in part of the Hills Forest Activity Centre, on the opposite side of the road from the amphitheatre. The buildings on the site had been used occasionally for a children’s camping ground in the past, and were then being used as a resource centre for school groups.

The development of the Kookaburra Open Air Picture Theatre on the site started with two existing buildings: the bush pole garage was lined to serve as a ticket box, the A-frame shelter had a concrete floor put in for use as a foyer. When they are not in use for the cinema these buildings are still used as a resource centre. The bio-box is a big garden shed at the back of the site. There is natural bush on one side and a huge wistaria and jacaranda at the back. The final touch on this rustic setting is the resident flock of grey kangaroos, which hop down to the fence at night, much to the delight of the tourists. During the second summer, when the heat had dried out the grass outside the fence, the roos were all aware that the grass on the inside was greener, and some of the younger ones would find their way through or under the fence during a screening, so that when the lights went up both audience and roos were astonished to find they had unexpected company.

The Kookaburra opened 4 January 1997, but in a normal year screens November to April, as the weather in the hills stays warmer longer than near the coast. There is comfortable seating for about two hundred. Many patrons bring a picnic, some sitting at the log tables provided, others on the grass. Gates open at 6.30, and the film starts at 8 p.m. Seating is on deckchairs, some of which came from other open air cinemas no longer operating.

In the early, experimental stages, the venue did not have a fixed programming policy. It was very successful in its first season. Some films, like Shine, were shown soon after their city release. Others were revivals and archival screenings. In that first summer, a retrospective season of Australian film brought mixed results: Jedda went better than Picnic at Hanging Rock, and other popular titles were For the Term of his Natural Life and Smithy. Mr Reliable did particularly well, after two week’s promotion on the ABC’s Sunday morning radio program Australia All Over. The programme usually included a newsreel or featurette as well as the main feature, and patrons look forward to this nostalgic aspect. In the second season (the summer of 1997-8), patronage leaped, particularly for The Full Monty and (to a lesser extent) Titanic. The best Australian film that season was Paradise Road.

This is a small venture, largely a one-person operation: Lindsay Morris is projectionist and manager, with occasional help from his family. He uses a pair of 1935/6 Simplex projector heads, Westrex sound heads of similar vintage, 10″ Australian-made arcs, and a slide projector that once served at the Highway Drive-in. He adapted the second-hand screen, till it is wide enough for Widescreen or Cinemascope and the image can be cropped for Academy ratio.

It is becoming an accepted part of the Mundaring community, but also draws patrons from the wider area, looking for a night out with a difference. Programme details are published in a mail-out and on the cinema’s website at kookaburra@gidgenet.com.au

Lindsay Morris (email 10 Jan.2002) sums up recent developments:

We are now into season 6 and are going quite well and the older projection gear is about to be replaced by a single projector (Century) with a Xenon lamp and MUTT long play system I have purchased. This will all be installed over the coming winter in readiness for season 7 next November. What is driving this is the switch to Cyan coloured sound tracks rather than the traditional black and white and the fact that now we run 4/5 nights per week and it is more practical to run a single machine on a continuous basis rather than the two doing 20 min reel changes. The cost of upgrading the sound system for two machines to cater for the Cyan track shift was not justified as I had some doubt that the older photo-cells would not cope well with a red LED light source so I would also have to change them as well and then we started getting into an expensive area.

The seating is now at a capacity of 310 and many improvements have taken place over the last 5 years and our patronage has steadily increased … so we are justifiably very pleased with our efforts.

Sources: Kino, no.60, June 1997, p.35
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Lindsay Morris (1997)

MUNDIJONG

HALL, Mundijong

The first pictures in Mundijong may well have been Queen’s Pictures, which toured through Brunswick, Waroona, Mundijong and Armadale in June 1909, when all these were small country communities.
By the twenties, Ivan King was touring through the town, using the services of a local pianist. The Mundijong hall was constructed of timber with a brick frontage, and a bio-box inside the hall.
Roch Evans’ Modern Cinemas circuit included Mundijong fortnightly in the thirties, with Ken Alexander as projectionist around 1937-8. This circuit was taken over in 1941 by Charlie Legg, who did very well with weekly screenings in the town, particularly while the army camp was located there during the war years. Legg continued to visit the town until 1949, when he sold that part of the circuit to Lew Punch, who operated two circuits – one in the wheatbelt and one further south towards Bindoon. The Hatfields (of Cottesloe) later took over these screenings, and at the end of the fifties Alan Larkin was exhibitor here.
Sources: Film Weekly Directory 1940/41 – 1960/61
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Charles Legg (1997)
Correspondence with Judy Love, Mundaring & Hills Historical Society, 19 June 1997, including notes of interview with Lew Punch
Armadale-Kelmscott Historical Society

PERTH

ACADEMY TWIN CINEMAS/ACADEMY WEST END ALTERNATIVE CINEMAS/ LUMIERE, Wellington St, Perth

Entertainment Centre 1981

In the late seventies, TVW Enterprises, the company running the television channel TVW 7, built the huge Entertainment Centre on a large site on the north side of Wellington St near the Perth Railway Station. The complex (which contained a vast entertainment stadium, convention facilities and restaurants) was officially opened on 27 December 1974, and the two cinemas on its ground floor were opened on 17 January 1975. These were named the Academy Cinemas, One and Two, and were leased to City Theatres, which had been from February 1973 owned by a consortium of which TVW Enterprises was a major shareholder. In August 1978 TVW Enterprises bought out the other shareholders, leaving the management of the Academy Cinemas with those employed previously by the consortium.

Three-D was shown briefly in 1985, then in June 1986 the cinemas became the Academy West End Alternative Cinemas, programming for the “film buff”, the kind of audience catered for by the Perth Film Festival and the Windsor (Nedlands) and New Oxford (Leederville). However, the arthouse policy survived only for a short time, and the cinemas closed 1 July 1988, after Hoyts took them over. They were then taken on in 1989 by James Woods and leased to the Film and Television Institute (WA), which had formerly screened only in Fremantle.

They renamed the venue the Lumiere. In 1993 it was listed as having 405 seats in Cinema 1 and 373 in Cinema 2, and to be presenting live performances as well as films. However, it closed on 28 June 1996, and the lease was not again taken up. In 2002, there were rumours of demolition, bitterly apposed by heritage lobbyists. In 2003, it was reported that ‘Multiplex (the company) has secured an option to buy the mothballed Entertainment Complex for $25 million. A $40 million redevelopment is proposed.’ (Kino no.86, p.42) Further reports suggest that any redevelopment will no longer accommodate cinema: ‘A $50 million redevelopment of the closed Perth Entertainment Centre has been proposed which will feature a retractable roof to allow the centre to compete for more tennis and other big events.’ (Kino, no.87, p.38)

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.73
Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.29
Bob Parkinson, ´Field report’, Kino, no.41, September 1992, p.13
Kino, no.17, September 1986, p.24; no.25, September 1988, p.23; no.29, September 1989, p.23; no.31, March 1990, p.23 no.38, December 1991, p.27; no.45, September 1993, p.31; no.57, September 1996, p.31; no.62, Summer 1997, p.35; no.80, Winter 2002, p.54; no.81, Spring 2002, p.39; no.86, Summer 2003, p.42; no.87, Autumn 2004, p.38
West Australian, 27 December 1974, 1974 – 1997
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior, 3 interiors, b&w, West Australian, 27 December 1974

AMBASSADORS/HOYTS CINEMAS TWO AND THREE (AND FOUR)/HOYTS CENTRE, 629 Hay St, Perth

Perth Ambassadors 1963

Perth Ambassadors 1963

Perth Ambassadors 1963

Perth Ambassadors Theatre

Perth Ambassadors Theatre

The programme of the opening night of the Ambassadors, on 29 September 1928, proclaimed:

There is but one Ambassadors. Never was a theatre so beautiful, or its glory so dearly bought but that it fades into insignificance beside this Florentine garden of music, of picture, of song which you see tonight for the first time.

This purple prose overlooked the fact that the Ambassadors was the third, and the smallest, of the atmospheric theatres built by Union Theatres in the state capitals of Australia in the twenties, the others being the Melbourne State and the Sydney Capitol. It was designed by Bohringer, Taylor and Johnson, who had also designed the Melbourne State.

Nevertheless, it was a first for Perth, and the theatre was able to compete successfully with Perth’s other great picture palaces of the decade – the Regent, the Capitol and the Prince of Wales. It was built under the guidance of Sir Thomas Coombe, the last thing he contributed to Union Theatres’ empire in Western Australia, before retiring.

To prepare those first-night patrons, the programme explained what an ´atmospheric’ theatre was, and what they might expect from this particular example:

Overhead in the sky you see stars twinkling in between the clouds that float, light as thistledown, across the heavens. It will be hard for you to believe that above them is a roof and that walls really surround you. For the ´atmospheric’ theatre, as its name implies, creates an atmosphere – an atmosphere where there is a very desirable feeling of intimacy and illusion to calm excited nerves, and prepare one and all to receive entertainment in ease and comfort. To secure this atmosphere, that you see here now, sculptors, painters, color artists and students of history, and many others, have been organised in Australian workshops.

Despite the appreciation shown to the local craftsmen who installed the interior, much stress was also placed on the widely scattered sources of the decorations themselves, from Paris, New York, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Chicago, Naples and London, among others. The exotic decor included stuffed pigeons and peacocks from Durban, South Africa, and reproductions of statuary from the great museums of Europe. Care was taken in the programme to point out the bona fides of these works of art, such as the Venus de Medici, ´signed by Cleomenes, son of Apollodorus, the Athenian, and …at present in the Uffizi Museum, Florence’: perhaps the patrons needed to be re-assured of the respectability of an environment in which they were surrounded by nude statues.

As well as the picture programme, the patrons could expect fine musical accompaniment, both from Bert Howell’s orchestra and from the Wurlitzer organ played on opening night by Les Waldron, in the glare of a spotlight as he rose on a stand from below the orchestra pit. The Ambassadors ballet, of eight local dancers under the direction of Estelle Anderson from the J.C.Williamson’s company, worked in conjunction with the orchestra to present prologues and other terpsichorean interludes.

Like most theatres in Perth, the Ambassadors claimed to be the coolest, and if the temperature was too unpleasant you could even walk up onto the roof and sit among the potted trees and shrubs of the Florentine Roof Garden. Much stress was also placed on the technical installations, both for the safety and comfort of patrons (lighting, ventilation, fire precautions) and for the quality and ease of viewing of the picture. A particular feature was the red velvet curtain, embossed with a peacock (now held by Ivan King).

Continuous pictures were no longer fashionable by 1928, though they continued at some of the cheaper venues like the Majestic and the Grand. Instead, the Ambassadors advertised four sessions daily. The doors opened at 10 a.m., with patrons entertained by the Wurlitzer till the 11 a.m. session, referred to as the ´early shopping session’. At 2.15 a session identical with the evening one commenced, then at 5 p.m. came a slightly shorter session ´for those remaining in town’. The main night session contained all the elements of the Unit entertainment – double feature films (or main feature and short features), with orchestral accompaniment, perhaps a stage prologue or interludes, and the Wurlitzer before the show and at interval.

The first sound films at the Ambassadors were on disc, opening about a year after sound had arrived in Perth. On one occasion, nearly 300ft of film was mangled in the projector and it was necessary to add exactly the right amount of replacement film, so that synchronisation with the disc was not lost. An ingenious solution was found. Instead of the piece of black film that was traditionally used, local film producer ´Dryblower’ Murphy was asked to make up the appropriate length of the words of the song that Colleen Moore was singing on the disc, and the audience never realised that it was meant to be any other way.

However, the theatre had sound-on-film equipment from the beginning as well, as they screened Movietone News. So it was comparatively simple to switch over to that system entirely when it became the accepted standard. The Ambassadors also maintained its orchestra and stage shows to accompany films longer than did other city theatre, and the mighty Wurlitzer remained a drawcard, even after the Ambassadors Orchestra was finally disbanded.

During 1931, when Union Theatres was in financial difficulties, a decision had to be made which of their two large showcase cinemas in the central city area would be closed – the Ambassadors or the Prince of Wales. The company opted to leave the Ambassadors open, despite it being the less profitable and the smaller of the two, because it contained four shops dependent on the income generated from cinema patrons and returning rents to the company, compared to only one shop associated with the Prince of Wales. So the Ambassadors joined the General Theatres group in 1932. Hamilton Brown, Union Theatres’ manager in Western Australia at the time, and noted for his entrepreneurial skills, tried very hard to rescue the ailing theatre. One gimmick was a wedding on stage before the opening of the film Lovers Courageous in July 1932. Live acts were also presented in support of the featured film on some occasions. But to continue to maintain a theatre as large as the Ambassadors, with nearly two thousand seats, was extremely difficult during the depression years.

Towards the end of the decade, Hoyts took over the theatre, and in 1938 it was remodelled, losing in the process much of the atmospherics which had contributed to its distinctive character:

Money has not been spared to make this theatre equal to the best in Perth. The entire front of the house has been modernised, the latest neon signs being incorporated on the facade of the building with charming simplicity, and the whole front, with its light treatment and modern lines, has a pleasing effect. Gone is the heavy, florid atmosphere of the old Ambassadors and in its place reigns a cheerful colour-scheme, combined with a maximum of comfort and restrained luxuriousness. The specially imported English carpet, upon which over 20 West Australian workers have been employed in sewing, is of a graceful pattern with an harmonious blending of colour. Comfortable, modern seating has been installed throughout in a tasteful deep green, the seats incorporating the latest scientific improvements in armchair comfort. (West Australian, 22 December 1938)

These alterations had probably been stimulated by the competition from the other theatres recently built – Hoyts’ own Plaza in 1937 and the Grand Theatre Co’s Piccadilly in 1938. It was a period when modernity was expected, and the Ambassadors lost some of its unique quality as a result. The theatre continued to screen regularly, though with mixed success, until it closed on 2 February 1972. The building was immediately demolished and its furnishings dispersed by auction.

HOYTS CINEMAS TWO AND THREE (AND FOUR)

Three years later, the City Centre was built on the site, containing the Wanamba Arcade – a complex of shops and restaurants, including a theatre, known as Hoyts Cinema Two, with 859 seats:

Hoyts Cinema 2 will be one of Perth’s jazziest cinemas…

Be prepared for the decor – tri-striped and exciting, with wall hangings.

Former WA interior decorator Neville Marsh has chosen deep blue upholstery for the seats, blue carpeting and walls painted in blue, maroon and beige stripes….big ones!

Part of the carpet area is striped too…

Usherettes will wear long blue skirts and beige blouses.

The cinema also features unique spot-lighting.

Seating in Cinema 2 is comfortable. There is plenty of space between rows and the vinyl upholstery features tiny holes which allows the fabric to breathe. This keeps the seat cool.

The seats are also broad enough to give excellent shoulder support.

Cinema 2 has a 56ft screen.

The walls are acoustic – some even covered with felt.

(Daily News, 20 March, 1975)

This ultra-modern cinema opened on 20 March 1975, but even with only 859 seats it proved too big for the audiences of the late seventies. In 1978 it was divided down the middle, and re-opened 13 December as Hoyts Cinemas Two and Three, each seating 400. As well as new Philips projectors and Dolby sound system, the new theatres boasted historic photo-murals of Perth as it used to be, and pin-ball machines in the foyer.

In 1984 a third cinema (Cinema Four) was added to the complex, sharing the foyer and administration block with the other two cinemas. Cinema Four was built, however, like a Chinese box – inside the lounge of the old Theatre Royal, which had been next door to the Ambassadors in earlier days. An access door was knocked through the shared side wall, without interfering with the shops and offices now occupying the lower levels of the building.

HOYTS CENTRE

Perth Hoyts Hay 1981

In 1988 Hoyts took over Cinema City, and after Hoyts Cinema One was closed the Cinema City theatres became Hoyts Cinema City (holding Hoyts Cinemas 1 – 4), and Hoyts Cinemas 2 – 4 (on the old Ambassadors site) became Hoyts Centre (holding Hoyts Cinemas 5 – 7): in 1997, the latter provided seating for 600, 400, and 400 patrons, but in April 1999 Hoyts Centre closed and the business was transferred to the Cinecentre (formerly Greater Union’s flagship).

Sources: Building permit, Battye 1459 (Folio 2)
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.68-72, 77
Rodney I. Francis, ‘Thomas Melrose Coombe: a pioneer from vaudeville to talkies in Western Australia’, Kino, no.81, Spring 2002, pp.36-38
Vyonne Geneve, ´William Leighton, architect’, Kino, no.25, September 1988, pp.7-15
Jack Honnibal, ‘The MGM years at Perth’s Theatre Royal’, Kino, no.68, Winter 1999, pp.6-9; no.85, Spring 2003, p.43
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.12-4
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.74-76
Daily News, 28 September 1928; 23 July 1932; 20 March 1975; 24 August 1976; 13 December 1978
Everyone’s, 27 July 1927; 10 October 1928, p.22; 7 November 1928, pp.8-9; 14 November 1928, p.42; 21 November 1928, p.56; 29 January 1930, p.18
Film Weekly Directory, 1943 – 1971
Film Weekly, 18 January 1934, p.6, 4 July 1957, 2 December 1965, p.6
Kino, no.25, p.8, 14;
Post Office Directory, 1928 – 1949
The Showman, 15 February 1964, p.10
Sunday Independent 21 November 1976
West Australian, 1929 – 1997; 8 February 1972; 20 March 1975
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Eric Nicholls (1985), Arthur Stiles (1985)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Jack Gynn (1981)
Interview (David Noakes): Keith Reddin (1978)

Photos: 2 architect’s designs, b&w, 1927, Everyone’s, 27 July 1927, p.84
interiors & exteriors, b&w, 1928, Everyone’s, 7 November 1928, pp.8-9; 14 November 1928, p.42; 21 November 1928, p.56; 20 February 1929, p.14 (stage show)
3 interiors (Ambassadors), b&w, 1929 (Battye 8292B/166-3 Series A; 4634P; 8292B 161-5)
2 exteriors (Ambassadors), b&w, 1932 (Battye 4587P, 4593P)
4 interiors, b&w, c.1970, Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, pp.68-72
1 exterior (Wanamba Arcade), b&w, Sunday Independent, 21 November 1976
4 interiors (Hoyts Cinema 2), b&w, 1975, Daily News 20 March 1975

3 interiors (Ambassadors), b&w, 1963 (Ken Booth)

8 interiors, n.d, courtesy of Bill and Joan Gaynor

1 exterior (Hoyts Cinemas 2 & 3), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

BEVANS AND GARDENS/ CRYSTAL AND GARDENS/ ALBION THEATRE AND GARDENS, 143-147 Wittenoom St, Perth (East)

This theatre and gardens, though located on the corner of Hill St on the outskirts of the City of Perth, was more like a suburban venue than a city one. It was built in 1935, and for several years (approx. 1945-1949), while it was conducted by N.J. (Noel) Bevan, it was known as Bevans Theatre and Gardens. There was provision for 500 patrons in the theatre and a further 500 in the gardens. In 1955, when it was taken over by Mrs S.Ray, it was renamed the Albion. When it closed in 1961, the building was converted for use by an automotive supplies company.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, p.56
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1960/61
Post Office Directory, 1935/6 – 1949
West Australian, 1937 – 1960

BRITANNIA/HOYTS CINEMA ONE, 676 Hay St, Perth

The third purpose-built hardtop cinema in Perth was the Britannia, which opened on 1 April 1915. It was built by a local businessman and managed by local showman Hamilton Brown in its formative years. Like the Pavilion, which initiated this policy, it was small, cheap and screened continuously from 11 a.m. till 11 p.m., and again like the Pavilion it occupied a shop-front and looked rather like the nickelodeons of earlier years in America:

The new premises are designed to form an up-to-date picture theatre. The length from the street front to the rear is 165 ft., with a breadth of 23ft. 6in. The hall is an exceedingly lofty one, provided with a large sliding roof and a maximum amount of fan and other ventilation, thus ensuring a low temperature even in close weather. Accommodation is provided in comfortable seats for 880 persons, of whom the dress circle will take about 260. An ornate vestibule is the external feature of the place, a door each side giving entrance to the stalls, and a double staircase leading to the dress circle and to the lounge and offices in front of the building. (West Australian, 2 April 1915)

The Britannia had a good reputation for quality programming. But with prices at 6d and 3d, it shared the Pavilion’s reputation for ´cheapness’, with the advantages and disadvantages which such a reputation brought with it. Nevertheless, it is not clear why the cinema closed on 18 May 1918, only three years after its optimistic opening. The premises were converted into shops.

HOYTS CINEMA ONE

Hoyts Cinema 1981

No films were shown on the site for five decades. Then in 1970 the ultra-modern City Arcade was built, incorporating among its shops and offices a cinema which was leased by Hoyts to become their Cinema One:

Hoyts’ new air-conditioned Cinema 1 atop City Arcade will be one of the most modern in Australia and will be in keeping with the colourful vitality of the arcade complex. Patrons will be able to buy their tickets either at the ticket office on the central arcade area on the Hay-St level or in the cinema foyer off the carpeted upper Hay-St level. The ticket box on the Hay-St level is a polygon shape…

The architects conceived the many-sided glass and laminated capsule, with its eye-catching reflecting surfaces, as a technological symbol. It harmonises with the nearby glass-sided lift and escalators that will take cinema patrons up to the next level to the foyer. In the foyer patrons will be greeted by usherettes wearing the theatre’s official colours – royal blue and lime green – and shown to their places inside the luxuriously finished 850-seat auditorium. Confronting them will be a 65ft. screen curved to a depth of 25 ft. It is designed for the screening technique called Cinerama, which Cinema 1 will be introducing to Perth. (Daily News, 11 November, 1970)

It opened on 23 February 1971. Cinema Two (and later Three, and, still later, Four) was built on the opposite side of the road, on the site of the former Ambassadors Theatre (and Theatre Royal). Cinema 1 was closed in 1990: the auditorium is still there, but the foyer and entrances were converted into shops in the arcade.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, p.73, 77
Daily News, 11 November 1970
Film Weekly Directory, 1971
Kino, no.38, December 1991, p.27
David Coles, Letter to the editor, Kino 74, Summer 2000, p.5
Post Office Directory, 1916 – 1919
Sunday Times, 8 November 1970
West Australian, 2 April 1915, 1915 – 1991
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)

Photos: 1 exterior (City Arcade), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

CHINATOWN CINEMA, Piccadilly Square, Perth (East)

This cinema was opened in 1991, with 224 seats, and in 1992 was reported to be doing well, mainly with films imported from Hong Kong.

Sources: Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino no.45, September 1993, p.28
Kino, no.34, December 1990, p.24; no.40, June 1992, p.26

CINECENTRE/CITY CINEMAS/CINECENTRE, 139 Murray St, Perth

1981

Perth Cinecentre 1970’s

After the success of the Town Cinema, Ace Theatres’ next city venture in collaboration with Greater Union was to purchase the old taxation building on the corner of Barrack and Murray Sts, and to build Perth’s first multi-cinema complex, the Cinecentre, at a cost of more than $2 million. As well as shops on the ground floor, and offices in the floors above, the building contained a coffee lounge and restaurant, and three cinemas, two with 500 seats and one with 300. These shared projection facilities, which could provide for 16, 35 and 70mm films. All three cinemas were entered through an imposing foyer in Murray St. The complex opened on 12 February 1974.

In the mid-nineties, seating was provided for 228 in Cinema 1, 500 in Cinema 2 and 507 in Cinema 3. In 1997 the complex was known as the Perth City Cinemas, but by 1999 it had reverted to the old name of Cinecentre.

Sources: Building permit, Battye 1459, Folio 2
Bob Parkinson, ´Field report’, Kino, no.41, September 1992, p.12
Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.29
West Australian, 12 February 1974, 1974 – 2000
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): John Pye (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (70s?) (Arthur Stiles)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

CINEMA CITY, 580 Hay St, Perth

Cinema City 1980

Cinema City 1980

Cinema City 1981

In February 1978, TVW Enterprises Ltd completed purchase of the interests of City Theatres from the consortium which had bought the company in 1973. Soon after this, they announced plans to build a multi-million dollar shopping complex containing several new cinemas, on the old Haymarket site in Hay St, opposite the Town Hall.

At the time, this was the largest of the multi-cinema complexes, deisgned by architect Anthony Brand, and containing four new cinemas and provision for a fifth to be added in the future. Following tradition, a souvenir programme was issued for the opening, on Thursday 6 November 1980, providing the following description of the new building:

Cinema City was built at a time when almost every economic forecast said don’t. However, shrewd foresight and a bold decision by the TVW Board of Directors has seen Cinema City become a sensational new landmark of Perth…

Designed with extreme care, its reflective walls allow the old Town Hall to enjoy pride of place next to the new complex.

Rich multi-coloured carpets cover floor, steps, stairs and carry up for the full height of the inner walls.

The coffered ceiling increases the apparent height and suspended from it are fluorescent tubes sheathed in a glittering chromium plate…

Cinema City’s lobby opens into an enormous space over 14 metres (46 ft) high. The stunning effect of unlimited space is multiplied by each wall being sheathed by mirrors.

Chrome plated space frames adorned with lights, hang from the ceiling. The mirrors pick up the glitter and glamour of these features and reflect them on into what seems like eternity.

Another feature of the building was the shopping arcades, providing fashion shops, eating places, and services such as banks and hairdressers, with exits to Murray St and Barrack St as well as to Hay St. Dolby stereo sound systems were installed from the beginning. Also, as the souvenir programme describes:

For those unable to negotiate the stairs, a lift soars into the huge space, landing the elderly at foyer level and the incapacitated at a higher level gallery with wheelchair access to the backs of all cinemas.

This was one of the City Theatres properties taken over by Hoyts in 1988, and immediately put on the market (for leaseback). It was sold for a reputed $10 mill in 1994. The fifth cinema was never added, and in the mid-nineties, the four cinemas (still known as Cinema City, but now holding Hoyts Cinemas 1 – 4) held 494, 580, 394 and 790 seats. In 1999, Max Bell reported that: ‘The Cinema City shopping arcade and theatre complex has been sold to Perth investor Westpoint Corporation for approximately $13m. There are plans to develop the property for the third time.’ In 2002 it was reported that “a 20-storey hotel and residential complex” would be built above the cinemas, which would be retained.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.78
Max D.Bell, ´Perth Cinema City’, Kino, no.33, September 1990, pp.16-17
Max D.Bell, ´Perth’s Cinema City’, Kino, no.78, Summer 2001, p.51
Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.29
Australasian Cinema, 5 December 1980, pp.8-22
Kino, no.38, December 1991, p.27; no.49, September 1994, p.31; no. 67, Autumn 1999, p.31; no.80, Winter 2002, p.54
Sunday Times, 11 June 1978
West Australian, 7 November 1980; 1980 – 2000
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Ray Cooper (1981)

Photos: interiors & exteriors, Australasian Cinema, 5 December 1980, pp.8-22
7 interiors, b&w, 1980 (Arthur Stiles)
1 exterior, b&w, 1980 (Arthur Stiles)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (side entrance from Barrack St), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior, b&w, 1980, Kino, no.33, p.17 (Max Bell)

CLUB ADULT CINEMA/CINE 1/SAVOY/CLUB X, 114 Barrack St, Perth

This was one of two cinemas run by Club Adult Cinemas, specialising in R-rated sex films, and offering live striptease three times a day. It opened in 1982, and was so successful that a second was later opened in Fremantle. These return to the small shopfront cinemas of the very early days, holding only 40-50 people. In 1991, when the Savoy cinema closed because of redevelopment of the Savoy Hotel site, the equipment of the Savoy was moved into these premises in the basement of the Club Emporium and screenings began again, though they were advertised only irregularly after that – as the Savoy in 1994-5 and as Club X in 1993 and 1996.

Sources: Kino, no.38, December 1991, p.26
Perth Telephone books, 1983-5
West Australian, 1982 – 1996

CREMORNE/BIJOU/ CREMORNE/PALACE/ CREMORNE, 111 Murray St, Perth

The complicated history of the name changes on this site is extremely difficult to disentangle. The first address for the Cremorne Theatre was ´off 31 Howick St’, at the time when Howick St was the name for Hay St, east of Barrack St. No.31 Howick St was the rear of 111 Murray St, and this was where the theatre entrance was situated till 1897, behind the Criterion Hotel. After that, entrance was from what later became Cremorne Arcade, running through from Hay St to Murray St.

Though it was called a ´theatre’, it was primarily an open air venue, of stalls and stages, in a garden setting similar to Ye Olde Englishe Fayre, at the other end of Hay St. There was an outdoor stage and a small indoor theatre, both used for musical and theatrical performances. The gardens adjoined the bungalow verandah of the saloon bar (of the Cremorne Hotel), and contained:

…palms, rockeries and a fountain, and the whole area was surrounded by a high wall painted with woodland scenery…

Spaced at intervals around the gardens were small roofed and latticed rustic kiosks, each lit up at night with coloured fairy lights, and each having a table and chairs inside for the convenience of private parties.

Over the front opening of each kiosk was painted the name of some well-known goldmining town such as Coolgardie, Boulder, Kanowna, Kookynie and many others.

Two German waiters in evening dress hurried to and fro with their trays of drinks, clinking glasses which always rattled with the broken ice blocks inserted before the drinks were served. (West Australian 3 January 1953, p.12)

In late 1896, the theatre was owned by Mrs Annie Oliver, and leased to King Hedley, who offered traditional vaudeville programmes. It was the second venue in Perth to present films, three weeks after Ye Olde Englishe Fayre. ´THE GENUINE CINEMATOGRAPHE and COMBINATION PICTURES’ ran for a season of five weeks from 12 December 1896 to 18 January 1897. The programme was presented twice each evening, starting at 8.30 and again at 9.30 p.m., and there was a matinee on Saturdays at 3 p.m. The machine was probably a Lumiere, as the films listed in the programme were from among those distributed by the Lumiere Company: Soudanese Diving, Grand Steeplechase, Buckjumping horse, Arrival of a train at a station, A Game of Cards, Paris Street Scene. Entrance to the films could be obtained either directly through the main theatre entrance or through the gardens attached to the theatre, where the usual vaudeville performance was continuing. The season was successful, but, like the Fayre grounds, the Cremorne Gardens closed during the off-season, and the theatre returned to traditional vaudeville shows.

The following summer, both Carl Hertz and Charles Harper successfully presented their films at the Cremorne before going on to Fremantle, Hertz from 16 to 28 August 1897, and Harper from 1 to 6 November 1897. After the hiatus of 1898-9, film programmes in summer seasons resumed, with Clarke’s Royal Biograph in August 1899, followed by other presentations over the next three summers. These included, among others, the Royal Biograph from 19 to 28 August 1899, and again 17 March to 2 April 1900, Heller’s Mahatma Co 13 to 19 October 1900, American Biograph 28 to 31 October 1901, and coronation pictures by Optigraph 18 October to 15 November 1902. For a few months in the summer of 1902-3, the theatre was advertised as the ‘Bijou’, but the Cremorne Gardens opened on Boxing Night 1902 as usual. Jones and Lawrence were associated with the venue from early 1900 till 1903. It appears to have been unoccupied for some time, and to have re-opened late in 1904:

Under the title of ´The Palace Gardens’ what was once the most popular place of outdoor entertainment in Perth, viz. Cremorne Gardens will be thrown open to the public next Saturday evening when the first of a series of entertainments will be presented.

The ´Palace Gardens’ will be under the direction of Mr Leonard Davis…An attractive item will be the pictures projected by Edison’s latest invention for producing moving pictures and known as the Chronojector. (West Australian, 29 October 1904)

Davis presented films as part of the vaudeville offering of the gardens, with weekly changes of programme, till 3 February 1905. Before the end of the season, Daudet’s Parisien Living Pictures presented a short season, then the gardens closed again till the following summer. Before the next season a major refurbishing took place:

On Thursday next the Palace Gardens and Theatre will be re-opened for the summer season by Mr Leonard Davis. For some time past a large staff has been engaged in beautifying the gardens, and at the present time there are ample evidences of the work bestowed upon them. The lawns are beautifully green, the small garden plots are gay with flowers and shrubs, and the interior of the teahouses presents an attractive appearance. For the occupation of patrons who purchase 3s and 2s tickets, the whole of the lawn space will be available, while the gallery and promenade will be reserved for purchasers of 1s tickets. Venetian deck chairs, with canvas backs, specially designed for ease and comfort, and painted white, are being manufactured, the dais for the orchestra is enclosed with handsome red curtains, hung on nickel railings, and the members of the orchestra, and the attendants, will be attired in white uniforms. The theatre will also be opened on Thursday next, and will be conducted on similar lines to those which obtain in the American music halls. A large number of novelties, including a waxworks exhibition of 50 figures, penny-in-the-slot machines of all descriptions, stereophones, picturegraphs, and two boxes of radium have been imported and will be on view in the theatre.. (West Australian, 11 November 1905)

The stereophone provided a short film of a singer performing, synchronised with a gramophone reproduction of the singer’s voice, and in a later advertisement it was made quite clear that among the moving novelties available in the theatre (called the ´Palace of Amusements’) was also a traditional cinematograph (West Australian, 11 December 1905).

The summer seasons of 1905-6, 1906-7, 1908-9 all appeared to be very successful, and all employed a cinematograph as a part of the varied offering for some or all of the time. In December 1906 Harry Rickards had taken over the lease, but Leonard Davis remained as sub-lessee and the policy of the management did not appear to change. A correspondent in the West Australian praised Rickards for withstanding the temptation to open on Sunday, a practice which was considered by the writer to undermine the conditions of the working man (West Australian, 1 January 1909).

From 1910 onwards, films seemed to fade out of the theatre’s programmes, appearing less and less often among the vaudeville offerings.

In July 1910, the Cremorne Theatre suddenly re-appeared in advertisements, apparently concurrently with the Palace Gardens. This confusion of names cannot be sorted out from extant references, but it seems likely that in the earlier years the venue had depended mainly on the summer season in the gardens, and that the indoor theatre had existed just as an adjunct to the gardens, open for special seasons during the winter months, but apparently not consistently. During this period, the gardens gave its name to the theatre, even though the original ´Cremorne’ was named after the adjacent hotel, which continued to operate under the same name throughout the period. Round 1910 it appears that the theatre began to have an independent life, perhaps under the expert guidance of Harry Rickards. So it took its own name again as the Cremorne, and then the whole venue returned to the original name.

Leonard Davis had had a long association with film as a part of vaudeville offerings, and in December 1911 had announced his intention to ´merge the entertainment into one of vaudeville and biograph variety’ (West Australian, 23 December 1911). However, when he opened the Palace Gardens for the summer season on Christmas night 1912, he had changed his mind, and announced that he would now programme only vaudeville, without films. It is possible that as, by this time, films had purpose-built cinemas for their presentation, he felt that audiences expected a full programme of one or the other. In any case, from that time films no longer appeared at the Cremorne Theatre or the Palace Gardens, though the venue continued till the summer season 1917-18.

Sources: Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.20
Post Office Directory, 1897 – 1928
West Australian, 11 November 1905, 3 January 1953 p.12, 17 January 1953 p.15, 14 January 1956 p.23, 1896 – 1920

Photos: 1 exterior (Cremorne gardens), b&w, 1896, West Australian no.4224 (17 January 1953, p.15)
1 exterior (Cremorne gardens) b&w, 1866? Alexandra Hasluck & Mollie Lukis, Victorian and Edwardian Perth from Old Photographs John Ferguson Pty Ltd, St Ives, 1977, plate 57

EMPIRE PICTURE PALACE/KING´S PICTURE PALACE/MELBA PICTURE HALL, 227 Murray St, Perth

Empire Pictures, directed by F. C. Clarke-Cottrell, had been screening very successfully in the Perth Town Hall from May 1910. They announced, towards the end of 1911, that they intended to build a new picture palace in the city, and ran a competition for a name for the new building: the suggestion that they had made their name with ´Empire’ and that they could do no better than stick with this, was accepted. During 1911, Shierlaw and White constructed the building, valued at £2,625, for owner H.Cochrane, and on 16 December 1911 this first purpose-built hardtop cinema in Western Australia was opened:

The Empire Pictures management gave the first entertainment in their new premises – the Empire Picture Palace, central Murray St – on Saturday evening. The new theatre is built of brick, and can comfortably accommodate 1,500 people. The walls are finished with white plaster, and the ceiling is of stamped metal. Apart from a host of other good points, the premises are fitted with a sliding roof, a lounge, ladies’ retiring rooms, and a refreshment hall. Provision, too, has been made in case of fire for the rapid exit of patrons, by a number of side escape doors, which lead into a commodious right-of-way and thence into the street. The attendance on Saturday night was a highly-gratifying one, a circumstance which the programme well justified. …Features of the initial performance were the musical numbers given by the Empire Orchestra of ten players under the baton of Conductor T.G.Williams. During the evening, too, Miss Pearse gave one of her popular songs. (West Australian, 18 December 1911)

Despite this glowing review, which concluded with a promise that performances would continue nightly, no further advertisements for the Empire Picture Palace can be found. Instead, by April 1912 it appears that the theatre has been taken over by another company and renamed.

King’s Picture Gardens, which opened in December 1908 at the foot of William St, was conducted by the King’s Picture Co Ltd, originally under the direction of Charles Sudholz, then, from late 1910 by Brown and Dease, and from December 1910 by Dennis Dease alone. King’s Pictures also screened every Monday from 13 February 1909 at Midland Junction, and then extended their provincial exhibition to weekly screenings at Fremantle on Saturdays, York on Tuesdays, Northam on Wednesdays, Bunbury on Thursdays and Collie on Fridays. By the end of the year this provincial circuit, though still known as King’s Pictures, seems to have been conducted independently of the Perth operation.

All of these were highly successful, despite the changes in management – sufficiently successful for Dease to decide to venture into permanent exhibition in the city, rather than be satisfied with the summer seasons available through the gardens. The last performance by the company at the King’s Picture Gardens was in April 1911, and the gardens did not re-open till January 1912, now under the direction of Cozens Spencer, and with a new name – the Esplanade Picture Gardens. Meanwhile, Dease had acquired the lease of what had been the Empire Picture Palace in Murray St, and he opened here in April 1912, advertising variously as King’s Picture Palace or King’s Theatre. He obtained his product through J.D.Williams, and presented the output of the Melbourne-based Lincoln-Cass Company very successfully during 1912. The sliding roof of the hall was a selling point during the hot summer, but early in 1913 presentations again ceased.

The hall was re-opened, ´under entirely new management and redecorated throughout’ (West Australian, 7 June 1913), in early June, under the direction of H.H.Cockram, and now known as the Melba Picture Hall. The new management continued to feature Australian productions, including a West Australian film of the Kalgoorlie Cup Meeting in September 1913, and Life of a Jackeroo in January 1914. However, there is no record of how successful the enterprise was, nor of why it closed permanently on 2 August 1914.

Sources: Perth City Council records, PTL F14, 1911
Post Office Directory, 1912 – 1914
West Australian, 18 December 1911, 1911 – 1914

FLIGHT DECK, 154 James St, Perth

This adult cinema advertised for a short time in 1984 only

Sources: West Australian 1984

GRAND, 164-168 Murray St, Perth

Grand 1981

Grand interior 1980

Grand front 1980

Grand interior 1980

Grand interior 1980

Grand; Orphans picnic 1930’s

Grand interior 1930’s

Grand foyer 1960’s

Grand foyer 1960’s

Grand Cinema

Grand; exploitation campaigns various dates

This theatre was built by entrepreneur Thomas Coombe and purchased from him by his sons Thomas Melrose (later Sir Thomas) Coombe and James

Lean Coombe. It opened with a charity gala performance in aid of Wounded Soldiers, and with a ´Soldiers Orchestra’, on 20 September 1916. The manager was Thomas Coombe (jnr), a lawyer, who had entered the film business in Perth as a partner in the local firm of Empire Pictures with F. C. Clarke-Cottrell and Thomas Shafto. The company had screened in the Perth Town Hall in 1910, and at Subiaco (in the King’s Hall and on the oval) during 1910 and 1911. The partners had then gone their own ways, each into a career in the film industry, Thomas Coombe beginning as attorney for West’s, managing the Melrose Gardens and later the Melrose Theatre. The Grand was his first independent venture, and he quickly made a success of it.

In comparison with the live theatres of the time it was small – 1100 seats, about the same size as its competitors, the Pavilion, the Palladium, the Britannia and the Majestic. All five opened during World War One, and followed similar policies of continuous screenings and cheaper admission than the live shows. The Grand, however, from the beginning aspired to a rather more lofty image than the others. It had a windlass-operated sliding roof, like the more prestigious live theatres, and also shutters on the side walls which could be removed for ventilation like the semi-open-air theatres.

When Coombe went into partnership with Union Theatres’ West Australian branch, the Grand became an important part of the Union Theatres chain.

Around 1920 Coombe had employed a young man named Hamilton Brown to manage the Princess (Fremantle) for him. Brown did so well in this position that as Coombe involved himself less and less in the daily affairs of the theatres he passed over more and more to the younger man, finally making him manager of all Coombe’s various theatrical concerns. When Coombe retired, Brown was appointed manager for all Union Theatres’ interests in the state. It was under his management that the Grand was wired for sound in 1929 (and abandoned its orchestra), and in April-May 1932 became an all-British house, a showcase for the most prestigious of the British films.

However, in 1929 at the height of the depression, the theatre had been sold for £82,000 as a speculation to Town and Suburban Properties Ltd, and leased back to continue to run as a Union Theatre. By the beginning of 1932, the financial crisis which was to force Hoyts and Union Theatres into an amalgamation as General Theatres, was being felt in Western Australia also. Union Theatres fell behind with the rent for the Grand, the bailiffs were called in and their tenancy was abruptly halted. This was a decision of James Stiles, on behalf of the owners of the property, of which he was a partner.

Town and Suburban Properties Ltd was a company owned by four families – the Stiles, Taylor, Davenport and Vivian families. Stiles, who had an interest in suburban theatres in South Perth, was the only one with any experience in film exhibition, but he was noted also for his resourcefulness and energy, and when he urged the company to take the risk, in the belief that he could sustain the theatre during the hard times ahead better than any tenant could, they agreed. On 25 August 1932 a new company, formed substantially of the same shareholders as Town and Suburban Properties, was formed – the Grand Theatre Co – specifically to manage the Grand Theatre as a functioning cinema. And, instead of appointing a manager, Stiles took on the task himself. He was so successful that the company went on to lease and build other theatres, eventually becoming for a time the largest local chain, and even larger in the state than the eastern-based national chains of Hoyts and Union Theatres.

As promotion for the film Little Orphan Annie, the Grand Theatre Company held an ´orphans picnic’: they invited the residents in all the orphanages in Perth to a day out, including a film screening at the Theatre Royal. This was such a success that it continued annually for many years, with the film presentation usually at the Grand.

Over the years, very little change was made in the façade of the Grand: brickwork was painted over, a neon sign added in the manner traditional to cinemas (down the length of the façade), and the ornate metal verandah replaced with one of cleaner, more modern lines.

Inside there was more change. The first major reconstruction took place in 1938:

The supporting pillars in the stalls have been taken away, and throughout the theatre provision has been made for the comfort of patrons by considerably widening the space between the rows of seats. What were previously two small landings upstairs have been joined together and enlarged to make an attractive smoking lounge. Extensive alterations have been made to the walls which have been repainted in pastel shades predominantly green. A feature of the new theatre is the lighting system, which is done with neon lights. The Grand is the first theatre in Australia entirely illuminated by neon lights, and the effect is most pleasing. (West Australian, 17 December 1938)

When it was re-opened on 16 December 1938, after only four weeks’ work had completely transformed the interior, stress was placed on its reputation as a ´family theatre’ and the ´homely’ design and comfort it offered. There was considerable pride expressed in the fact that the renovations had been done using as far as possible West Australian labour and materials. By now, however, it had to compete against the picture palaces of the thirties, and its reputation had sunk to that of a ´churn house’ – one of the continuous theatres that ´churn’ out sessions.

By the time of the second major renovation in 1959, the Grand Theatre Company had been transformed into City Theatres Pty Ltd, in recognition of the wider activities of the company, though the management, in personnel and policy, had not substantially changed. This renovation was extensive:

The Grand Theatre, home of British pictures in Western Australia, has been modernised and refurbished at a cost of £15,000 to make it one of the attractive showcases of the West Australian capital. In the modernisation scheme planned by architects Hobbs, Winning and Leighton a new lounge foyer has been created.

Lounge foyer is attractively carpeted and painted, with decor set off by the wood panelling of the walls.
Seating has been provided and there is also a modern and well-stocked candy and soft drink bar.
A cooling system operating on an air filter system has also been installed, while a new suspended ceiling in the theatre lends a modern touch to the building and has improved sound throughout the theatre.
Similar style ceiling has been fitted in the lounge foyer and in the theatre’s entrance lobby. (Film Weekly, 15 January 1959)

It was not fully air-conditioned till 1961.

In 1973 City Theatres was taken over by a consortium consisting of local television company TVW Ltd, Swan Television and Michael Edgley International Ltd. In August 1978 TVW Ltd bought out the other partners, though again there was little change in management, as Arthur Stiles, nephew of James Stiles, remained as Managing Director under the consortium and as Manager under TVW.

By now, the theatre which had changed hands for £80,000 in 1928 was worth £900,000, not so much for the building, which had long since become outmoded, as for the prime position in the central city. Each modernisation, providing more spacious accommodation for patrons, had also reduced the number of seats available, till by the end it could only accommodate 721. Fortunately, the trend in cinema building in the seventies was towards smaller, more intimate theatres anyway, which was probably all that kept the Grand going in its later years. It closed on 6 November 1980, the day that the company opened Cinema City. City Theatres retained their offices in the front of the building upstairs, while the foyer and auditorium was used for a complex of restaurants and fast food outlets. The building was demolished in March 1990.

Sources: Building permits, Battye 1459, Folio 2
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, pp.78-79
Rodney I. Francis, ´The Coombe family of Perth’, Kino no.34, December 1990, pp.12-17; ‘Thomas Melrose Coombe: a pioneer from vaudeville to talkies in Western Ausrtalia’, Part 2, Kino no.80, pp.46-48.
Jack Honnibal, ‘Perth’s Grand Theatre in its heyday’, Kino, no.64, Winter 1998, pp.26-29
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.20-21
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA p.163
Australasian Exhibitor, 15 July 1954, 5 December 1980
Everyone’s, 23 January 1929, p.24; 20 February 1929, p.6,14; 4 September 1929, p.32
Film Weekly, 15 January 1959, p.1
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1971
Kino, no.32, June 1990, p.23
Post Office Directory, 1917 – 1921, 1929 – 1949
Sunday Times, 17 April 1932, 24 April 1932, 11 January 1959
West Australian, 20 September 1916, 24 May 1932, 15 December 1938, 17 December 1938, 1916 – 1980
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)
Interviews (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Ray Cooper (1981), John Pye (1981)
Arthur Stiles scrapbook
Hamilton Brown scrapbook

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, 20s, West Australian no.3394
1 exterior, b&w, c.1921/2, Battye 3183 11811P
1 interior (auditorium – orphans picnic audience), b&w, 1930s (Arthur Stiles)
2 exteriors (orphans picnic audience), b&w, 1930s (Arthur Stiles)
2 interiors, 2 exteriors, b&w, 1930s, Jack Honnibal, ‘Perth’s Grand Theatre in its heyday’, Kino, no.64, Winter 1998, pp.26-29
3 interiors (foyers), b&w, 1960s (Arthur Stiles)
33 exteriors & interiors, colour, 1980 (Roy Mudge)
1 exterior, b&w, n.d., Australasian Cinema, 5 December 1980, p.8
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
exploitation campaigns, b&w, various dates, Arthur Stiles

GREEN LAWN PICTURE GARDENS, 489 Hay St, Perth

This must have been the shortest-lived of all the picture businesses in the state. It opened on Saturday 21 October 1916, conducted by J. F. Mulqueen, with accommodation for 2000, and screening Clement Mason Super Features. The orchestra of six professional musicians was under the direction of the “Musical Gardiners”, and prices were the standard rates for picture gardens of 6d and 1/- for adults, children 3d. Veteran showman Norman Cunningham remembers it as being on the south side of Hay St, near Irwin St (West Australian, 4 September 1980), which possibly means that it occupied the site used in the summers of 1897-8 and 1898-9 by the Olde Englishe Market Place and Fayre in aid of the Children’s Hospital (not to be confused with ´Ye Olde Englishe Fayre’ at the corner of Hay and King Streets – or that at 66 South Terrace, Fremantle).

On 4 November 1916, prices were reduced to 3d for adults to all parts, and 2d for children, and on Wednesday 8 November the advertisements claimed that the venue was winning patrons with excellent programmes and prices “the lowest in the city.” This may, however, have been a desperate bid to boost a flagging enterprise – it was not again advertised in the city papers, and apparently faded away not long afterwards.

Sources: Post Office Directory, 1917
West Australian, September – November 1916, 4 September 1980
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Norman Cunningham (1981)

KING´S PICTURE GARDENS/ ESPLANADE PICTURE GARDENS/CAPITOL, 2-10 William St, Perth

On 26 December 1908, the first premises in Perth designed and built exclusively for the presentation of moving pictures were opened – King’s Picture Gardens, on the Esplanade, at the foot of William St:

The seating capacity is 2,000 and it is stated that every effort has been made to secure the comfort of intending patrons, in the way of refreshment kiosks, retiring rooms, etc… The grounds have been tastefully laid out and are surrounded by tinted walls surmounted by artistic trellis work. The auditorium has a well-graduated slope towards the south end, thus ensuring a good view of the large enamelled screen from all parts. (West Australian, 19 December 1908)

…the walls are kalsomined in a delicate shade of salmon pink, topped by artistic trellis work treated in a sky blue medium… the refreshment rooms have been designed in the manner of Swiss Chalet architecture and the tout ensemble may be regarded as highly artistic. (West Australian, 22 December 1908)

Despite the appreciation shown by patrons of the delightfully cool open-air environment in another hot Perth summer, and of the right to smoke their pipes during a performance, the first screening still left something to be desired:

An appreciable improvement might be made by altering the screen, which is of tin, white painted. The shine of the paint created unnatural and undesirable effects in many of the pictures. It may be added that the noise effects produced behind the screen to give realism were an unnatural exaggeration and an aggravation to the audience. (West Australian, 28 December 1908)

These problems, however, were soon overcome, and the premises were open for three summer seasons, with increasing success. For the third season, a gallery was added, increasing the capacity of the gardens to 2,900. But still the papers reported capacity houses: ´…seating capacity taxed to the utmost.’ (West Australian, 21 November 1910)

Charles Sudholz had been the first managing director of the King’s Picture Company which had built the gardens, but by the next summer he had been replaced by Brown and Dease, and from 19 December 1910 by Dennis B.Dease alone. Despite (or perhaps because of) this success, Dease moved on, and opened at the King’s Picture Palace (formerly Empire Picture Palace) in January 1912.

By then, Cozens Spencer had bought the gardens at the foot of William St. These were dark for the start of the 1911-12 summer season, but re-opened in late December, 1911, as the Esplanade Picture Gardens:

The management of the Esplanade Picture Gardens (recently acquired by Spencer’s Pictures, Ltd) announces that it is their intention of opening this popular open air place of entertainment at the beginning of next week if not sooner.

The premises have been entirely rebuilt, and the whole arrangement altered in such a way that every person seated will have a clear and uninterrupted view of the screen. For the most part leather cushions will be provided, and the accommodation as a whole will, it is stated, be infinitely superior to anything of the kind yet provided for out of door entertainments. (West Australian, 18 December 1911)

After four visits to the state, Cozens Spencer had leased the Theatre Royal in 1911 for a permanent exhibition venue, and he used the Esplanade Gardens for a short season each summer to take advantage of the warm weather. During the Gardens season, patrons could see the same programme either there or at the Theatre Royal, as they preferred.

The Gardens continued to advertise as Spencer’s Esplanade Gardens until early 1920, long after Spencer himself had left the state. By then, it was the last open-air venue left in the city area, though others opened later, including the Rialto Cinema Gardens, and the Olympia Gardens in Hay St.

In 1912 Spencer’s Pictures had become a part of the Union Theatres group, and in 1920 this group had announced its intention of building showcase cinemas in Melbourne and Sydney first, then Brisbane and Adelaide. In May, Stuart Doyle, managing director of the company, visited Perth to announce plans for a similar building in the West Australian capital. The Prince of Wales was not completed till 1923, but meanwhile the Esplanade Gardens was not re-opened, and the site remained vacant for several years.

CAPITOL

Capitol Bio Box 1935

In 1926, plans were lodged with the West Australian Board of Health for a complex on the site, designed by architects Poole and Mouritzen. In addition to a theatre, the four-storey building was to house two garages, shops and offices, as well as a cabaret and a winter gardens (Everyone’s, 15 May 1929, p.26): the theatre was located on the northern side of the site, facing William St, while Temple Court buildings occupied the southern section, curving around into the Esplanade.

Total cost was over £100,000, and the building was not completed till 1929. The whole scheme was the brainchild of entrepreneur Dr A. J. Wright, who formed Temple Court Buildings Ltd expressly for the purpose. Stanley L. Wright then leased the theatre from the company, and appointed Jack Coulter as manager, Harry Cross as Director of Music, J.J.Collins as presentation manager (in charge of the live presentations) and Miss Leah Miller ballet mistress. The Capitol opened 4 May 1929, to enthusiastic reviews:

An impression of chaste solidity is conveyed to the observer from outside, and the interior’s grand splendour confirms it. Space is abundant. The mezzanine becomes not a passageway, but a roomy ante-chamber, the lounge is a luxurious drawing-room apart, and in the auditorium the seating accommodation has suffered by an attempt to give adequate room for all. Acoustics, ventilation and conveniences – are all well-nigh perfect, and a close examination of the interior reveals master craftsmanship worked out to the merest detail of decoration. (West Australian, 1 May 1929)

Built on solid, massive lines, with lofty roof-top supporting a marvellous chandelier, the decorative embellishments are on refined lines. Blue and gold, mostly gold, furnish the colour scheme. The ventilation is controlled by massive shutters on each side of the auditorium, covered by beautiful ornaments which house many lighting effects. It is from these side panels, standing out from the walls, that come the spotlights which give the light-painting effect to the chandelier, which is capable of illuminating the whole auditorium without aid from side or other lighting.

Lounge and mezzanine floors vie one with the other. On the passage ways to the lounge brilliant colours are illuminated by hidden lighting, and the transformation to a delightful drawing room is remarkable. Comfort is everywhere. There are corners where the light is a bit dim, cozy corners with soft rounded seats, coloured windows above the head.

The boudoir, the cloakrooms, all the appointments of the upper portion of the theatre, invite comfort. (Everyone’s, 15 May 1929, p.26)

However, eighteen months later Wright was forced to admit failure. Despite claims in early publicity that he had secured contracts with RKO for a supply of films for the theatre, he was never able to obtain sufficient first-class product to keep a cinema of over 2,000 seats viable in the city centre, even though he continued to advertise as ´Westralia’s premier extended season talking picture theatre’ (West Australian, 2 January 1930).

In addition, the Photophone sound system was the only one of its kind in Western Australia, causing problems of servicing and increasing expense. This had eventually to be replaced with a standard Western Electric system for the sake of economy. By then, however, the lease had been taken over by Hoyts.

For the next few years, the theatre shared the mixed fortunes of that company, becoming one of the General Theatres chain in 1934, and of Westralian Cinemas in 1936. In the forties the lease was taken over by Fullers, and then by General Amusements Pty Ltd, Garnett Carroll’s firm, and so it ceased to be programmed exclusively as a cinema. Its design, fully described by Ross Thorne, included a stage, and so it was used for concerts and theatrical performances:

…from Laurence Olivier to Jazz Jamborees, from the Chinese Classical Theatre to the Harlem Blackbirds, from Ice Capades to Ralph Richardson. The theatre has housed dancing school concerts, religious meetings, magicians, hypnotists and a variety of one-man shows. (Film Weekly, 19 November 1959, p.9)

The auditorium was ornate and lavish, aiming at the ultimate in comfort, even luxury. But the stage provision was not adequate for the larger companies and presentations, so in 1961 Edgleys, who by now had taken over the lease, decided to improve this aspect of the theatre. A fire in 1962, which destroyed stage and fittings, ended this plan, and in 1966 the premises were bought by the then Lord Mayor of Perth, T. E. Wardle. He announced plans to re-open the theatre, but accepted a further offer within months of purchase, and the theatre was demolished in 1967, to make way for a multi-storey office block.

From the very beginning, this site seemed dogged with misfortune, and not able to realise its potential. There were many sorry to see the magnificent building torn down, but few of those who had been actively involved in its history had found the experience really satisfying.

Sources: Tom Austen, The streets of old Perth, St George Books, Perth 1989, pp.104-5
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.74-77
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), pp.15-17,38
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.102 – 109
Daily News, 12 September 1966
Everyone’s, 11 July 1928, p.20; 18 July 1928, pp.15,21; 15 May 1929, p.26; 27 August 1930, p.7; 27 March 1929, p.18; 8 May 1929, p.20; 15 May 1929, p.26
Film Weekly, 19 November 1959, p.9
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1964/5
Post Office Directory, 1911 – 1949
West Australian, 22 October 1962, 1908 – 1958
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1978), Chris Spivey (1978)

Photos: 2 exteriors, b&w, 1906/191?, George Seddon & David Ravine, A city and its setting: images of Perth, Western Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1986, pp.182-193
1 exterior (Esplanade gardens), b&w, c.1912, West Australian no.5956
1 exterior (Esplanade gardens), b&w, c.1912, Alexandra Hasluck & Mollie Lukis, Victorian and Edwardian Perth from Old Photographs John Ferguson Pty Ltd, St Ives, 1977, plate 61
1 exterior (Esplanade Gardens), b&w, n.d. (Ross Thorne)
1 interior (Capitol during construction), b&w, 1928, Everyone’s, 18 July 1928 p.15
8 interiors (Capitol), b&w, n.d., Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.102 – 109
1 interior (Capitol biobox), b&w, 1935 (Ken Booth)
1 exterior (Capitol), b&w, 1930s, Tom Austen, The streets of old Perth, St George Books, Perth 1989, p. .105
2 exteriors (site of Capitol), b&w, 1981 (Bill Turner)

2 photos of shows, n.d. donated to AMMPT

LIBERTY/CITY CINEMA/KIMBERLEYS CITY CINEMA/KIMBERLEY/LIBERTY, 81 Barrack St, Perth

Liberty 1981

Liberty 1992

Lionel Hart first visited Western Australia in his capacity as salesman for Universal Pictures. He later, however, accepted the position of director of the orchestra at the Prince of Wales. In the fifties he attempted to distribute ´continental’ films in Western Australia. At that time, cinemas such as the Sydney and Melbourne Savoys were sustained by the huge post-war influx of European migrants and by the growth of the film society movement which created an audience for what the trade called ´art’ films. Neither of these audiences was as strong in Perth as in the east. But Hart saw a potential market, and decided that, rather than try to break into the established circuits with such films, he would open a specialist cinema comparable to those in the east.

He converted the first floor of an office building into a small theatre, seating 450 patrons, and the Liberty opened 4 March 1954, with a charity premiere of Rigoletto, followed in later weeks by mainly Italian and French films. The premises were also used by the Perth Film Society for Sunday night screenings. In 1955 there were three screenings a day, and by 1958 this had grown to four, with more varied programming in the later years.

The cinema survived the arrival of television in Perth in 1959, then on 1 February 1961 the building was completely gutted by fire. It was rebuilt and re-opened in June that year, continuing with the same policy. A distinctive feature of the new building was the ´garden lounge’:

Situated at the rear of the 450-capacity theatre, the lounge will give patrons inside the impression of being seated in a garden.

They will be able to smoke and watch the film through a special glass partition window. (Sunday Times, 28 May 1961)

This did not, however, protect the theatre from fire, which again struck in 1971, requiring less extensive restoration, but still closing the premises for several months.

By now, the company that Hart had established, Independent Film Distributors (W.A.), was running the Savoy and the Windsor (Nedlands) as well as the Liberty, and was importing films for these theatres and distributing them in the rest of the state as well. This company was taken over in the late seventies by Frank Lloyd, whose background in the Savoy cinemas in Melbourne and Sydney ensured that the policy of continental programming would continue. However, the cinema industry depression finally made its presence felt, and even the fortunes of the specialist cinemas fluctuated till on 9 February 1978 the Liberty closed. Of Frank Lloyd’s chain, the Windsor survived as a prestige suburban cinema showing mainly ‘art’ films, and the Savoy became an R-movie house.

On 7 July 1978 the City Cinema opened on the Liberty/Kimberley site with a return season of A Star is Born, and from the end of July the theatre was known as Kimberleys City Cinema. It became first another R-movie house, then a repertory cinema for the Valhalla company, which was doing well in the east with classical revivals and specialist first runs.

By 1985, it was being run by a partnership of Bob Yelland, John Marsden and John Parker. It was still slightly seedy, known simply as the Kimberley, and presenting second runs of recent and popular films, and seasons of children’s films in the school holidays. In 1986 a freshening up of the venue included recarpeting and repainting the entrance, hanging a new sign outside, and re-siting the ticket box. However, patronage continued to decline, and in January 1987 a consortium took it over, to screen first-run Asian (Chinese-language) films. Then it closed for renovations.

In December 1992, the renovated cinema was re-opened, with 390 seats and reverting to the old name of Liberty. For a while, Malcolm Leech (who was running similar screenings at the Piccadilly) was screening Hong Kong movies there, on week-nights and at weekends from about 2 p.m. till 1.30 a.m. The candy bar was completely rebuilt in the small foyer. The first years were successful, but Chris Simmonds attributes the decline to ‘the black market in Asian Moveis and the Asian love of Western Movies’. A short-lived excursion into live theatre did not rescue the venture, which reverted to screening Chinese-language films in early 1997, but by October this closed and the cinema was again available for lease.

Sources: Building permits, Battye 1459 (Fol.2)
Max D. Bell, ´Liberty/Kimberley’, Kino, no.20, June 1987, p.4; ´Perth Liberty’, Kino, no.60, June 1997, p.11.
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.82-83
Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.29
Australasian Exhibitor, 1960 – 1968
Film Weekly 1957 – 1961; 9 February 1961, p.1 (photo of Lionel Hart)
Film Weekly Directory, 1953/4 – 1971
Kino, no.15, March 1986, p.22; no.19, March 1987, p.23; no.40, June 1992, p.26; no.43, March 1993, p.31; no.44, June 1993, p.36; no.58, December 1996, p.31; no.59, March 1997, p.31; no. 62, Summer 1997, p.35
Post Office Directory, 1947, 1949
Sunday Times, 28 May 1961; 26 February 1978 (photo of Frank Lloyd)
West Australian, 1955 – 1997
Interview (Ina Bertrand): John Marsden (1997)
Informant: Chris Simmonds (2002)
Photos: 1 interior (renovated concession), colour, 1992 (Chris Simmonds)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

photos, 1954, b & w, Roy Mudge

MAJESTIC/PLAZA/PARIS, 656 Hay St, Perth

MAJESTIC

P.A (Paddy) Connolly owned the Grand (later the Perth) Hotel, and there is an industry legend about his early involvement with films: Dennis Dease is said to have screened from the balcony of his hotel across Barrack St to a screen mounted on the wall of a shop opposite, till the police were called in to control the traffic jam which resulted, and Dease found himself in court on a charge of obstructing traffic (Weekend Magazine, 21 May 1966, pp.21-23).

I have been unable to confirm this story, but Connolly certainly became actively interested in the film business when a syndicate he headed built the Majestic Theatres, in Perth and Fremantle. They were in direct competition with the other cinemas opened during the First World War – the Palladiums (Perth and Fremantle), the Britannia, the Pavilion and the Grand. Like them, the Perth Majestic had a policy of cheap admissions and continuous programming. It opened on 21 December 1916, with accommodation for nearly one thousand people.

The auditorium will be furnished with the latest and most comfortable leather tip-up seats, and similar seats are provided in the gallery, but upholstered in Utrecht velvet. The proscenium is very fine, being specially moulded in fibrous plaster, with a striking ornamental mounting. The balcony front is also figured out in fibrous plaster, is most imposing, and forms a most artistic decoration. The whole of the ceilings are covered with Wunderlich metal, picked out in pleasing designs and charmingly painted. The vestibule is very lofty and commodious, and the lounge upstairs is roomy and bright and tastefully furnished. The operating cabin is built of brick and cement, and absolutely fireproof, and the very latest and improved biograph machines will, it is stated, be installed, reducing the risk to a minimum. Mirrors abound on the walls, vestibule and landings, and nickel-plated rails give the interior a very bright effect. The building is well-ventilated, and, in addition to a large number of oscillating fans, there are two very large sliding roofs, one over the auditorium and one over the gallery, which should make the building cool on the very hottest days and nights. The premises will be brilliantly lit with electric lights within and without. (West Australian, 9 December 1916)

On 27 July 1918 the cinema was taken over by J.C.Williamsons and in 1927, it became part of the Hoyts chain. Sound was installed in 1930 (it was the last of the city cinemas to join the trend), and in 1932 it became part of the General Theatres group when Hoyts and Union Theatres temporarily amalgamated.

In later years, a popular feature of the cinema were the working models constructed by R.W.(Dick) Burch for the foyer to advertise new programmes, bringing children in particular to gawp at the display.

PLAZA/PARIS

Savoy and Paris 1981

Hoyts’ main city cinemas in the decade from their entry to the Perth scene in 1927 were the Majestic and the Regent. In 1937 the Majestic was demolished and a new, modern arcade was erected on the site, with shops on the street level and a cinema seating 1,313 – the Plaza – above. Shortly after, Hoyts relinquished the lease on the Regent, which became the Metro, so the Plaza took on the role of flagship for the company in Western Australia.

Architecture historian Ross Thorne describes it thus:

The facade to Hay St had a symbolic skyscraper effect. There were tall strips of windows; the centre third was taller than and projected from the remainder. Stepping from the centre of this central bay was the vertical sign which projected above the roof and curved back and down into the modern ziggurat roof form.

The auditorium was rather simple in fibrous plaster, striated lines and straight ceiling coves accentuated the long dimension of the room.

The slightly lower sections each side of the ceiling, as well as incorporating indirect lighting coves to wash light across upper ceiling levels and down the walls, probably boxed in the air conditioning ducts. (Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, p.274)

Further renovations, including the refurbishing of the interior and the installation of a Todd-AO sound system, were completed before the opening of South Pacific in 1960, which established a new long-run record for Perth of 45 weeks. The seating capacity of the theatre was reduced to less than one thousand in 1961.

On 17 August, 1965 the theatre closed, and re-opened two days later as the Paris. There were no major structural alterations this time, though later that year the entrance was resited in the Plaza Arcade. It was finally closed permanently in 1984, and the building was later converted into a disco.

In 1997 the cinema was derelict: the owners leased its entrances and exits for conversion into shops in the arcade, and access to the unused auditorium was only through a rear entrance on the laneway.

Sources: Building permits, Battye 1459, Folio 2
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, pp.83,89-90
Vyonne Geneve, ´William Leighton, architect’, Kino, no.25, September 1988, pp.7-15
Vyonne Geneve, ´The vulnerability of our Art Deco theatres’, Kino, no.28, June 1989, pp.6-8
Vyonne Geneve, Significant buildings of the 1930s in Western Australia, Vyonne Geneve, June 1994, National Trust of Australia (WA)/ National Estate Grants Programme, vol.1
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), pp.22, 41
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, p.274
Everyone’s, 29 January 1930, p.18
Post Office Directory, 1917 – 1971
West Australian, 9 December 1916, 22 December 1916, 14 October 1960, 10 August 1961, 25 October 1965, 1916 – 1984
Interviews (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Ray Cooper (1981)John Pye (1981)
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Ken Booth (1981), Arthur Stiles (1985)

Photos: 1 exterior (Majestic), b&w, 1922, Battye 3187 11816P
2 exteriors (Majestic), b&w, 1936, West Australian, nos 1662/1753
1 interior, b&w, Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, p.274
1 exterior (Paris & Savoy), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (Plaza), b&w, 1988, Kino, no.28, p.10 (Vyonne Geneve)
1 exterior (Plaza), b&w, undated, Wolanski collection ACTS, Kino no.72, Winter 2000, p.24

MAYFAIR/CAPRI, 721 Hay St, Perth

MAYFAIR

The Times Theatrette was the first small newsreel theatrette to be built in Perth, but it did not last very long: the Mayfair Theatrette was the second, opened on 25 June 1947 with only 380 seats. It was built by Joel Moss in the basement of Sheffield House, under Levinson’s, in Hay St.

The main programming of such theatrettes was the newsreel, and as the distributors refused to supply Moss with the major newsreels available at the time (Cinesound Review and Movietone News), he decided to produce a local newsreel, christened the Westralian News. One advantage of doing this was that both the existing newsreels came from Sydney and concentrated on news from the eastern states: a West Australian newsreel should have had more drawing appeal for the people of Perth. He formed a company (Southern Cross Newsreels Pty Ltd, later Southern Cross Films Pty Ltd), with himself and accountant John Macauley as directors, and Bill Duff as company secretary. Leith Goodall, who had worked as a stringer for Movietone, became chief cameraman, and arrangements were made for processing to be done by Herschell’s in Melbourne. The difficulties and cost of maintaining a regular schedule without local processing facilities eventually defeated the project, and when Cinesound Review was offered to the Mayfair Moss accepted and closed the Westralian News in October 1947.

The theatrette continued, quite successfully. Prices were cheap – in 1948, 1s plus 6d tax for adults, and 6d without tax for children. Sessions began at 10 a.m., and lasted approximately an hour, hence the popular label ´hour show’. There would usually be eleven each day, before the theatre closed around 10 p.m. or later, as most programmes were slightly longer than the advertised hour. The programme for 1 January 1949 could be considered typical: a topical short film on the Royal Christening, an overseas and an Australian gazette, a cartoon, a sporting film, a Fitzpatrick travel film, and a nature film entitled Mirror of Submarine Life.

Television, however, provided such programmes within the home, making newsreel theatrettes redundant. The Mayfair maintained its policy of continuous programming longer than its competitor, the Savoy, which had opened in 1955. When it finally succumbed, it followed the Savoy’s lead and ran six to eight sessions daily, of shorts and a feature in almost continuous programming, still appealing to the same audience – shoppers and others with a couple of hours to kill in the city.

After Moss’s death the cinema was managed by Mr Monahan, who married Joel Moss’s widow, Esme Moss: after Monahan’s death, Esme Monahan managed the cinema herself. The Mayfair closed 25 May 1968.

CAPRI

Capri 1981

The venue re-opened, however, on 10 June 1968, as the Cinema Capri, now owned by Ace Theatres, but still managed by Esme Monahan:

Entrance to the theatre has been resited, cutting out what was previously a rather ‘tricky’ spot, and taking it close to the candy bar and coffee lounge, thus bringing these to the immediate attention of patrons.

The coffee lounge has telephones at every table, allowing patrons to place their orders without having to wait for service.

This section of the theatre is open from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m. to members of the general public who may not want to attend a screening on that particular occasion. (Film Weekly, 20 June 1968)

It was now programmed as a conventional city theatre, and continued with this policy till the late seventies, when Ace were feeling the effects of the cinema slump. They closed the Paris, but wanted to retain the Capri as an outlet for some of the films they were distributing, so made an arrangement with Peter Thomson, then managing the venue, to take over the lease but to continue to get his film supply through Ace.

The building was still owned by National Mutual, and at the end of the first three-year lease they wished to raise the rent to market value. Thomson pointed out that the lease required them to charge cinema rent, that is, the rent currently being charged on a similar cinema venue, so he was able to contain the rent rise at this point. By the time the second lease ended, he was already working towards opening in Fremantle, so offered to leave the Capri if National Mutual bought him out of the lease, which they did – to the satisfaction of both parties: National Mutual were now able to charge market value to the next tenant, and Thomson had some capital towards the Fremantle venture. In April 1986, the coffee lounge had been converted into a second cinema and the venue had begun operating as a twin cinema, but it all closed in September 1987, and the whole venue was immediately gutted for conversion.

Sources: Building permits, Battye 1459, Folio 2
Barrie King, ‘Westralian News: a postscript to Ray Edmondsen’s “The last newsreel”’, Cinema Papers, no.13, July 1977, pp.38-9
Australasian Exhibitor, 16 May 1968 p.8
Film Weekly, 18 April 1968 p.3; 6 June 1968, p.16; 20 June 1968
Film Weekly Directory, 1948/9 – 1971
Kino, no.15, March 1986, p.22; no.22, December 1987, p.23
Post Office Directory, 1947, 1949
West Australian, 25 June 1948, 1948 – 1987
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Peter Thomson (1997), Arthur Stiles (1985)

Photos: 1 exterior (Capri), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 interior (Capri), b&w, 1968, Film Weekly 20 June 1968, p.7

MELROSE GARDENS/MELROSE THEATRE/PRINCE OF WALES, 254-258 Murray St, Perth

MELROSE GARDENS/ MELROSE THEATRE

Melrose gardens

Melrose Gardens exploitation campaign 1911

In 1908 West’s had opened the first permanent film presentation in Perth, starting at His Majesty’s but moving on six weeks later to the Queen’s Hall, where they were still operating with considerable success at the beginning of 1911. Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Coombe then constructed the Melrose Gardens, an open air pavilion capable of accommodating two thousand people, on land which had previously been Foy’s stables. J.Masel & Sons’ three-storey brick building with a tower impressively occupied the north-east corner of the junction of William and Murray Sts. Melrose Gardens was separated from this structure by only a narrow laneway: the entrance to the gardens was located between two shops and the gardens itself was behind these. West’s were the first tenant, and opened there on 11 February 1911, continuing to give their matinee performance in the Queen’s Hall.

The Queen’s Hall was used whenever the weather prevented screening in the gardens, and the whole enterprise transferred back there at the end of the summer season, the last screening in the gardens being Friday, 28 April 1911.

Instead of re-opening for the next summer season, the site was converted and advertised as ‘Perth’s leading vaudeville theatre’. It opened on 23 December, 1911:

The seating accommodation is ample, the theatre being able to accommodate over 2,500 people. The lighting, decoration, etc have been carried out in a superb style. West’s Pictures and Harry Rickards’ Tivoli Co., of English and continental artists, have joined forces and will present what is said to be the strongest vaudeville and picture entertainment ever shown in Australia. (West Australian, 3 December 1912)

The theatre, which will seat over 2,000 people, is practically semi-open air, having large louvre frames in the side of the walls, which are taken out on summer nights. The front part of the building will be four storeys high, when finished, and the whole of one of the floors will be turned into a winter garden. The theatre is fitted with every convenience, including ladies’ retiring rooms and hat and cloak rooms. For the convenience of patrons the management have arranged for an exit to the railway station. (West Australian 23 December 1911)

Only three stories can be identified from the photographs, and there is no information about the fate of the proposed winter garden. Various vaudeville managements, including Fuller’s, Rickards’ and the Brennan-Fuller Company, continued to use the venue until the early twenties. West’s, however, had been so successful that the company had launched into the suburbs, with programmes exclusively of films, so after 14 August 1914 they withdrew from the Melrose. From then on, vaudeville was offered there more often than films, and by 1920 films seem to have been confined usually to Sunday Concerts. Patrons were enticed with the reminder that even in the heat of summer this was a venue ´where the heat is dispersed with up-to-date fans and ventilators’ (West Australian, 24 January 1920).

PRINCE OF WALES

Coombe was not the sort of man to let an opportunity slip. When the building boom of the twenties was in full swing, he realised the potential of his prime site in Murray St, and so the Melrose was converted into a more modern structure – the Prince of Wales Theatre. The Prince of Wales never set foot in the building named after him, but it was appropriately regal in its architecture and decoration.

Hamilton Brown, employed by Coombe as manager for the new theatre, early put his entrepreneurial talents to work on its behalf. For several weeks before the theatre opened a mysterious one-liner appeared in the advertisements columns of the daily paper – ’22 22′. Everyone, including those who considered themselves on the inside of the entertainment business, was curious, and the public was suitably mystified. Then came the announcement of the grand opening of the Prince of Wales, and the mystery was cleared up – this was the telephone number of the new theatre, already familiar to all Perth, and that much more likely to be used for the booking of seats.

The theatre was the largest in Perth at the time, still with over two thousand seats. The front facade was retained, but it was now a fully-enclosed theatre, with major changes also made to the interior. The auditorium now had two levels, a stalls and a dress circle with private boxes at the back. Other touches of luxury were the upholstered seats, the marble staircases and the scent spray in the upstairs lounge, for the use of dress circle patrons only. On a more pedestrian note, there was a refrigerator in the foyer for the storage of perishables while shoppers attended a screening: an attendant in immaculate apron and cap would issue a ticket for parcels lodged, just like lodging your coat in a cloakroom.

Brown was equally successful in his programming policy. As the theatre was the most prestigious in Perth when it opened, and as Brown also managed the rest of Coombe’s theatres (which at that time included the Palladiums – Perth and Fremantle – as well as the Theatre Royal), he had considerable bargaining power with the distributors, and the theatre was able to obtain some of the most popular of the first-release product, including films like The Lost World and The Covered Wagon. The Australian blockbuster For the Term of His Natural Life had its Perth premiere here, and was widely advertised, including on a special tram which ran around the city streets entirely enclosed in a huge poster for the film.

But the theatre was not used exclusively as a cinema. The usual practice was for the first half to be vaudeville, perhaps introduced by a newsreel film and followed by a short film comedy or cartoon. Then, after interval, came the featured film.

The Prince of Wales was one of the two cinemas to introduce sound film to Perth: on 6 April 1929, while the Regent screened The Red Dance using sound-on-film, the Prince presented Warner’s The Jazz Singer, using sound-on-disc.

With the lowering of the lights and the parting of the stage curtains one saw on the screen a row of trumpeters and simultaneously heard their brazen fanfare, introducing what the programme set out as ‘the first Vitaphone entertainment with cinesound presentation.’

…For nine tenths of the performance the synchronization was perfect and amazing. This orchestral presentation did leave the impression that one should have heard a greater body of tone from 60 players – the number stated – were they actually present; but the matter of volume, one understands, can be regulated by those controlling the reproduction, in which case experience should soon discover the right quantities. It was noticeable that the orchestral score of ‘The Jazz Singer’, heard later, came across with a distinctly greater sense of the close actuality of a large body of musicians… (West Australian, 8 April 1929)

In the same review, an Italian operatic aria impressed the reviewer, not only for its ‘flawless’ synchronization, but also because ‘the all-important illusion of the voice issuing from the seen singer and not from some adjacent mechanism was perfectly maintained.’ But the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the feature film, The Jazz Singer, despite the fact that there was only one brief spoken scene. This whole film the reviewer found touching and dramatic, and much enhanced by the musical score. It was such a success that it lasted several weeks, not only because of the novelty of sound. Other sound films followed, not quite so successfully once the novelty wore off, and once the deficiencies of the Vitaphone process in comparison with sound-on-film had become apparent. It was finally necessary for the theatre to bow to the obvious worldwide trend, and convert to sound-on-film.

Meanwhile, Coombe had gone into partnership with the West Australian branch of Union Theatres, so at the start of the depression the theatre was a part of a larger empire. When economies had to be made, the decision was taken that the Ambassadors (which had four shops dependent on the custom from the theatre and returning rent to the company) should be kept open rather than the Prince, which had only one shop. So, for several months in 1931 the Prince was dark. Then it came under the General Theatres banner at the time of the amalgamation of the interests of Hoyts and Greater Union in 1933. Finally in 1935 the theatre was closed permanently, and the site was absorbed into the Myers store.

Sources: Tom Austen, The streets of old Perth, St George Books, Perth 1989, pp.84-85
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, pp.87, 90-91
Rodney I. Francis, ´The Coombe family of Perth’, Kino no.34, December 1990, pp.12-17
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), pp.26-30
Mirror, 18 June 1928, 12 March 1930
Post Office Directory, 1913 – 1926
West Australian, 18 December 1911, 23 December 1911, 8 April 1929, 1910 – 1936
Westralian Worker, 11 September 1931
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Chris Spivey (1978)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): John Pye (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior (Masels corner, with West’s visible beside it), b&w, 1911, Tom Austen, The streets of old Perth, St George Books, Perth 1989, p.85
1 exterior (West’s Melrose Gardens), b&w, n.d.
exploitation campaigns, b&w, 1911, 1930s, 1940s, Arthur Stiles (example given here is 1911)
1 exterior (crowd), b&w, 1929, Everyone’s 21 August 1929, p.18
1 interior (foyer refrigerator), b&w, 1920s, Battye 4641P
1 exterior (Prince of Wales), b&w, 1926, West Australian no.6587
1 exterior (Prince of Wales), b&w, c.1921, Battye 616B/3182 11810P
1 exterior (Prince of Wales), b&w, n.d., Battye 4671P
1 interior (foyer), b&w, n.d., Battye 4647P
1 exterior (night), b&w, n.d., Battye 4650P
5 interiors (vestibule showing entrance to stalls, vestibule showing entrance to dress circle, portion of the auditorium, view from the lounge looking into foyer, view from dress circle entrance looking into lounge) b&w, n.d. (1923?), in The Western Australian Tourist Guide and Hotel and Boarding Directory, Govt. Tourist Bureau, n.d., p.56.

NORTH PERTH PICTURE THEATRE/PICTURE PALACE/EMPIRE, 40 Monger St, Perth

On 23 June 1917, the North Perth Picture Theatre opened in Monger St, off William St. Two months later it was advertising under the name of the Empire Picture Theatre, North Perth, though apparently screening on weekends only – afternoon and evening on Saturdays, and Sunday evenings. In January 1920, it was advertising in the city papers, but at prices more like those in suburban cinemas (6½d, 5d and 3d). It appears to have been owned by Connolly, who built the Princess (Fremantle) and the Majestics (Perth and Fremantle), but it was apparently less successful than these, as by February 1920 it was advertised for sale, and did not re-open as a cinema.

Sources: Post Office Directory, 1918 – 1920
West Australian, 12 February 1920, 1917 – 1920

OLYMPIA THEATRE/OLYMPIA GARDENS, 800 Hay St, Perth

Edward Branscombe opened the Olympia Theatre on 31 October 1911, as an open air venue for the summer seasons of his vaudeville company. Till just after World War 1, this thrived, introducing to Perth audiences such companies as the Dandies and the English Pierrots, though it does not appear that any of them screened films. The venue continued, though more modestly, in the twenties, and was revived briefly in the thirties by Allan Jones, who had made his mark on exhibition in the south-west of the state, particularly at Busselton. In 1932 he opened the New Olympia Open Air Talkies, the only open-air venue for films at that time in the city centre. After one successful season, Jones decided to concentrate on his country circuit. Another operator took over the lease, but the venture closed soon after, before the end of the 1933-4 summer season.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.87
Post Office Directory, 1912 – 1934/5
West Australian, 1911 – 1925, 1932 – 1933
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Irma Whitford): Allan Jones (1978)

PALLADIUM, 723 Hay St, Perth

William Lean opened both his Palladium Theatres in 1916 – the first in Fremantle and the second on 15 December in Hay St, Perth. The Perth Palladium was slightly larger than the Pavilion and the Britannia – its main competition – extending across almost three shopfronts, and with a more imposing decorative facade. It was in obvious reference to the competition that Lean advertised:

Just remember my prices are ALWAYS 3d and 6d and you don’t have to listen to a mechanical pianola either. (West Australian, 1 January 1917)

Indeed the Palladium could boast of a full orchestra at evening performances, right from the beginning, and by 1925 it was the ´Palladium Symphony Orchestra at evening sessions, under direction of Mr F.Spargo, late of Walter George’s Sunshine Players’ (West Australian 2 January 1925). It could also boast a ´Sliding Roof and Elaborate Cooling System’ which made it ´Without Doubt THE COOLEST THEATRE IN PERTH’ (West Australian, 2 January 1925).

Lean was a book-maker, who had built the Pavilion in 1914 but never run a cinema, and after eighteen months he preferred to sell his interests in the Palladiums to Sir Thomas Coombe, who installed as manager Hamilton Brown, then manager of the Britannia. In February 1919, the cinema became a Union Theatre, part of the West Australian chain that Coombe was now directing for the national company. Brown continued as manager until he was transferred to the Prince of Wales when that theatre was built by Coombe in 1923.

The Palladium was never wired for sound, but this cannot be blamed for its demise, as its last screening was in 1926, well before the impact of sound was felt in Perth. Perhaps the financial pressures of the late twenties, and the spread of the picture palaces, made continuing with the Palladium uneconomic for Union Theatres, when they also had the more prestigious Prince of Wales and Ambassadors.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, p.87
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.23
Theatre Magazine, 1 January 1917
Post Office Directory, 1917 – 1926
West Australian, 1916 – 1926

Photos: 1 exterior (Lean’s Palladium Pictures), b&w, c.1918 (Battye?)(also in Alexandra Hasluck & Mollie Lukis, Victorian and Edwardian Perth from Old Photographs, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, St Ives, 1977, plate 65)
1 exterior (Palladium), b&w, c.1921/2, Battye 816B/3188 11817P

PAVILION, 709 Hay St, Perth

On Monday 9 February 1914 the second purpose-built hardtop cinema in Perth was opened – built by W.H.Roberts for W.F.(Bill) Lean (who later ran the Palladium) and leased to J. D. Williams Amusement Co. The Pavilion was small in comparison with the grand live theatres in operation such as the Theatre Royal or His Majesty’s, or with the gardens like the Melrose or the Shaftesbury or the Palace: only one thousand seats. It was comparatively narrow, approximately a double shopfront wide, but it had a small entrance foyer like a conventional theatre, where patrons could congregate before the show or during interval. Engraved on the facade in the middle of the third (topmost) storey was the insignia ´The Cinema’ – as the Empire/King’s/Melba was no longer operating, the Pavilion could legitimately claim that exclusive title.

Not more significant, but certainly more noticeable, was the sign picked out in light bulbs across the entire width of the building just below the insignia. It proclaimed ´Continuous Pictures’, the trademark of Williams’ exhibition policy, which had already proved popular in America and in the eastern states of Australia. The policy had been introduced to Perth in 1908 by the World’s Touring Car, and had also been used in the theatres for the daytime sessions from noon to 5 p.m., but the Pavilion was the pioneer among the permanent theatres in using the system from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. At first prices depended entirely upon where you sat, but by the twenties it was cheaper to enter for daytime screenings: ´all day sixpence, night sessions ninepence’ (West Australian, 7 January 1926).

Cheapness was indeed a feature of the whole enterprise. Continuous screening maximised the number of patrons, and cheap entrance was intended to encourage frequent visits. So, though the very best seats in the house could cost up to 2s, the regular prices were 3d for the stalls and 6d for the circle, about half the rates charged even by the open-air shows and a great deal below those of the live theatres. So it was possible to advertise as ´the People’s Theatre’ (West Australian, 2 January 1925), with ´…family prices – the workers’ prices’ (West Australian, 3 January 1927).

At its opening it could justly claim to be ´Perth’s most palatial photo-play palace’ (West Australian, 2 March 1914), but as the decade progressed and other cinemas were built, this was no longer the case. It acquired the reputation which often goes with low prices – a metaphorical as well as a literal ´cheapness’.

From June 1919 J.D.Williams’ interests were absorbed within the Union Theatres group, and the Pavilion continued as a Union Theatres house. The exhibition policy, however, continued as Williams had established it – continuous programming and cheap admissions.

But the twenties was the decade of the picture palace, and the Pavilion was less and less able to compete. Spraying water on a hessian screen near the stage may have been effective in cooling the interior of the theatre, but it somehow lacked the style of the sophisticated air-conditioning systems being installed in theatres such as the Prince of Wales or the Capitol. The Pavilion did convert to sound – it was advertising talkies in January 1930 – but soon after this the property was sold and became shops.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, p.88
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.23
Post Office Directory, 1914 – 1926
West Australian, 1914 – 1930
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Chris Spivey (1978)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, c.1921/2, Battye 3189 11818P

PERTH OVAL, Loton Park, Lord St, Perth

Screenings on behalf of the East Perth Football Club had been conducted on the Perth Oval in Lord St as early as February 1912. These continued, sometimes twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday), sometimes only on Saturdays, till the twenties, at first in the south east corner of the oval, then later in the north-west corner, with patrons sitting in the grandstand. They were very successful, but, like all open-air shows, they could only continue while the weather held, so were limited to the summer months.

Nevertheless, they continued till the East Perth Premier Theatre was opened in 1924.

Sources: West Australian, 1911 – 1920
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Graeme Norton (1981)

PERTH TOWN HALL, cnr Barrack & Hay Sts, Perth

Perth Town Hall 1981

Perth Town Hall interior 1981

Perth Town Hall interior 1981

This prestigious building, commenced May 1867 and opened 1 June 1870, had been occasionally used for limelight performances in the nineteenth century. The first biograph display advertised in the hall was a season of the Royal Bioscope Co. from 29 September to 6 October 1900. Other itinerant biograph shows used the premises over the next few years, including the Vivagraph in December 1903 and March 1904, Stevenson’s Biograph in February 1904, Spencer’s American Theatrescope in April 1906, the New York Bioscope Co from December 1906 to January 1907, Leonard Davis’ “Our World” in June 1907, “Olympia – the Passing Show” in July 1907, and Lefebres’ Paris Biograph Co in October and December 1908.

Then came the first of the ´permanent’ shows, when King’s Pictures, already screening at the Midland Junction Town Hall and in the new King’s Picture Gardens, took on a lease of the Perth Town Hall for the winter of 1909. Their season began, as advertised, on 9 April, but was abruptly terminated on 19 June, without explanation, as the manager of King’s Pictures, Mr C.Sudholz, became involved in one of the wrangles that pursued him through his career in film exhibition. The hall, however, did not long remain dark.

It was used for occasional visiting film shows, and on 25 December 1909 for a demonstration of “Transmitting photographs over telephone wires”. Then on 2 May 1910, Empire Pictures began screening there, at first on Saturday nights only, but from 10 September for six nights each week. The company advertised aggressively, determined to withstand the fierce competition by now operating in the city centre. They re-decorated the premises with two hundred pot plants, ferns and palms, provided electric fans, and claimed that, though small in comparison with the live theatres or the picture gardens, the Town Hall was the ´cosiest’ hall in Perth (West Australian, 3 December 1910).

They featured singers or instrumentalists performing live at appropriate moments in dramatic films, such as Miss Lulu Benstead singing the Jewel Song during the screening of Faust. They ran beauty competitions for shopgirls, and for children from eight to twelve years old, filming the finalists in familiar Perth settings and inviting the citizens of Perth to be part of the proceedings and to see themselves on screen in the finished product. They insisted in their advertisements that their weekly changes of programme were all new to Perth, specially imported on their behalf, and under their exclusive control. And they stressed repeatedly that they were a local (i.e. West Australian) show, not connected (except for a short while at the very beginning) with showmen from the eastern states. They featured local (i.e. Australian) productions, particularly those produced by their main supplier, Pathe Freres, like Captain Starlight and The Miner’s Daughter. Finally, they astounded the citizens of Perth, and the representatives of the City Council and the Fire Brigades Board, by presenting, in conjunction with Pathe, a demonstration of the latest in non-flammable film (West Australian 19 July 1911).

But then they announced an intention to open their own premises, and the lease passed into the hands of Ideal Pictures from December 1911 to August 1912. In September, October and December 1912, other showmen took the hall over for short seasons, but by the end of the year competition from the picture gardens, opening again for the summer season, was too much, and screenings in the Town Hall ceased. In the winter of 1916, regular films screenings resumed on Friday and Saturday evenings. But then the hall reverted to public use, and as purpose-built cinemas proliferated in the next few years it was never again called upon to act as a full-time cinema.

Sources: The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, pp.34-36
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.88
Sir Hal Colebatch C.M.G. (ed), A story of a hundred years: Western Australia 1829 – 1929, Government Printer, Perth WA, 1929, p.438
West Australian 1900 – 1916 (also ´Perth Town Hall’, 21 October 1922; ´Our Town Hall’, 25 April 1936)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, n.d. (before electricity), West Australian, no.1019
1 exterior, b&w, n.d., The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.36

2 interior and 1 exterior, b&w, 1981, Roy Mudge

PICCADILLY, 700-704 Hay St, Perth (Hay St Mall)

Piccadilly 1981

Entrance after 1985

Piccadilly circa 1985

Piccadilly circa 1985

Piccadilly circa 1985

Piccadilly circa 1930’s

Piccadilly , date unknown

Piccadilly ticket box advertising Wells Fargo

Piccadilly advertising Suzie Wong

On 10 March 1938 the first theatre especially built for the Grand Theatre Co opened in Perth – the Piccadilly. It was situated above the Hay St end of the Piccadilly Arcade, which was a shopping arcade through to Murray St. It was designed in Art Deco style by William Leighton of Baxter-Cox and Leighton, and originally seated over one thousand, but repeated renovations over the years reduced that capacity to just over nine hundred.

The building is fully described by Ross Thorne (Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.265-267). The rather severe exterior looked more like a fifties suburban cinema than one opening in the thirties, and survived into the eighties still appearing comparatively modern.

A policy of first-run releases, and a stress on the modernity of the building and its fixtures were the key images presented by the cinema. Carrier air conditioning cost £6,500 and provided automatic thermostatically-controlled temperature within the building, regardless of the temperature outside, or the number of patrons in the auditorium. A twenty-five passenger lift transported patrons to the foyer and was advertised as the only such lift in operation in any cinema in Australia:

‘The furniture, in addition to being locally-made, has been specially designed here to suit the theatre and fit in with its colour schemes. From the 24 ducoed flower pots to the low divans in the foyers everything is original.

‘The panel treatment of the walls, too, fits in with the general plan of the modern architecture of the theatre. A pastel green shade has been used in keeping with the coolness of the theatre.

‘The lighting is on an elaborate scale and the drapings and carpets were imported for the theatre.

‘The stage curtains have come from New York and there are many beautiful mirrors.’ (Film World, 11 March 1938)

The Piccadilly could charge higher admission than the Grand: it was airconditioned from the start, and screened first run product in longer seasons than the weekly-release Grand. However, despite its superior position in the Grand Theatre Company hierarchy, it could not compete in prestige with the older and more luxurious Royal. All three were taken over in 1973 by the consortium which bought out City Theatres, and in 1978 by TVW Enterprises which took over complete control from the consortium.

In 1983 a thorough renovation transformed the cinema. The lower level was converted into a shopping arcade, and the lounge into a four hundred seat cinema, still called the Piccadilly. In deference to the origins of the theatre in the thirties, and in keeping with cyclical fashions in architecture, the whole remodelling was in Art Deco style, and much of the atmosphere of the original Piccadilly was retained. In fact it won the 1986 Architect’s Design Award for Excellence in Renovation.

Chris Simmons describes the renovations like this:

‘…the main screen was brought forward 10m. The upstairs section was brought forward and a new floor put in. The screen frame and gold velvet curtains with the original lifting gear were put in place. The curtains lift up not out like on most screens. They recreated the Art Deco look around the screen so you can’t tell the difference unless you know.’

In 1989 the venue was sold by Hoyts to Glen Darlington, of Classic Cinemas, and closed briefly in early 1990. Malcolm Leech then took over the lease, and converted a section of the disused stalls into a small cinema, making the Piccadilly into a twin, seating 443 in Cinema 1 and 165 in Cinema 2. He continued, screening Hong Kong movies in Cinema 2, but the lease of Cinema 1 went to Greater Union in the summer of 1991-2. Then Malcolm Leech turned the venue into a triplex (seating 443, 110 and 103), by adding Cinema 3 behind the main screen.

Chris Simmons again:

‘Cinema 2 is on the left side of the old stalls and Cinema 3 is sideways behind the main screen with the left side siting above Cinema 2. So I guess it is in the stalls but it is right down in front of where the main screen was originally. The right side of the stalls is now a small foyer. The area was left unusable… fter the renovation in the 80s. Malcolm found it fairly easy to build Cinema 2 although it has a small screen and he was able to get a Projector from the closed Town Cinema. Cinema 3 had to have large steel beams put in for the steep floor which appeals to the younger ones more. Each row is .5m higher than the one in front so you always get an uninterrupted view. The air con is situated in the basement of the arcade and it is ducted up to the cinema through brick ducting. There are 2 large compressors that are the originals. They were rebuilt and converted to run on the newer gas. The main problem it had was gas leaks but since being rebuilt you could cool the cinema with only 1 compressor… The Piccadilly has heaps of character and is quite a contrast to today’s large complexes.

‘I was a projectionist there and also did a lot of repairs including painting and I can tell you that there is a ghost. Several people saw it but it was harmless if not a little creepy… I was replacing the curtains with doors on the entry to cinema 1 late one night when my friend and I took a break. I was in the candy bar getting a drink when I saw a shadowy figure move across the entry to the lift. My friend didn’t believe me until he saw the same thing 15m latter. I’m sure it was a ghost as it gave us that kind of feeling that several other people have had there. The cleaner had to have all the lights and music going in order to do his work and when I was doing any late night repairs you would always hear noises but you got used to it. Apparently some years ago a customer was locked in and in the dark fell down the stairs and was found dead in the morning.’

The Piccadilly continued to operate into the new century, but Malcolm Leech leased it to Dennis McKenna in May 2001.

Sources: Building permit, Battye 1459, Folio 2
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, pp.88-89
Vyonne Geneve, ´The vulnerability of our Art Deco theatres’, Kino, no.28, June 1989, pp.6-8
Vyonne Geneve, ´William Leighton, Architect’, Kino, no.25, September 1988, pp.11-12
Vyonne Geneve, Significant buildings of the 1930s in Western Australia, Vyonne Geneve, June 1994, National Trust of Australia (WA)/ National Estate Grants Programme, vol.1
Jack Honnibal, ´The theatres of Perth 1939 – 1993′, Kino, no.45, September 1993, p.29
Jack Honnibal, ‘The Piccadilly, Theatre of Distinction’, Kino, 74, Summer 2000, pp.24-28 (erratum Kino no 75, Autumn 2001, p.34)
Bob Parkinson, ´Field report’, Kino, no.41, September 1992, p.12
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), pp.31, 42
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.265-267
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1971
Kino, no.18, December 1986, p.24; no.26, December 1988, p.23; no.28, June 1989, p.23; no.32, June 1990, p.23; no.33, September 1990, p.23; no.36, June 1991, p.24; no.39, March 1992, p.25; no.40, June 1992, p.26; no.59, March 1997, p.31; no.62, Summer 1997, p.35; no.72, Winter 2000, p.43.
Post Office Directory, 1938/9 – 1949
West Australian, 10 February 1938, 10 March 1938, 11 March 1938, 1938 – 2000
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Stiles (1985)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Ray Cooper (1981)
Informant: Chris Simmons (2002)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, 1930s? (Arthur Stiles)
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
3 exteriors, 2 interiors, b&w, n.d. Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.265-267
21 exteriors & interiors, colour, after 1985 (Roy Mudge)
1 exterior, 1 interior, b&w, 1986, Kino, no.25, September 1988, p.13 (Byron Geneve)
1 exterior, b&w, n.d. Kino, no.28, June 1989, p.7 (Vyonne Geneve)
1 interior (ticket box advertising Wells Fargo), b&w, n.d., Arthur Stiles

1 interior of audience, n.d, from the AMMPT archives

PREMIER AND GARDENS, 293 Stirling St, Perth (East)

Premier and Gardens 1981

Premier and Gardens 1950

Premier and Gardens 1950

Premier and Gardens 1950

Premier and Gardens 1924

Premier and Gardens 1924

Premier and Gardens 1924

Although this building is technically within the City of Perth, it was known for all its history as the East Perth Premier Theatre and Gardens. This probably began because of its early association with the East Perth Football Club.

Screenings on behalf of the Club had been conducted on the Perth Oval in Lord St as early as February 1912. These continued, sometimes twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday), sometimes only on Saturdays, till the twenties, at first in the south east corner of the oval, then later in the north-west corner, with patrons sitting in the grandstand. They were very successful, but, like all open-air shows, they could only continue while the weather held, so were limited to the summer months.

While Cyril Norton was secretary, the club decided to embark on commercial screenings, and W.R.(Bill) Haynes, who was the patron of the club, put up the money for the first permanent premises. This was the East Perth Premier Theatre on the corner of Bulwer St and Stirling St, which opened in 1924, with a capacity of nearly 1500. The tiles on the facade were in the club colours of blue and black, and the club’s investment was protected by the building being without a slope to the floor, so that if the venture was not a success it could be converted into a dance hall.

The club had an arrangement with Haynes to pay off the debt out of the profits, but despite the success of the theatre this was slow in being achieved. In 1927, Haynes paid a further £1,000 to the club in return for them relinquishing their rights entirely. He appointed Cyril Norton as manager, and arranged that when Haynes died Norton would inherit the building if he accepted responsibility for organising probate on the will. So, when Haynes died, Cyril Norton took over the business.

Talkies were first presented, using Australian-made Raycophone sound equipment, on 30 September 1929. In 1937 a gardens was built alongside the theatre, in Stirling St, with a capacity of 1800. Admission to the central section of the gardens, with its canvas-covered deck-chairs, was more expensive than to the outer sections with wooden seats. The whole was surrounded by poplars, and attractive gardens.

At the same time major renovations were made to the theatre, removing the side windows which had previously been used for ventilation. In 1940, new projectors were installed in the theatre.

This was one of the few suburban venues which switched between the theatre and the gardens for prestige shows, starting the gardens about an hour later than the theatre, rather than opening only one of them on any one night. It was considered one of the most successful and attractive suburban venues, and the design was used also as the basis for the Broadway Theatre in Victoria Park. Cyril Norton’s astute buying usually won his venue the first suburban release screenings, and this played a part in the theatre’s popularity with audiences.

Cyril Norton became managing director for the Grand Theatre Company in 1944, after the death of James Stiles, but he continued to also run the Premier in his own right. He died in 1953 and his son Graham took over as manager of the Premier.

After television arrived, Graham Norton kept the theatre alive by showing Italian-language films. But keeping the theatre building operating was expensive, so he seized the opportunity to lease it for conversion as an ice skating rink, and the Italian films were moved into the gardens next door. To enable these to be screened throughout the year a small covered section was then built over part of the seating area, accommodating about 500 people. However, the supply of films was dependent on the importers in Melbourne. Though some of the American block-busters, dubbed into Italian, were very successful, it was difficult to obtain enough films and in 1975, when the flat iron screen was blown down in a storm, it was decided to close the gardens permanently.

The rink was leased in 1982 to Selwyn Ward, who had purchased the ice skating business, but when a larger rink opened in Mirrabooka the Premier closed, and the venue was turned into a disco. After twelve months this, too, closed, but it was re-opened by Steve Pietracatella, who leased the venue from 5 October 1984. Despite restoration work on the theatre building in 1985, it closed permanently on 27 April 1987 and was demolished soon after. All through this time, the site was owned by Graham Norton and his sister (Corinne Kobelke), and they still own the site – including the two-storey building tenanted by the National Australia Bank, which opened in 1987.

Sources: Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.40-41, 62-3
Max Bell, ´Premier Theatre and Open Air Gardens, Perth WA’, Kino no.22, December 1987, pp.4-5
East Perth Movie Magazine, 1927 – 1929
Everyone’s, 18 September 1929, p.12; 12 February 1930, p.25
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1971
Kino, no.21, September 1987, p.22
Post Office Directory, 1924 – 1949
West Australian, 1924 – 1970; 16 September 1964
Interview (Ina Bertrand/Bill Turner): Graham Norton (1981)
Informant: Graham Norton (2001)

Photos: 4 exterior (gardens), b&w, 1905s (Graham Norton)
2 exterior (theatre), b&w, 1924/1937 (Graham Norton)
3 interior (theatre, b&w, 1924/1937 (Graham Norton)
1 exterior, n.d., Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.43
1 exterior (gardens), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
2 exterior (theatre), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior (theatre), b&w, 1982, Kino no.22, December 1987, p.5 (Max Bell)
1 interior (theatre), b&w, 1985, Kino no.22, December 1987, p.5 (Max Bell)
1 exterior (gardens), b&w, n.d., Kino no.22, December 1987, p.5 (Max Bell)
1 exterior (theatre), b&w, n.d., (Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history, p.40)

QUEEN´S HALL/ REGENT/ METRO, 91 William St, Perth

QUEEN’S HALL

Queens Hall

Queens Hall interior

The Wesleyan Methodist Church had had its West Australian headquarters on the corner of William and Murray Streets since their first chapel was built there in 1830. Alterations and additions and replacements took place over the remainder of the century, until on 19 April 1899 the Premier, Sir John Forrest, opened the grandest of all their buildings just around the corner in William Street, next to the church which still stood on the corner site itself. This new building was the Queen’s Hall:

The style of architecture is Romanesque, and it is very effective. Attention was confined principally to the hall, entrance to which is obtained from William-Street, through a marble-tiled vestibule 15ft wide. The ascent of a dozen marble steps leads to the corridor, which runs to the hall…At the end of the corridor mentioned are the staircases which branch off at either side, and which lead to the galleries of the hall, while a few yards further along three large double-swing doors admit to the body of the hall. At a cursory glance it can be noted that this is by far the largest, and, to all appearances, the most commodious hall of its kind in Perth. Its measurements are – length, 100 ft; width, 60ft; height from floor to roof, 42 ft; and stage 35ft by 24ft. The ceiling of the hall is coved, lined with wood, with heavy cornice moulds, panels, and centre flowers; while the windows on either side through which abundant light streams, are built in the coves. At night the light will be supplied by six electroliers, each containing 25 lights, while scattered around the hall are numerous single incandescent lights. The galleries, which run round three sides of the hall, are 12ft wide, and from any part of them a perfect view of the stage can be obtained. The galleries are supported by iron pillars, and another set of pillars from the galleries supports a series of arches, which, in addition to imparting a picturesque appearance to the hall, have, together with the pillars, an important effect on the acoustic properties of the hall, in that they break the sound waves. Seats are provided for 1,500 people, while an additional 500 could be accommodated without any degree of discomfort. (Daily News, 19 April 1899)

Provision was made to clear this large audience quickly in the event of fire or other emergency, through escape doors fitted with ‘Chubb’s Patent Locks’ which could be easily opened from the inside, and which gave access to rights-of-way to both William and Murray Streets. Ventilation and fire precautions were also considered to be of the most modern design. In addition to the main hall, the building contained classrooms and offices, and provided for eleven shops along the street front.

It was intended that the hall would be used for Church purposes on weekends, and hired out for lectures and musical presentations for the rest of the time. The first film exhibition was only months after the official opening, and would have been considered eminently suitable, though presented by a representative of another denomination: on August 16, 1899, Commandant Booth opened a special campaign to inform the citizens of Perth of the operations of the Salvation Army, through his ‘Wonderful and Thrilling Lecture, assisted by Limelight, Kinematograph and Graphophone’ (West Australian, 14 August 1899).

Mrs Booth conducted a further series of limelight lectures in the hall in September 1900, and in October 1901 this was where Perth witnessed the remarkable Melbourne production of Soldiers of the Cross, two hours of films, slides, exhortations, prayers and music.

The Methodists were perhaps stimulated by this use of a modern invention in the service of the Lord to introduce something similar themselves, starting with limelight lectures from 6 to 9 July 1900 on ´The Melbourne Mission: Lights and Shades of City Life’, and continuing throughout the rest of the year with lectures on many subjects, by many different lecturers, ranging from travelogues of Britain to explanations of the progress of the Boer War.

This high-minded programming did not prevent more commercial exploitation of the venue by regular cinematograph entrepreneurs, who presented seasons at the hall in the usual way, before or after their country tours and visits to Fremantle. But the Church also expanded its own use of the moving picture during the period of office of Rev. G.E.Rowe. This gentleman introduced the ´Sunday night after church’, a programme from 8.45 to 9.30 on a Sunday evening, advertised as ´Bright. Brief. Brotherly.’ (West Australian, 16 April 1904)

Rowe played an active part in the presentation by performing the ´descriptive sketches’ which accompanied the films or slides. A new subject was presented each night, sometimes in serial form over several weeks. The most popular of these was apparently that entitled ‘Ben Hur – the life of Christ’, which Rowe was exhorted to present complete in the hall on a week night, as the effect of the serialised version had been so profound. He also introduced the ‘Children’s Nights’, again of films and slides with ´descriptive sketches’, and these too were well-supported, so that ´There was barely standing room for the children’s entertainment’ (West Australian, 14 October 1905).

By the end of 1905, however, Rowe must have moved on as the frequency of the Sunday lantern services diminished noticeably and the degree of entrepreneurial effort in their presentation slipped dramatically. Perhaps, like the Salvation Army, the Wesleyan Methodists had second thoughts about employing a medium which was obviously becoming increasingly commercialised. They did not, however, feel compelled to limit the hiring of their hall, which had already become one of the major venues for moving pictures in the city. Cozens Spencer presented some of his early seasons there (September 1905, October – November 1905, March 1907), as did local entrepreneur Charles Sudholz (December 1905, April 1907), the Taits (April 1906, May 1908), and the Corrick family (February 1907, August – September 1907), as well as numerous other lesser lights in the business.

Then, on 20 June 1908, West’s Pictures were transferred from His Majesty’s, where they had been running continuously, six nights per week, for five weeks. This was the first truly ´permanent’ film show in the state, intended to continue indefinitely, though still not in purpose-built premises. West’s success was unprecedented in the state. The company (represented between visits from T. J. West himself by B. A. Leix, who had formerly worked for the Taits) had access through its contacts interstate and overseas to an apparently inexhaustible supply of films, enabling a weekly change of programme and a confident claim that all pictures presented were exclusive and had not been screened in Perth before. They were, for instance, the exclusive outlet for Pathe Art Films, including the very successful The Red Hand, and The Assassination of the Duc de Guise, and they stressed the high artistic quality of everything presented under their name.

The response from the public was overwhelming:

Every Saturday evening the management is compelled to proclaim the ‘House Full’ some time before the entertainment is commenced… This satisfactory position is a reward for excellent screening, complete changes of varied subjects every week and excellent incidental music provided by a large and efficient orchestra. (West Australian, 28 September 1908)

The policy of renewing the bill without waiting for popular interest in a programme to wane is bringing its reward by making the lovers of moving pictures frequent instead of occasional patrons. (West Australian, 16 January 1909)

This success prompted West to expand, into Fremantle, and within the city into Melrose Gardens, which opened in February 1911. Despite reassurances that both city venues would continue, for the rest of the summer Queen’s Hall was used only for the matinee or if the weather was unsuitable for an outdoor performance. However, on 3 May the regular West’s programmes returned to the hall, when the gardens closed for the winter. An experiment in continuous screening from noon till 5 p.m. was attempted with the Coronation Films in July 1911, but at the end of the season the management reverted to evenings only, except for the Saturday matinee.

Then, at the end of 1911 the lease was transferred from West’s to Vic’s Pictures, a company owned by four partners, one of whom was T. J. West’s former secretary Victor Newton. Another of the partners, Jack Coulter, later to be manager of the Capitol, was the projectionist. This company had been screening for some time in the Fremantle Town Hall, and now added screenings in the Queens Hall from 27 January 1912. They continued with the policy established by West of night screenings, and weekly changes, till the competition of the opening of the Pavilion Theatre in 1914 forced a change to continuous screenings from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. six days a week.

It was probably the rash of purpose-built cinemas in the rest of the decade that forced the closure of the Queen’s Hall as a venue for moving pictures, in January 1919. The hall reverted to casual hire, including being used as a department store for a year after the former premises of Economic Stores were burnt down in January 1920.

REGENT

Hoyt’s Regent 1927

Show, date unknown

Hoyt’s Regent interior 1927

Audience

Hoyts Regent c 1927

Perth Regent Orchestra

But its connection with films was not to be entirely severed. In 1927 Hoyts secured the lease as a site for their Perth Regent, one of a chain of major cinemas to be built in each state capital. The hall was rebuilt by the Methodist Church for this purpose, which perhaps explains the conservatism of the architecture, criticised by Ross Thorne (Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.306-307).

However, if Hoyts’ management were disappointed they did not allow the public to know. The tone of the official opening programme for Saturday, 10 September 1927, was as fulsome as such publications always were:

Hoyts Regent makes history for Perth, in the shape of the landmark that has arisen….

The most modern equipment and ventilation inventions will enable the Regent to be the cosiest of rendezvous in winter, and a cool theatre in the summer months. A typhoon system will flush the whole of the interior with fresh air, but the discomforts of drafts will not be felt. Another feature of the system is that it has been made possible for the huge panels on the side walls to be operated on the shutter principle. Without being designed as an open-air theatre, the Regent will yet embody all the attributes of such…

Every part of the theatre is fireproof, and every modern appliance has been installed…

Foremost, and most interesting of the apparatus, is the patent dimming machine, the first of its kind in Australia…

It will control the whole of the illuminations throughout and vary the shading of the concealed lighting in such a manner that visions of an Aladdin’s cave will be conjured up…An orchestra of 15 members, embracing musicians of unquestionable talent and experience in their art will add its share to the enjoyment of patrons.

…Accommodation has been provided for nearly 2,000 people… The principal colour scheme is formed of a neatly interwoven combination of mauve, cyclamen and gold, giving a charm of beauty and brightness, and an artistic magnificence unparalleled in theatre construction in the Antipodes…

Comfortable upholstered chairs have been fitted throughout…

The more than ordinarily pronounced slope given to the floor level throughout ensures a clear and uninterrupted view of the stage and screen from whatever angle they are regarded…

Beautiful crystal glass chandeliers – they are fitted at intervals throughout – illuminated pillars, and bevelled glass mirrors stretching the length and breadth of the spacious foyer, throw their dazzling reflections before the eye: a fascinating and fairylike scene.

The furnishings are as luxurious and tasteful as they could possibly be made. (Official Programme, 10 September 1927)

The opening programme was a charity performance for the Children’s Hospital, including a screening of Three Bad Men (advertised as “a Fox masterpiece”).

At first, the familiar continuous screenings were presented, but by January 1928 these were limited to the daytime, from 11 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., with a special screening advertised to start at 2.30 for those patrons who wished to attend a full daytime screening. Then the usual evening session commenced at 8 p.m. On 4 August 1928 a Wurlitzer Theatre Organ was installed, which survived the various renovations and alterations of the theatre, till it was removed before the theatre’s demolition in 1973. In early 1928, Hoyts’ circuit in Perth consisted of the Regent and Majestic in Perth, the Majestic in Fremantle, and the Majestic and Cremorne in Kalgoorlie.

The first sound films in Perth opened simultaneously at the Regent and the Prince of Wales on 6 April 1929: the Regent screening The Red Dance using the sound-on-film process, and the Prince of Wales The Jazz Singer on Vitaphone sound-on-disc. The Regent’s programme was enthusiastically received by the capacity audience, and by the critics:

The clearness and realism of the sound films was remarkable; it was as though persons clothed in warm flesh and blood were speaking or singing to the audience. (West Australian, 8 April 1929)

However, the reception was not entirely uncritical:

All the films were not of equal merit. All the voices did not record equally well. While there was perfect harmony between action and sound in every case, some of the voices did not sound out clearly, and some of the speakers had such an American twang that they were difficult to understand. (West Australian, 8 April 1929)

The featured film, The Red Dance, had no spoken dialogue at all, just a musical score, and was of very ordinary standard apart from the novelty of the soundtrack. It moved on after only a week, the management insisting that the decision was simply to maintain the service of frequent programme changes which regular patrons of the theatre had come to expect. After that, there were often weeks without a sound feature, though the newsreel was regularly accompanied by sound from then on.

However, within a year, the changeover had been made to full talkie programming, and the nature of film presentation had dramatically altered. On opening night, an overture to the first half and a ´novelty entr’acte’ in the second half had been presented by the ´Hoyts Regent Orchestra of 16 Master Musicians’. In addition, an acted prologue called ´The Spirit of Motion Pictures’ had been presented as the prelude to the film in the first half, and the theatre also had its own small ballet company which performed in similar prologues in other programmes. The introduction of the Wurlitzer had not affected this, just added an extra element, as Percy Burraston performed both with the orchestra, and solo during intermission. But sound films changed all this. The week commencing 12 October 1929 was the last when the orchestra, the ballet and the organ combined their talents – from then on only the Wurlitzer remained, reduced to playing overtures and at interval, except on special occasions.

METRO

Metro Cinema, date unknown

Metro 1965

Metro Theatre Opening Show 1938

Metro Interior

Metro 1938

Metro Box office 1938

Perth Metro Wurlitzer

Hoyts’ fortunes in the West were mixed, and in 1938 they relinquished the lease on the Regent, even though it had been intended as the flagship for the company in the state. On 13 May 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Theatres Pty Ltd took over the lease, and opened the theatre under its new name – the Metro, as a showcase for MGM films. These had previously been exhibited through James Stiles’ Theatre Royal, which continued to screen the overflow, and sometimes negotiated a deal for simultaneous release (as with Gone with the Wind). But later that year the theatre was closed for extensive remodelling.

At a cost of £30,000, ´the whole of the interior was gutted and redesigned and the front elevation was stripped of its former decoration and remodelled in moderne Art Deco style.’ (Thorne, p.307) The theatre became the first in Perth to install an electrified air-conditioning system, and the seating was made more comfortable, thus reducing accommodation from nearly 2000 to less than 1500.

With perhaps understandable bias, a former Metro usherette

recalls the theatre as ´the most glamorous in Perth’:

The usherettes were chosen for their figures, hair and general glamour. They didn’t have to be beautiful, as long as they had ‘oomph’, but I must admit most of them were beauties. How we loved our job. We were very conscious of our prestige. Nearly all our wages were spent on hair do’s, make-up and clothes.

The shifts were long. Sometimes we would work from 10.30 a.m. until 11.30 p.m. but we didn’t care. We would have a break during the day and spend it walking around the shops. Heads would turn and shop girls would whisper: ´They work at the Metro.’

We were quite aware of the sensation we were creating and our perfectly coiffured heads would be arrogantly angled….

Those uniforms! Every year we would have a new design. The new style would be the most closely guarded secret in Perth….

Nearly twenty girls would be on the floor on Saturday nights, all smiling and relaxed, showing none of the strain of coping with thousands of screaming, yelling children who attended the Saturday shows. The foyer would be filled with prams on weekdays and this is where we proved we were not just glamour girls. Half the prams would be filled with sleeping babies and it was quite common to see a glamorous blonde, redhead or brunette giving a baby a bottle so the mother could enjoy the show. (Mrs Jean Allen, West Australian, 9 December 1981)

The Metro continued to screen under the MGM banner, as ´Theatre of the stars’, till 1970, when Roadshow took over the lease:

Sad to relate, the Metro Theatre finally closed in October 1973, the final film being the immortal classic Gone with the Wind, which was screened before a capacity audience. As the last few feet of film went through the projector gate, a slide of ´Leo the Lion’ was superimposed on the screen and the lights came up slowly, the sound of a lone piper then being heard as he slowly walked down the aisles playing The Last Lament. This truly was a wonderful tribute to this warm, friendly cinema that had always been popular. Many patrons were seen leaving with tears streaming from their eyes, remembering the good old days when they had sat in the theatre watching many a silent and sound melodrama through the years. (Max Bell, Kino, no.9, p.13)

Jack Honiball’s reminiscences are a good example of the affection with which the cinema was remembered. However, within hours of the closing images on the screen, the wreckers moved in, and the theatre made way for yet another shopping complex.

Sources: Jean Allen, ‘The way it was’, West Australian, 9 December 1981
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.83-7
Max D. Bell, ‘Perth: Regent/ Metro’, Kino, no.9, pp.11-15
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), pp.24-25, 42
Ian Hanson, ‘Perth’s Metro: Theatre of the Stars’, Kino, no.84, Winter 2003, pp.6-8
Jack Honiball, ‘Metro: more great moments of Perth’s Theatre of the Stars’, Kino, no.86, Summer 2003, pp.28-29
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, pp.306-7
Daily News, 19 April 1899, 8 September 1927
Everyone’s, 5 September 1928, p.16; 20 March 1929, p.30; 30 October 1929, p.28
Film Weekly Directory 1943/4 – 1971
Kino no.25, September 1988, p.14
Post Office Directory, 1912 – 1949
Sunday Times, 8 October 1973
West Australian, 11 September 1905, 9 April 1906, 5 May 1938, 1899 – 1973
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Arthur Nielsen (1978), Chris Spivey (1978), Arthur Stiles (1985)

Photos: 1 interior (Queens Hall), b&w, c.1900, Battye 2588B/P17?
1 interior (Queens Hall), b&w, 1911, West Australian no.5932
1 exterior (Queens Hall/ Vic’s Pictures), b&w, 1917, West Australian no.1012
1 exterior (Queen’s Hall), b&w, 1899, Alexandra Hasluck & Mollie Lukis, Victorian and Edwardian Perth from Old Photographs John Ferguson Pty Ltd, St Ives, 1977, plate 62
1 interior (Queen’s Hall), b&w, 1903, ibid, plate 63
1 ´Melody Lane Girls’, b&w, n.d., Sunday Times, 8 October 1973
1 Regent orchestra, b&w, 1927
1 exterior (Regent), b&w, 1928, Kino, no.9, p.14 (Ian Hanson)
1 interior (Regent), b&w, 1928, Kino, no.9, p.14 (Ian Hanson)
1 exterior (Regent), b&w, 1938, Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, p.306
1 exterior (Regent), b&w, 1928, Everyone’s, 8 August 1928, p.14; also see 5 September 1928, p.16
1 exterior (Regent), b&w, n.d., Battye, 8292B/ 8723 – 1
1 exterior (Regent), b&w, 1938, West Australian no.2093
1 exterior (Metro), b&w, n.d., Kino, no.9, p.15 (Ian Hanson)
1 interior (Metro), b&w, n.d., Kino, no.9, p.15 (Ian Hanson)
5 Metro Wurlitzer, b&w, 1973 (Roy Mudge)
2 exteriors (Metro), b&w, n.d., Kino, no.84, pp.6-7 (ACTS archive – Ian Hanson)
5 interiors (Metro), b&w, n.d., Kino, no.84, pp.6-8 (ACTS archive – Ian Hanson)

1 exterior , colour, 1965, Roy Mudge

1 exterior, date unknown from AMMPT archives

1 exterior and 3 interior, 1938, b&w, Roy Mudge

SALVATION ARMY FORTRESS, Pier St, Perth

Salvation Army circa 1920

Limelight lectures on religious themes were popular from late in the nineteenth century, and it was a natural development that moving pictures should be added to the armoury of the evangelists, of all denominations. So, Adjutant Perry brought the cinematograph to the Salvation Army in Perth, with a screening in the Fremantle Town Hall in April 1897. Commandant Booth toured through the suburbs in August 1899 after a season at the Queen’s Hall in the city, with ´…his Wonderful and Thrilling Lecture, assisted by Limelight, Kinematograph and Graphophone, Living Pictures of the Army and its Operations’ (West Australian, 16 August 1899).

The most famous of the Army’s programmes was Soldiers of the Cross, a multimedia presentation including limelight views and moving pictures produced by their own Limelight Department in Melbourne and presented in Fremantle Town Hall on 15 October 1901, and in the Queen’s Hall the next night. The Salvation Army in Perth did not have a production team, but from this time on films were an important part of their missionary work among the citizens of Perth. Their film programmes (as had the limelight lectures before them) presented aspects of the Army’s social work, religious subjects (particularly the life of Christ), and also general educational material such as travelogues from visiting missionaries. In support of these, and to leaven the mixture a little, were presented the more innocuous of the general programme fillers available at the time – humorous and ´pathetic’ items, and plenty of ´scenics’.

The first Fortress Hall, on the east side of Pier St, between Hay and Murray Streets, was opened officially in August 1899 during Booth’s Westralian tour.

The building is of brick with white stone facings. To the left a square tower rises above the main entrance, bay windows intervening in the second and third storey. The entrance is excellent, the large iron gates taking the place of the outer door, being decorated with pretty Army crests. The stairway and corridor leading to the main hall are spacious, light and inviting, the auditorium itself being a model hall for comfort, convenience and good taste. The ceiling is unique and very pretty. The windows are unusually striking, being glazed with a special glass. The platform and seating arrangements cannot be excelled. (War Cry, 16 August 1899)

It was not large enough to accommodate the audience for Soldiers of the Cross, so it was some time before it was used for public film exhibitions. On 20 August 1902, a programme was offered consisting of music and films, including scenes from the Boxer Rebellion, the turnout of the Chicago Fire Brigade, the Duke of York’s visit to Hot Springs in New Zealand, High Diving in Paris, Kicking Cow, Pillow Fight, Fishing Fleet in full Sail, etc. It is hard to imagine how such titles could contribute to the evangelical effort, but they certainly helped to promote the image of the Army as part of the ordinary community, and brought to its premises people who might otherwise not have come, people who were than available to be helped or converted.

Till 1908 the Army had several Biorama Companies touring extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand. Western Australian tours took place in September to November 1900, and again in September 1902. In 1904 the company was described as consisting of ‘SIX SKILLED OPERATORS, MUSICIANS and VOCALISTS, with the latest ENGLISH and AMERICAN BIOSCOPE PROJECTOR’ (West Australian, 10 February 1904), originating from the production unit in Melbourne. Their first West Australian performances were in Fremantle and at the Perth Fortress in January 1904, then for the next two months they toured the country districts. After visiting New Zealand they returned in September 1904 to Fremantle and later the Perth Fortress, and this time presented their own production of The Early Roman and Scottish Martyrs (West Australian, 1 October 1904), which probably meant a programme combining productions such as Soldiers of the Cross with short films of the Scottish martyrs. It was a programme of films and music advertised as taking two hours for ‘the most up-to-date entertainment’ (West Australian, 3 October 1904). The final visit of a Biorama Company to the West was in July-August 1906, when they again performed in Fremantle and Perth and toured the country areas.

Between visits of the Army’s own Biorama Company, short seasons of other cinematograph programmes were presented at the Perth Fortress, for instance in September 1905, January 1907 and August 1909. But after this the Army in Perth reverted to the use of limelight views for illustration, perhaps discouraged, as they had been in the eastern states where the Biorama Company was officially disbanded in 1910, by the increasing commercialism of the medium, and the presumed ill effects on viewers of the poorer class of moving pictures so frequently presented.

The Army’s premises expanded over the years, and a new Fortress Hall opened in 1930, but public film screenings were never presented there. The original Fortress Hall building is still there, now converted for use as offices for legal firms.

Sources: War Cry, 26 August 1899, p.9, 14 October 1899, p.3
West Australian, 1899 – 1909
http://www.abc.net.au/limelight/docs/tours
Informants: Bill Booth (2001), Lindsay Cox (2001)

Photos: 1 interior, b&w, 1899, War Cry, 14 October 1899, p.3
1 exterior, b&w, 1899, War Cry, 14 October 1899, p.3
1 exterior, b&w, 1920s?, Salvation Army archives, Melbourne

SAVOY, 636 Hay St, Perth

Savoy 1981

On 23 December 1955, Lionel Hart opened the second of his Perth venues, after the Liberty in 1954. This was a newsreel theatrette, in the basement of Betts and Betts in Hay St, where there had formerly been a billiard saloon. The 300 seat Savoy ran continuous ´hour shows’, that is programmes of not less than an hour (though frequently slightly more), starting at 10 a.m. and continuing without a break till approx. 11 p.m., allowing patrons to enter and leave as they pleased, and to stay as long as they wished. Its appeal was particularly to shoppers and others with a short time to kill in the city, so it advertised ´nursery, powder rooms, free cloak and parcel depository’ (West Australian, 23 December 1955).

For a while, Perth sustained two such shows – the Mayfair as well as the Savoy, but television brought this to an end, by providing similar programmes free in your own lounge room. So, at the Savoy, continuous programming of re-runs of successful feature films replaced the newsreel format: for instance, in January 1964 seven sessions per day of a ´3 Stooges’ film, in January 1965 eight sessions per day of East of Eden. But even this was difficult to sustain, and the cinema drifted more and more into sensational programming, after the success of films such as London in the Raw, presented in June 1965, to which children under 16 were not admitted. By the time of the ´R’ certificate legislation in 1972, the Savoy had a reputation for rather risque programmes, and was one of the first to convert to a policy of screening only R-rated movies, a policy with which it was very successful until the early eighties.

It closed briefly in 1983, then reverted to more conventional programming when taken over by John Marsden later that year, re-opening on 17 November 1983. When Marsden had difficulties with film supply, he sold it to Ken Hill who installed video projection and in February 1987 began to run it as a sex cinema, with topless usherettes. In 1991 it was closed temporarily and its equipment moved to Club X Cinema in the basement of the Club Emporium in Barrack St.

In 1997, the building that housed the old Savoy was still there, but the cinema staircase and entrance had been demolished, and shops extended across these gaps: access was still possible from the laneway behind to the derelict interior, as it was with the rest of the Savoy Hotel.

Sources: The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, pp.42-3
Building permit, Battye 1459 (Folio 2)
Max D. Bell, ´Perth Savoy’, Kino, no.23, March 1988, pp.14-15
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, p.92
Film Weekly, 6 July 1961, p.6, 2 December 1965, p.6
Film Weekly Directory, 1958/9 – 1971
Kino, no.20, June 1987, p.23; no.37, September 1991, p.27; no.38, December 1991, p.26
Sunday Times, 26 February 1978
West Australian, 1955 – 1997

Photos: 1 exterior (Savoy & Paris), colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
2 interiors, b&w, 1986 (Kino no.23, p.25)
1 exterior (Savoy Hotel), b&w, n.d., The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.42

SHAFTESBURY PICTURE GARDENS/SHAFTESBURY THEATRE/LUXOR THEATRE/ LUXOR PICTURE THEATRE/TIVOLI, 49 Stirling St, Perth

On the fringes of the city proper, in Stirling St near the corner of James Street, the Shaftesbury Gardens was built on the site of a woodyard and officially opened on Saturday 11 March 1911, exactly one month after the more central Melrose Gardens. The new gardens was even larger than its competitor – three thousand seats to the Melrose’s two thousand – and began with particularly low prices, 1s for front stalls, 6d for back stalls and 3d for the gallery.

These prices were greatly increased for a special season, commencing on 18 February 1911, of the 6,000 ft complete film of the Johnson-Jeffries prize fight. For this short season, prices rose to 3s, 2s and 1s, and the West Australian reported that:

Prior to the commencement of the entertainment several scores of persons who had only paid for admission to the cheaper parts of the house found themselves without seating accommodation, and as one man these suddenly scaled the barricades and occupied the 3s seats to the evident delight of the galleryites and some concern on the part of the management. (West Australian, 21 March 1911)

Twice weekly changes of programme also helped to keep the enterprise afloat, but it was not long before the regular prices had to be revised – to centre stalls 1s, front stalls and gallery 6d, with children half price.

Unlike West’s at the Melrose, the management had no hardtop to retreat to in case of unsuitable weather, so 29 April was the last screening in the open gardens, and the premises were re- opened on 10 June after construction of a roof. The venue was now variously known as the Shaftesbury Gardens, Shaftesbury Theatre and Shaftesbury Picture Palace, and in the absence of a detailed description it can only be assumed that it was another of the ´semi-open-air’ constructions, like the Star Skating Rink and the Pierrot Pavilion.

Though from the first the main feature was film screenings, these were regularly supported by vaudeville acts, or by musical items, sometimes in conjunction with a film. Around 1913, this balance was reversed and the theatre became primarily a vaudeville house, with films sometimes in support, except for the regular Sunday film programmes. From May 1918, film screenings ceased altogether, and the theatre became exclusively a vaudeville venue till it closed in 1924 and re-opened as the Luxor in 1925.

For about ten years from 1936, it was known as the Luxor Picture Theatre, and screened regularly, taking advantage of the wartime boom in film exhibition.

In the forties it was known as the Tivoli, then it was converted for dancing and became Canterbury Court. It was purchased in 1953 by a consortium, headed by L.A.Brewer who at the time owned the Windsor, Claremont, Swanbourne, Broadway and Graylands cinemas, and had been managing the Luxor for many years. They planned to erect a modern shopping mart (still containing a theatre) on the site, but with the advent of television these plans fell through and the building was demolished.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.92-93
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.32
Everyone’s, 31 July 1929, p.20
Film Weekly, 22 October 1953, p.9
Post Office Directory, 1913 – 1949
West Australian, 1911 – 1938

ST GEORGE´S HALL, 569-571 Hay St, Perth

In the central shopping district of Hay St, opposite the Criterion Hotel, was St George’s Hall, or rather ´halls’ as the building contained two – the main one seating 500 and the lesser seating 200. They were opened on 4 December 1879, and were still in regular use when the new century began. In comparison with the later larger theatres, these were modest enough premises, but they were advertised as suitable for ´biograph, cinematograph and other shows’ (West Australian, 8 Nov.1907), as they were provided with the necessary electric wiring.

The halls were available on short or long-term lease, though usually used for short seasons or single performances of concerts, limelight shows or lectures, such as the regular University Extension lectures during 1904.

In December 1907, J.C.Blanchard advertised the start of a new venture – ´Sixpenny Picture Pops’ – to take place in the hall, which became known for the duration as the ´Sixpenny Picture Palace’. For Perth, this was an experiment:

SIXPENNY PICTURE PALACE

Beginning tomorrow evening and continuing for three nights this week will be inaugurated what has become so popular in the large cities of the world – a sixpenny picture entertainment…

Every effort will be made to make this such a success that it will continue through the season…If successful, the institution is likely to be permanent. (West Australian, 9 Dec. 1907)

The hall was re-decorated, including the hanging of Japanese lanterns from the balcony, and the enthusiastic reviews suggest that the success of the venture was all that its promoters could have hoped:

A really good attendance marked the opening of the ´Picture Pops’ last night. (West Australian, 11 December 1907)

It would be hard to find a more delightful evening than that afforded at St George’s Hall. Within the reach of all… (West Australian, 17 December 1907)

The sixpenny ‘pops’ drew the largest audience of the season last night, which may be regarded as proof positive of merit. Beautifully decorated…the hall is now established as a home of moving pictures. (West Australian, 2 January 1908).

Picture Pops still drawing very satisfactory audiences. (West Australian, 19 February 1908).

Two things were new about this venture – its intention to provide a permanent venue for a programme entirely of films, and the low prices in comparison with live theatres, including the vaudeville programmes in which films were usually shown at this time. It was advertised as ´Pictures for the masses’ (West Australian, 9 December 1907), and the masses seem to have appreciated the opportunity, much as they did with the nickelodeons in American cities around the same time. The programme was changed weekly throughout the season, and the management boasted that as it entered its 9th week over 18,000 people had purchased tickets (West Australian, 3 February 1908).

However, despite this success, the ´Picture Pops’ lasted only one season: towards the end of April the hall reverted to its previous occasional usage, and by August 1909 was being advertised as ´Best floor and dance music in W.A.’ (West Australian, 21 August 1909). By then, other theatres had begun screening entire programmes of films, and the first of the purpose-built premises had appeared: St George’s Hall simply could not compete.

In 1997, only the facade still stands, the rest demolished a couple of years before.

Sources: Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.33
West Australian, 1907 – 1917, 14 January 1956

Photos: 1 interior, b&w, n.d. Battye 481B

STAR SKATING RINK/TIVOLI, 875 Hay St West, Perth

Charles Sudholz was one of the earliest Perth exhibitors, but he must have been a rather difficult person to deal with, as indicated by his frequent changes of employment, sometimes after very public disagreements. He was connected with J.C.Williamson’s Bio-Tableau in 1905-7 and set up with a partner in April 1907 at the Queen’s Hall and the Midland Town Hall. In 1908 he became manager of King’s Pictures, which opened King’s Picture Gardens in December 1908 and screened at the Town Hall in the winter, but he parted company with them in 1909.

His next venture was management of the Star Amusement Co, which converted the Star Skating Rink in Hay St, at a cost of £2,000, ´transforming this Palatial Pleasure Resort into the best Open-Air Picture Palace in the Southern Hemisphere’ (West Australian, 27 Nov.1909), and providing seating accommodation for four thousand patrons. Musical accompaniment for the silent films was provided by the Orpheus Orchestra of twenty professional performers, and the promise was made that ´All patrons, no matter what part, will be accommodated with a backed seat giving a clear view of the aluminium screen’ (West Australian, 29 Nov.1909).

A feature of the first season, which opened on 4 December 1909, was the AUXETOPHONOSCOPE, an early attempt at synchronising sound and image. This was not altogether successful:

The new machine did not create a very favourable impression for it was difficult to associate the singing with the pictures. After the interval, however, an impediment was removed and indeed there was a perceptible improvement. A chorus from the second act of ´Boccaccio’ went exceedingly well. (West Australian, 4 Dec.1909)

No attempt was made to make this a permanent feature of the programme, however, probably because of the limited number of films available with appropriate recorded sound, and the machine finished its part of the season three weeks later, on 22 December 1909.

Soon after, Sudholz opened the Olympia, Fremantle, which was also a converted skating rink: his management of the Star Pavilion, however, did not survive the first season. From 7 January 1910 the owners of the Perth rink resumed management of the picture show, and kept it going till 21 February, when the building reverted to skating once more.

In October 1910, Vic’s Pictures began their rise to prominence in the West Australian film scene, opening at Fremantle Town Hall. When the Star Skating Rink re-opened with films on 3 December 1910, it was under their management, through Victor Newton. Cozens Spencer provided the films for the enterprise, so, typically, the opening programme included the Australian production The Life and Adventures of John Vane the Notorious Bushranger. Vic’s continued to feature the orchestra, and were able to claim during the controversy with theatre musicians which erupted during that season, that theirs was ´the only UNION orchestra in Perth’ (West Australian, 11 Jan.1911). They also introduced structural improvements, including a ´Summer Parallel Sliding Roof’ (West Australian, 3 Dec.1910). I have been unable to find a description of the premises, but as it was advertised as ´open air’ long before the innovation of the sliding roof, it appears that it may have been one of those structures which became popular in the eastern states also, with a permanent roof, but removable panels on the walls, providing adjustable access to the fresh air.

In any case, when the second season ended on 31 March 1911, the traditional end to the summer entertainments season, the site reverted once again to a skating rink. It was apparently not used for films over the next summer, but opened briefly in December 1912 as Salter’s Photoplays, which were also operating at the Olympia Rink in Fremantle.

In Melbourne and Sydney, the Tivoli Theatres held a pivotal place in the entertainment scene: not so in Perth, where the Tivoli was the Tivoli Skating Rink, the old Star Rink renamed. Veteran film publicist, Norman Cunningham, remembers it thus:

Further along Hay St was the Tivoli skating rink. Newman House now stands there. The rink went right through to St George’s Terrace and I remember watching a lumper’s rally there during a strike and hearing the strains of Glory Hallelujah to the words ´We’ll hang old Colebatch to a sour apple tree’ – times haven’t changed much. (West Australian, 4 Sept.1980)

On Saturday, 15 March 1913, the Tivoli once again began functioning as a theatre, with a season of Rickards’ Vaudeville and West’s Pictures – a combination already presented at the Palace Gardens and the Melrose Theatre.

For some time past a small army of workmen has been engaged in converting the Star Rink into a theatre, and to the large audience which attended the new place of amusement on Saturday night to witness the formal opening, it was plainly seen that success had attended the effort. A handy-sized stage, with all the customary appurtenances necessary for a theatrical production, has been erected opposite the entrance from Hay St, while the walls of the old rink have been covered with brightly-painted scenes or toned down with the aid of lattice. A plentiful supply of greenery leant a pleasing touch. Shortly after 8 o’clock, long before which scores of people had to be turned away from the building, which will accommodate a very large audience, Mr W. Kingsmill, M.L.C., appeared on the stage, and, in a brief speech, formally declared the Tivoli Theatre open for the gratification and pleasure of the citizens. (West Australian, 17 March 1913)

But the Tivoli was not as firmly connected with films as its predecessor had been. In August 1913 it re-opened under new management, and in October faded out again. In December, Rickards’ vaudeville re-appeared, but without films, and from then on, till its closure in 1915, few films were screened there. It became first a dance hall, then a motor garage.

(This venue is not to be confused with the Shaftesbury/Luxor, which was called the Tivoli in the forties)

Sources: Perth City Council Building Records
Post Office Directory, 1910 – 1940/41
West Australian, 1909 – 1949 (17 March 1913)

SUNSET CINEMA, Kings Park, Perth

Opened 4 February 1999, by ‘an independent operator who also screens at Yallingup. Screening Classic, Cult and Art House films, the cinema is set up alongside a picturesque lake. The mosquitoes have been a problem, causing much hand waving and swatting during the screenings.’(Max Bell)

The 1999/2000 season opened on 2 December 1999, and the proprietors applied for a liquor licence.

Sources: Max Bell, Kino, no.67, Autumn 1999, p.31
Kino 70, Summer 1999, p.35

THEATRE ROYAL, 639 Hay St, Perth

Perth Theatre Royal 1981

Perth Theatre Royal 1930

Perth Theatre Royal 1955

Perth Theatre Royal 1965

Perth Theatre Royal 1978

Royal interior sliding roof

Royal interior 1930

Royal interior 1940

Royal interior 1965

Royal interior 1978

Royal interior 1978

Royal interior Bio Box 1978

Exploitation Campaigns, Mala The Magnificent

Exploitation campaign

Former Mayor of Perth, T. G. A. Molloy, built the Theatre Royal in 1896-7, with financial support from Alexander Forrest. Although films had appeared on the entertainment scene by late in 1896, and well before the theatre was completed, their importance was certainly not recognised, and Molloy felt no need to make concessions to the new medium in his plans for the theatre. It was to be Perth’s grandest and most comfortable place of entertainment, with seating for two thousand patrons. The imposing facade, shared with the Metropole Hotel in a fashion common at the turn of the century (cf. for instance the Cremorne Hotel and Theatre, and His Majesty’s Hotel and Theatre), was of massive columns and arches in three stories fronting onto Hay St. It opened on 18 April 1897 with the staging of Robbery under Arms, by Alfred Dampier’s company.

However, a long association with film commenced before the year was out, as the theatre became the fourth venue used for moving pictures in the state, and the first to devote a whole programme to film: from 26 December 1897 to 2 January 1898, Jones and Lawrence presented a season of the film of the Corbett- Fitzsimmons prize fight. Soon after, Harry Rickards secured the lease, which he maintained for the next ten years. His vaudeville company presented the first of many seasons in the theatre from 23 January to 12 February 1898, and from 1900 to 1909 other Rickards companies arrived in Perth late each year to take advantage of the popularity of theatrical entertainment during the summer season, then returned to the east by late March or early April. All included moving pictures at some stage, and some were built around a particular cinematograph programme. The rest of the time the theatre was sub-let, so there was room for others also to present films, among them the Taits and Charles Anderson.

In September 1906, the theatre became the first to present a continuing season of Sunday ´concerts’ containing, and later devoted entirely to, films. This was the first of the permanent film seasons, leading on to the screening of entire programmes of films for seasons throughout the week. The latter was tried at the Theatre Royal by a company calling itself ´Royal Pictures’ in May 1910, but their attempt fizzled out, and in September they dropped back to two nights per week, and soon after that the theatre closed for its first major renovations.

Also in September 1906 the whole Perth community had been distressed to learn of a fire at the theatre during a cinematograph performance, extinguished fortunately without loss of life and with minimal damage to property. In the 1910 renovations, a ´fireproof operating chamber’, that is – a bio-box, was built completely outside the auditorium, thus separating the audience from the projection apparatus, and eliminating the risk of further fires. Like other Perth theatres, the Royal had a windlass-operated roof opening, to provide ventilation on hot nights. This feature was retained, but the ventilation system was claimed to have been improved by the renovations, in which the theatre had been ‘practically rebuilt’ (West Australian, 8 July 1911). It re-opened on 12 July 1911:

…tastefully decorated, sumptuously furnished, and completely equipped with the latest appliances for the perfect reproduction of SPENCER´S PICTURES, Already Supreme in Sydney, Matchless in Melbourne And predestined to be the quintessence of Perfection in Perth. (West Australian, 1 July 1911)

This advertisement is an example of the showmanship of Cozens Spencer, who had already visited the state several times with touring companies, but who now established his company with a continuing lease of the Theatre Royal that lasted till 1916, that is, after he had personally left the business, and gone to live in Canada.

Here were screened the films produced in Spencer’s Rushcutter’s Bay studios, to which were added some made in Western Australia as part of a programme of filming on behalf of the Government of Western Australia to promote the state overseas. As in the eastern states, Senora Spencer’s talents as a projectionist were used as part of the company’s promotion. The result of all this was the continued success of Spencer’s Pictures, not only in the Theatre Royal, but in other venues (see, for instance, Spencer’s Esplanade Picture Gardens).

In February 1918 Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Coombe took over the lease, so it became one of those theatres brought by him into Union Theatres. It had, however, not been designed for films, and by 1926 it was not possible for the Royal to compete with the new picture palaces, particularly the Prince of Wales, built in 1923, and so it closed for a short while. It re-opened as a Fuller’s house, presenting live shows and vaudeville, as well as some film seasons, from 1927 to approximately 1931, then the lease was taken over by Hamilton Brown. During this time the theatre was wired for sound.

In July 1934, James Stiles negotiated a lease of the Theatre Royal on behalf of the Grand Theatre Company, and a contract for first release in Perth of all MGM product. The theatre became virtually a showcase for MGM till the latter company secured the Regent in 1938 and renamed it the Metro. Even after this, the Royal continued to screen MGM films for some time, though no longer exclusively.

Under the Grand Theatre Company, the Royal underwent several renovations. The first was completed before the theatre re-opened in August 1934. At this time the central pillar in front of the theatre was removed to enlarge the lobby, and extensive redecoration and refurnishing took place. In 1937 the stage was taken out and the screen set further back, and in 1939 a major reconstruction was undertaken:

The front and lounge foyers, which have been enlarged by the elimination of the old staircase, have been given the appearance of being considerably more spacious by the careful use of mirrors. The tesselated marble flooring has been retained in the foyer, but the decorative treatment has been improved by the use of plain and fluted vitrolite, the glossy blackness of this material contrasting with chromium bands, which are liberally used. The staircase, which is set at the side and not the centre of the foyer, to give added space, is carried out in flush panelling of light, figured maple. The walls are finished in a restful, grey texture.

The lounge foyer, with carpeting and upholstered furniture in warm colours, gains considerable space from the elimination of one of the side staircases and extension in the direction of the balcony, and is set off by stainless steel pillars. The cosmetic room has been soundproofed and finished in a tasteful silver-grey.

The auditorium and proscenium have been completely changed in appearance, although the structural plan has been unaltered. The sliding roof, which was a popular feature of the old theatre in summer, has been retained, and in addition air conditioning has been installed. A porous, fibrous material, coloured to harmonise with the general treatment, is used on all walls opposite the screen to prevent echoing.

The sides and roof have been carried out in a restrained ´modernist’ style, with tonings of grey-blue, cream and salmon. Indirect neon lighting is used throughout.

The seating in the lounge and dress circle has been completely changed. The stage has been enlarged, and the main curtain is treated in alternate shades of wine. The alterations are reported to have cost £11,000. (West Australian, 22 Sept.1939)

The theatre was closed for ten weeks while this renovation took place, but the bio-box remained one of the worst in Perth. It had originally been a ´spotting box’ for live shows, so it was very small: once two projectors and ancillary equipment were installed there was very little working space for the operator. But after the 1939 renovations there was a new problem. The steel girder that now supported the lounge was positioned so that the light beam from the projectors ran just underneath it. But the architects had forgotten that the projectionist’s port was best placed just above the light beam, and when the mistake was discovered it was too late to change the construction. A periscope to see above the girder would have been unreliable (how was the projectionist to know if the problem was in the periscope or on the screen?), so the projectionists chose to sit on a stool, which brought one side of their face always next to the carbon arc. Ray Cooper developed serious skin cancer from this, an industrial health hazard that would not have been tolerated in later years.

But at the time it was considered no more than an irritation, and the theatre re-opened with great publicity on 22 September 1939 with continuous screenings during the day and a separate programme at night.

On 15 July 1954 the theatre (but not the adjoining Metropole Hotel) was purchased from the estate of the late T. G. A. Molloy by Town and Suburban Properties Ltd on behalf of the Grand Theatre Company, which the following year was renamed City Theatres, in recognition of its growth from holding a single city cinema (the Grand) to being Perth’s largest independent chain.

Another major reconstruction of the Theatre Royal took place early in 1965, prior to the opening of the Western Australian season of the blockbuster My Fair Lady. By this time the seating capacity had dropped from the original two thousand to 1,102, and in the reconstruction this was further reduced to 970, making it a ´modern, more intimate showcase’ (Film Weekly, 11 Feb.1965). The 25 ft wide stage in front of the screen was removed, signalling the building’s final conversion from a theatre, capable of presenting live performances, to a cinema. A floating ceiling reduced the dimensions of the old auditorium, and eliminated the roof opening. A new bio-box and screen were installed, capable of presenting 70mm. In addition to the five banks of speakers located behind the screen, sixteen speakers were placed around the walls of the house, and a new foyer contained toilet blocks which had previously been located on either side of the screen.

My Fair Lady opened in April 1965 and ran for a record sixty weeks. The Royal was among those theatres purchased by the consortium which bought out City Theatres in February 1973, and by TVW 7 when they bought out the other partners in the consortium in 1978. By this time, the theatre had succumbed to the industry depression of the seventies. It was closed on 9 February, 1978, and sold to developers, who constructed shops inside the stalls of the old building. Then in 1984/5 a hole was punched in the wall adjoining the old Ambassadors theatre, where the Wanamba Arcade, with its two Hoyts theatres now stood (see 629 Hay St). Hoyts Cinema Four was then built inside the lounge of the Theatre Royal, with its entrance in Wanamba Arcade next door. The shops continued on the street level, underneath the new cinema, and later the whole complex became known as Hoyts Centre, with Wanamba Arcade renamed St Martins Arcade. By 1999, the former Hoyts Cinema Four was known as Hoyts 7, and was closed with the rest of Hoyts Centre in April that year.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.91-92
Jack Honnibal, ‘The MGM years at Perth’s Theatre Royal’, Kino, no.68, Winter 1999, pp 6-9
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), pp.36-37
Australasian Exhibitor, 15 July 1954
Film Weekly, 11 February 1965
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1971
Kino, no.60, June 1997, p.35
Mirror, 21 July 1934
Post Office Directory, 1898 – 1949
Sunday Times, 1897 – 1898
West Australian, 28 July 1939, 22 September 1939, 5 May 1953, 2 July 1954, 14 January 1956, 1900 – 1977
Interviews (Ina Bertrand): Doug Anderson (1985), Chris Spivey (1978), Arthur Stiles (1985)
Interview (Colleen Pead): Ken Alexander (1986)
Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Ray Cooper (1981)

Photos: 1 exterior, b&w, 1897, West Australian no.1297
1 exterior, b&w, 1920s, Battye 3190 11819P
1 exterior, b&w, 1950s (Arthur Stiles)
1 exterior, colour, 1978, Roy Mudge
1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
1 exterior, 3 interiors, Jack Honnibal, ‘The MGM years at Perth’s Theatre Royal’, Kino, no.68, Winter 1999, pp.6-9
1 interior (foyer, advertising Man-eater of Kumaon), b&w, 1948 (Arthur Stiles)
1 interior (foyer, advertising My Fair Lady), b&w, 1965, Arthur Stiles
1 interior (sliding roof), b&w, 1930s (Arthur Stiles)
1 interior (horseshoe lounge, before first renovations), b&w, 1930s, Arthur Stiles
1 interior (auditorium after 1940 renovations, pillars removed from stalls and lounge), b&w, approx. 1950 (Arthur Stiles)
1 interior (auditorium after My Fair Lady renovations – gallery removed, false ceiling added), 1964?, Arthur Stiles
2 interiors (bio-box), colour, 1978, Roy Mudge
3 interiors (auditorium), colour, 1978, Roy Mudge
exploitation campaigns, b&w, various dates, Arthur Stiles (example here is for Mala the Magnificent)

TIMES THEATRETTE, 645 Hay St, Perth

The Times was built in a basement under the Hay St end of London Court, for Hamilton Brown, who was then managing the Theatre Royal next door for Union Theatres. Brown also managed the Times, but employed a projectionist and sometimes an assistant projectionist to run it for him. Powers projectors were installed, with local sound heads – first X-L Tone, then Toughtone – because the theatre was so small that a lease and maintenance contract with the big firms like Western Electric would have been uneconomic. It held only 150, and opened in 1934 as a newsreel theatrette, screening continuously from 10 a.m. till late at night, on the ´hour show’ principle: patrons could enter and leave at any time and stay as long as they wished for the price of one admission.

It survived only eighteen months, partly as a result of poor presentation and partly because of the general economic problems of the time. The next attempt to establish such a theatrette in Perth was the Mayfair in 1948.

Sources: Post Office Directory, 1934 – 1935
Interview (Ina Bertrand): Doug Anderson (1985)

TOWN, 776 Hay St, Perth

Perth Town 1981

By the sixties, Australian Cinema Enterprises, renamed more simply ACE, had been involved for some time in the development of a circuit of drive-in theatres in the metropolitan and country areas. They had taken over the lease of the ailing Mayfair theatrette after the introduction of television and had converted it into the Cinema Capri. In 1969, in conjunction with Greater Union Theatres, they built the multi-storey Town Centre, which housed the huge Town House Hotel, with its 81 units, convention rooms and a garden and swimming pool on the roof, overlooking the river. It also contained the Town cinema, the first cinema built by Ace in the city area.

In keeping with the trend towards smaller, more intimate cinemas in the seventies, the Town held only 636 patrons. This was, however, still the biggest cinema to open in Perth since 1939, as in the interim only the very small newsreel theatrettes and specialist cinemas had been opened. This was neither of these, but a regular, first-release city cinema:

The Town Cinema will be a single floor theatre – new overseas trends have swung away from those with balconies.

Heated and cooled for climatic comfort, projection equipment will permit the screening of 16, 35 and now popular 70mm films on a screen 40ft wide by 17ft high.

The cinema itself is 47ft wide and 90ft long.

A dished floor will give each person in the audience a full and unrestricted view of the screen.

Comfortable seats with padded armrests will permit complete relaxation.

The cinema will be fully carpeted and draped. In fact the carpets will extend up the walls to dado height.

Six-track stereophonic sound will flow from 20 speakers around the walls and behind the screen.

The sound design will also permit the constant flow of soothing mood music or the film sound track into the foyer of the hotel. (Sunday Times, 2 November 1969)

And so the era of ´Muzak’ had arrived in Perth cinemas. The complex opened in November 1969, the official opening of the cinema being on 12 December, with the screening of For love of Ivy, starring Sidney Poitier. Thus, the wheel had returned full circle to the beginning of the century, when the common practice was to build a theatre in conjunction with a hotel for their mutual benefit (for instance, the Cremorne, the Melrose, or the Theatre Royal).

But the Town Cinema closed in 1992, and its equipment was moved to the second screen in the Piccadilly when that cinema was twinned. The venue was gutted in preparation for extending the hotel into the former cinema space.

Sources: Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lews, Sussex, 1986, pp.92-93
Film Weekly Directory, 1969/70 – 1971
Kino, no.40, June 1992, p.26
Sunday Times, 2 November 1969
West Australian 1969 – 1992

Photos: 1 exterior, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)

UNITY THEATRE, 70 Beaufort St, Perth

Films were regularly screened in the Trades Hall from 1940 to 1949, under the name of the Unity Theatre. There is also a tradition that films were screened here back in the silent days, but I have been unable to find out any details of this.

Sources: Interview (Ina Bertrand & Bill Turner): Norman Cunningham (1981)

WORLD´S TOURING CAR, 681 Hay St, Perth

Despite the growing public appetite for stories on film, the ´scenics’ – the animated equivalent of picture postcards of places of historic interest or intrinsic beauty – remained popular throughout the first decade of the century. One reviewer, for instance, regretted their absence from a programme at the Theatre Royal in 1910:

Industrial studies and travel scenes always command a lot of attention and a picture programme can scarcely be regarded as being complete unless there is a fair proportion of such views interspersed with the comic and dramatic subjects. (West Australian, 16 May 1910)

They were even occasionally presented as a full programme in their own right, for instance in the ´Round Trip through Australia’ presented at His Majesty’s in 1906.

Taking advantage of this popularity, the WORLD´S TOURING CAR was Perth’s contribution to an exhibition genre which enjoyed a world-wide vogue around this time, appearing in different forms in most of the major population centres with considerable success: it was known in later discussion as Hale’s Tours, after one of the best-known American examples of the genre. A typical advertisement can give some flavour of the show:

Central Station – Hay St

The World Tours

A new trip starts today from the Central Station to the Austrian Alps.

Scenes of Grandeur, Mountain Monarchs, Deadly Glaciers.

6d. children 3d.

AUSTRALIAN TOURING COMPANY (West Australian, 11 February 1908)

An earlier review of the show explains further:

The ‘World’s Touring Car’ entertainment, which is located at 681 Hay St, was liberally patronised on Saturday. In connection with the show a large car is worked so as to create the illusion that it is attached to a train that is journeying up the Colorado Mountains, the scenery of which is very fine, being furnished by means of a bioscope. The trip lasts about 20 minutes and is repeated from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (West Australian, 10 February 1908)

The premises appear to have been open from early February (at least from 7 February) to the middle of April 1908, when they reverted to their former use as shops. During this time, ‘tours’ were offered to the Austrian Alps, the Colorado Mountains, the Cinnamon Gardens of Ceylon, and the Ardennes in France, all with considerable success:

Today the last trip will be made through the beautiful Cinnamon Gardens of Ceylon, during which a wealth of magnificent tropical scenery is reproduced in natural tints before the speeding passengers, whose interest is held throughout by various novel and humorous travel incidents, that quickly follow one another. Besides the great novelty of this ingenious amusement there is sustained excellence of entertainment, which is the reason of its big success and undiminishing popularity in Perth. (West Australian, 24 March 1908)

Despite the short season (only seven weeks), this presentation was important for breaking new ground in two ways: it was the first time that premises were converted for the exclusive use of a film presentation, and it was the first use in Perth of what became known later as ´continuous’ performances. This description was given to a show which repeated its programme throughout a given period, starting again as soon as the last screening was completed, without advertised starting times for each new session. Though such shows became the trademark of entrepreneur J.D.Williams, who popularised them first in the eastern states in 1909, it was several years before he arrived in Perth and before the idea took off as a standard form of presentation, and so the ´Touring Car’ must be given the credit for pioneering the form in Perth.

Sources: West Australian, 1908

YE OLDE ENGLISHE FAYRE/HIS MAJESTY’S, 825 Hay St, Perth

YE OLDE ENGLISHE FAYRE

This was a pleasure gardens of stalls and stages providing entertainments and refreshments of many kinds, and allowing patrons to wander or to settle to the activity of their choice. In the 1890s, it was one of several such establishments in Perth, where the climate provided an ideal environment for open-air entertainment for several months each year. It was the custom of the Fayre to open on 1 November, and to close at the end of April. Though the season was comparatively short, the premises were popular, and the costs of overheads, even in the centre of the state capital, were low enough to sustain the venture.

Films were screened here for only one season, the summer of 1896-1897. This was a most significant season, however, for it was here, on Saturday 21 November 1896, that the first moving pictures were presented in the state, only three months behind the Australian premiere of films in Melbourne in August.

Jones and Lawrence were the lessees of the Fayre at the time, and they presented their first season from 21 November to 15 December, using an Edison cinematograph ‘especially brought from Sydney …notwithstanding enormous expense’ (West Australian, 20 November 1896). Over the three and a half week season the cinematograph dropped from top billing in the mixed vaudeville programme to fourth, but advertisements claimed that the whole programme continued to produce ‘Encore after encore. Applause after applause.’ (West Australian, 14 December 1896).

In early January 1897, teaser advertisements began to appear in the West Australian warning patrons of the approach of the Melbourne Cup, which was shortly to be ‘run’ at the Fayre. The season began on 1 February, and for four weeks, till 27 February, West Australians flocked to watch a horse race that had been conducted more than three months previously. A peak patronage of 3682 on a Saturday during the first film season had been advertised proudly, but now even a Thursday crowd reached 5213 (West Australian, 5 February 1897), and this increased to over 6000 on the first Saturday of the season (West Australian, 8 February 1897).

The machine was now a Lumiere and the programme included, in addition to the Cup film, the usual Lumiere offerings, such as the arrival of a train at a station. A brief return season of this programme from 20 to 29 February 1897 was the last appearance of films at the Fayre. Though the grounds opened again for the summer of 1897-8, and briefly as the Continental Gardens in the summer of 1898-9, no further films appear to have been screened there.

HIS MAJESTY’S

His Majesty’s 1981

His Majesty’s 1981

After 1902 construction began on a new theatre on the site, for Councillor (and three times Mayor of Perth) T. G. A. Molloy, who already owned the Theatre Royal and had interests in many other real estate and entertainment ventures. The architect was William Wolf, who:

was born in New York City and trained as an architect in Germany. He migrated to Australia in 1877 and worked in Melbourne and Sydney before setting up a successful practice in Perth in the mid 1890s. (Perth Theatre Trust Command Performance Souvenir, 28 May 1980)

The size and splendour of the theatre impressed all who saw it. The four stories contained not only a magnificent theatre, but also a hotel providing:

65 bedrooms, six bars, half a score of parlours or lounges, a large billiard room in the basement, and a spacious dining-room on the first floor. (West Australian, 8 March 1904)

It was possible, therefore, for patrons to slip next door for a drink before or after the show and at interval, though stress was also placed on the fireproofing of the whole building, and particularly the capacity to lock off the theatre from the hotel – with fireproof doors.

The facade was described as follows:

The massive grey walls are relieved with long rows of balconies and deep-set windows, and are set off with ornamental cement modelling of great variety of design. The architecture is of the Italian school.

Two tiers of balconies, carried out in the Doric order, run around the whole front, while the windows on the top floor have annexed to them balconettes which form a happy blend with the rest of the facade.

Roman columns, piers and pilasters support the outside fabric. The main pedament bears the Royal crest, while the minor pedaments, which are set in a series of segment arches, are surmounted by the models of six lions. (West Australian, 8 March 1904)

Inside, the ‘renaissance style’ was employed throughout, and the result was as spectacular as the outside. The vestibule and the foyers were tiled, with ceilings of stamped ornamental steel, and the staircases were constructed of ‘marble treads and rises, and cement balustrades, and handrails of alabaster white’ (West Australian, 8 March 1904). 2,584 patrons could be seated on the three levels of the main auditorium, and the stage was claimed to be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, equipped to provide the kind of spectacle that was becoming standard practice in the more prestigious theatres of the world. For instance, during a performance of The Favourite, the stage collapsed under eight cantering horses: three were killed when they fell through the floor to the basement beneath, and their jockeys were badly injured (West Australian, 5 March 1960).

A feature of the auditorium was its four waterfalls, close to the proscenium, and designed to be revealed and to operate automatically whenever the asbestos curtain was dropped. These also contributed to the ventilation system of the building, which included a hundred different flues, a sliding roof over the auditorium, and a fume shaft over the stage’ (West Australian, 8 March 1904).

The public was invited to inspect the theatre, brilliantly lit-up for the occasion, on 15 November 1904, and it was officially opened on 24 December with a performance of Forty Thieves. Molloy was amply repaid for his 42,000 outlay on the building (excluding the land) as it became a landmark for the city and an important part of the continuing theatrical scene.

It had never been intended for use as a cinema, but the practice of theatrical presentation of the time made it inevitable that films would eventually appear there, if only as part of a vaudeville programme. And so, the first films were part of the Federal Vaudeville Company’s season which opened on 10 June 1905, and depicted incidents from the Russo-Japanese war. From then on there were frequent seasons containing films, usually lasting only a week or two, and often with gaps of several filmless months between. Under William Anderson as lessee, Sunday film shows were inaugurated in March 1907, sometimes presented by the same company as that offering the weeknight entertainment, but equally often by a quite different company brought in for one or a series of presentations. These became a standard feature of film presentation in the city, and an important step in consolidating the medium in the state.

A season of West’s films was presented by Edwin Geach at His Majesty’s in June 1906, then, starting on 21 September 1907, T. J. West’s films and the Brescians were presented to Perth audiences. Their season of 44 shows created a Perth record, and West went on to become one of the major entrepreneurs presenting films in the state, though this was after his company had moved to Queen’s Hall and had begun to screen also in Fremantle.

Despite the fire precautions built into the structure, the Superintendent of the Fire Brigades Board had expressed concern at the possibility of fire in the building if there was any interference with the water supply from Hay St, something which apparently could be expected to occasionally occur. His fears were allayed at the time of the opening of the building, but public concern was raised again when a fire actually broke out in the projection apparatus during a film screening in April 1908. The cause of the blaze was not reported in the press, but the actions of the fireman in smothering it with his jacket and a chair and other fittings brought praise from threatened patrons, and puzzled enquiries about the adequacy of fire precautions that could lead to such an incident and to such bizarre methods of extinguishing the blaze.

During the twenties the theatre was taken over by Fullers Theatres Ltd and was used mainly for concerts and live drama. Then for a short period in the forties it once again presented films, supplying the insatiable demand from troops on R & R as well as from war-weary locals. In 1951 it was bought by Westralian Wheat Buildings Pty Ltd, and leased to Edgley and Dawe Enterprises, who returned to a policy of live presentations, using the theatre for the more spectacular of their imported seasons.

But the size and splendour of the theatre had by now begun to operate against it. Its fittings and facilities, which had been of the very latest design at the time of its construction, were now outmoded and costly to maintain. After proposals for extensive renovations fell through, it appeared for a time in the early seventies that the building would be demolished. But the protests of the people of Perth convinced the State Government and the City Council to combine to sponsor a complete renovation of the building.

Peter Parkinson, the architect in charge, called this a ‘recycling’, i.e. a policy of retaining what was possible of the former building, but providing 1980s-style facilities. The Hotel was incorporated into the theatre, providing more spacious foyer accommodation, better backstage facilities and rehearsal rooms, new bars and a restaurant. Some of the fittings were repaired and re-used, others were created to the design of the old building, and still others were created new but in a compatible style. Repainting was in the type of colours used at the initial construction, but muted to suit 1980’s tastes. The pillars under the circle were re-sited further back to eliminate the earlier problems of back-stalls sight-lines. The Perth Theatre Trust was created to administer the building and other publicly-owned theatrical venues such as the Perth Concert Hall, and the refurbished His Majesty’s was officially opened with a ‘Command Performance’ of variety presented by West Australian artists on 28 May 1980.

Under the Trust, the theatre continued to provide a splendid service to the theatre patrons of West Australia, but it was not considered suitable as a major venue for films. Then on 11 December 1996 a small cinema was opened in the Green Room under His Majesty’s. Named the Bombora, it was a casual venue with seating in couches and beanbags, but seems to have been short-lived. In 2004, it was reported that the theatre was being cleaned up for its 100th anniversary (Kino, no.87, p.38)

Sources: The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.37
Max D. Bell, Perth: a cinema history, The Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 1986, pp.80-82
Jack Honniball, Kino, no.90, Summer 2004, pp.9-10; ‘His Majesty’s: Perth’s brilliant theatrical gem’, no.91, Autumn 2005, pp.10-13
David Hough, A dream of passion: the centennial history of His Majesty’s Theatre, His Majesty’s Theatre Foundation, Perth 2004
Perth Theatre Trust, Command Performance Souvenir Programme, 28 May 1980
Stage, Screen and Stars, West Australian, n.d. (1997?), p.1
Film Weekly Directory, 1943/4 – 1964/5
Kino, no.58, December 1996, p.31; no.59, March 1997, p.31; no.60, June 1997, p.35; no.83, Autumn 2003, p.4; no.87, Autumn 2004, p.38
Post Office Directory, 1904 – 1949
West Australian, 8 March 1904, 5 March 1960, 1896 – 1897, 1904 – 1997

Photos: 1 front elevation sketch, b&w, George Seddon & David Ravine, A city and its setting: images of Perth, Western Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1986, p.157
1 exterior, b&w, c.1922, Battye 3191 11820P
1 exterior, b&w, Arbor Day 1906, Alexandra Hasluck & Mollie Lukis, Victorian and Edwardian Perth from Old Photographs John Ferguson Pty Ltd, St Ives, 1977, plate 58
2 exteriors, colour, 1981 (Bill Turner)
exteriors & interiors, colour, n.d. (Perth Theatre Trust, His Majesty’s Theatre, souvenir booklet, n.d.)
1 interior, b&w, 1960?, West Australian, 5 March 1960
1 exterior, b&w, n.d.,The Heritage of Western Australia: the Illustrated Register of the National Estate, Macmillan 1989, p.37
1 exterior (1970), 1 interior (1958), 1 stage performance of ballet (1968), b&w, Kino, no.90, Summer 2004, pp.9-10
4 interiors 2004, 1 interior undated, 1 exterior 1904, Kino, no.91, Autumn 2005, pp.10-13

2 exterior , date unknown, b & w, Roy Mudge

2 interior, date unknown, b&w, colour, Roy Mudge