Victoria Park is the eastern gateway to the City of Perth where three arterial roads: Albany Highway, Canning Highway, Great Eastern Highway, and the Causeway Bridge meet.
Settlement started in 1886, opposite the present location of the Broken Hill Hotel on Albany Highway, and a year later, subdivision commenced.
The Broken Hill Hotel was built in 1899, but it wasn’t until the 1920s that cinemas started to spring up in the district.
The Amusu Theatre opened in 1922 on the south side of Albany Road (now Albany Highway). The street number was 443 and it was opposite the old police station. The Amusu Gardens opened soon after behind the theatre, running across the block to Temple Street and with access along a laneway beside the theatre. It was larger than the hard-top and had a separate bio-box, and by the thirties was used much more than the Amusu theatre.
It was also used sometimes for roller-skating, boxing events and public meetings. Later, ´Cinema Cabaret’ was introduced, which enabled patrons of the theatre to dance, accompanied by relayed music after the show.
Both the theatre and gardens were purchased by Goldfields Pictures in 1946, but never operated as a cinema by them. The site was almost immediately sold to a developer, who demolished the building and built shops.
The Broadway Theatre at 330 Albany Highway, Victoria Park, WA, was opened in 1927, opposite the Broken Hill Hotel. The theatre was designed by architect Samuel Rosenthal. The Savoy Theatre also opened in 1927, located on the corner of Albany Highway and Mint Street, however The Broadway was the flag ship and certainly the most popular.
In 1929, the management of the Broadway and Savoy theatres held a plebiscite to ascertain public demand for talkie movies, then the following year, both theatres converted to sound movies.
The Broadway underwent alterations in 1938, where architect William G. Bennett gave the cinema an Art Deco style. It reopened as the New Broadway Theatre on 16th March 1938 with “Arizona Raiders” and “Green Light”.
The New Broadway Gardens opened in 1948, behind the theatre.
The Savoy Gardens opened in about 1951 on the same side of Albany Highway, but north of Mint Street. The Savoy Theatre and Gardens closed in 1960.
The New Broadway Theatre and Gardens closed in 1964.
