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Another centenary event in 1995 was the Performing Arts Museum's Jaffas Down The Aisle exhibition for which CATHS contributed a significant number of exhibits. This exhibition included an old Hoyts Staff Training film, a display about the travelling picture shows, drive-ins and lots of cinema memorabilia.

The Melbourne Opera House, Bourke Street, where Australia's first projected motion pictures were shown on 22nd August 1896. In 1901 the Opera House was replaced with a new theatre built for vaudeville king Harry Rickards. It was later called The Tivoli.

CATHS EVENTS FROM THE PAST

CENTENARY OF CINEMA EVENTS - 1996


To celebrate the Centenary of Cinema CATHS organised and/or participated in various events.


THERE WERE TWO CINEMA CENTENARY EVENTS IN AUSTRALIA IN 1998 …

•    The World Centenary. Celebrating one hundred years since the Lumiere Brothers of France filmed their first movies (1895 - 1995).

•    The Australian Centenary of projected motion pictures (1896 - 1996).













LUMIERE BROTHERS CENTENARY DINNER

CATHS celebrated the International Centenary of Cinema in 1995 with a special commemorative dinner and film show at the Dutch Club, Carnegie, that venue being a former silent film cinema.

That event commemorated the 100th anniversary of the filming and presentation, to a paying audience, of the first motion pictures by the Lumiere Brothers in March 1895.


AUSTRALIAN CINEMATOGRAPHE CENTENARY CELEBRATION

The first time that projected motion pictures were shown to a paying audience in Australia was on Saturday 22nd August 1896 at the Melbourne Opera House in Bourke Street. Here, touring American illusionist and conjuror, Carl Hertz, demonstrated his amazing 'Cinematographe' machine (R.W. Paul's Theatrograph). He enthralled the audience with numerous short films including street scenes of London, a dancer, and a seascape.

The Cinematographe was promoted as 'The Greatest Wonder of the NINETEENTH CENTURY', 'The Photo. Electric Sensation of the Day', 'Impossible to realise that the figures are not ACTUALLY LIVING', 'First Production in Australia.'

To mark this historic occasion and a hundred years of movies on Australian screens, on the evening of Thursday 22nd August 1996 CATHS presented the Australian Cinematographe Centenary Celebration at the Progress Theatre in West Coburg, Victoria.

Wide publicity was given by Gael Jennings on her ABC 774 radio program, The Age Entertainment Guide, and through our own networks of members and friends.

With a 'Full House', the evening was a huge success. Billed as 'A Night of Atmosphere and Fun' the audience was treated to a very entertaining evening of music, films and supper!

Superbly hosted by Denzil Howson, the program included a video presentation of the Cinematographe's Early History; early silent and sound films; cinema and the war years, God Save The King; the Saturday Matinees, cartoons and newsreels.

The main film presentation of the evening was Roger and Barbara Seccombe's dramatised historical documentary Two Seats In The Circle. From the Kinetoscope Parlours to the modern day multiplexes the film celebrates the character of everyday cinema audiences in Australia and the people who worked in the cinemas.

There was also a cinema Trivia Quiz with prizes and a wonderful supper and champagne afterwards. A special 20 page souvenir Program and Ticket were also produced.