Issue 1 2008

QUEENSLAND
Victoria Point Cineplex
Exploring the colours, fabrics and decor of each of the nine-screen auditoria in this new complex at Redlands is said to be almost as much fun as seeing a movie. Among the differences, Cinema 3 has the State's biggest screen - 25.5m.wide.
Southern visitors are surprised by the maximum ticket price of $9.50. Company policy is to cater for the many retirees in the district. Seniors pay $5.70, even on Saturday night!

Seat Allocations
Birch Carroll and Coyle has imposed allocated seating at their cinemas including Garden City, the Myer Centre, Chermside and Indooroopilly. At these locations, picking a seat based on distance from the screen or how tall the people are in front of you is a choice denied.
The company calls it 'world's best practice' but newspaper and web-based comment sees it as un-Australian.

NEW SOUTH WALES
Bass Hill Closes
Greater Union's Bass Hill drive-in closed on Wednesday 31 October 2007. It is to be a residential development with 104 villa-style homes. Bass Hill was one of the first four drive-ins built in Sydney. For an Appreciation, see page 28.

VICTORIA
Reprieve For The Astor
For many readers it is the important news of the last three months, but the sympathetic purchase of the Astor East St Kilda has been so widely reported, that another paragraph risks the charge of dishing up stale news. We take that risk:
St Michael's Grammar School purchased the Astor at auction on 6 December 2007. Astor boss George Florence has publicly stated his optimism about the outcome. The existing lease has a few years to run, so the theatre will continue its eclectic and insightful screening policy.
The school administration sees the potential to house a mix of educational and entertainment options close to their main campus.

Problems Involving The Palais
Community group Unchain St Kilda has suggested a way to scale back the size of the proposed shopping complex west of the theatre, which has so enraged St Kilda residents. According to USK its a mega development because the rents will fund the promised restoration of the theatre.
Now some heavy-hitter rock stars and actor Rachel Griffiths have pledged some large amounts for the theatre restoration.
USK is promoting similar community largesse as a way to reduce the cost of the restoration, which might give the developer pause to scale back a bit.
Stop Press.
Legal protest action has failed. Council voted at its Feb. 8 meeting to support the developer's plan.

Village Waverly Gardens closed Monday 28 January.

The Sea and the Shore
The former workshop associated with the Works Pier at Williamstown (Vic.) is to become a maritime museum. The theatrette will be named the Shore, reviving memories of Hoyts Shore nearby.

Warburton Mechanics Institute: 110 Years
A birthday bash on Friday 26 October 2007 celebrated a major renewal. Once known as the Warburton Moviehouse, it is now referred to as the Mecca Theatre.
The building had been mainly shuttered since 1992 due to its dilapidated condition.
Purchased by the Shire of Yarra Ranges in 2004, a heritage grant, Regional Development Victoria, Bendigo Bank and public support funded a refurb. costing more than $1million.
Integration of the building with the adjacent Arts Centre brings space for a cinema, concerts, plays, and exhibitions.

TASMANIA
The 108-year old Alicia Hall, Beaconsfield, venue for hypnotists, tightrope walkers, lantern presentations and films, is to be restored as a fully operational theatre.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Redevelopment at Glenelg
A major facelift planned for Jetty Road Glenelg is likely to see an upgrade to the Wallis Cinemas. Exactly what that means in the case of the cinemas is unclear.

Another Drive-In to Close
Barmera's drive-in on the Murray River will close soon. According to their web-site, an application has been lodged to sub-divide the land.

Upgrade For The Queens
Mainland Australia's oldest purpose-built theatre - the Queens in Gilles Arcade, Adelaide - is open again after a major upgrade - over 167 years the venue has also been a law court, city mission, horse bazaar, factory and showroom. It is now administered by the History Trust of S.A.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Plenty Of People, But Few Seats
Perth may be enjoying an economic boom and rapid population growth, but it is not reflected in the cinema scene. These days there is only one place to go if you want to see a movie in Perth's CBD.
After Hoyts closed their Cinema City four-screen complex in Hay Street at the end of last year, only the Art Deco Piccadilly was left showing movies - as it has since 1938.
The former Cinema City, (1980), is part of a redevelopment which will feature a 29-level tower with 183 apartments.
The closure came almost two years after central Perth's other complex, Greater Union's three-screen Cinecentre, turned off its projectors.
For its part, the Piccadilly was re-modelled in 1982 to accommodate two additional smaller theatres. Between them, half a dozen recent release movies can be seen on any given day.
Cinemagoers prepared to do a little legwork have another option - the art-house Cinema Paradiso in the Northbridge entertainment and dining precinct. This stylish venue is a member of the Luna Palace Theatres stable.
Suburban Perth is still home to half a dozen grand deco theatres, most of them now two-screens. They include the popular Astor in Mount Lawley, the Windsor in Nedlands, Cygnet at Como, the Luna (formerly New Oxford) at Leederville, Regal Subiaco (now mainly live theatre) and the Camelot outdoor at Mosman Park.

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand's Motion Picture Distributors Association reports that box office trade for November 2007 was the worst month since 1967. Christmas and New Year was also a disaster. Despite this gloom some venues prosper, some turn to alternative uses in the 'off' hours while others fade away. Some examples:
Still in expansion mode, Reading are looking at taking over the Downtown, Palmerston North. This is the only cinema in a vast area and a location important to distributors.
In Hastings, the former State, which houses the city's only multiplex (four-screens), is for sale. Reading is tipped to buy the building.
Lighthouse Cinema Petone is to get a third screen, but the troubled Lighthouse Upper Hutt was heading for a mortgagee sale. Film supply problems and opening of the Ascot (four-screens) have taken a toll.
Wellington's Paramount, a large auditorium, is leased to a church group on Sunday mornings.
SkyCity ten-screen will open March 2008 at Westfield Mall on Albany's North Shore.
More boutique cinema and cafes are opening. Latest is Lizzy B's at Kaiapoi, a two-screen DVD operation.
For sale in Methven: boutique two- screen (16 and 33 seats) cinema in central location, three years old. Offered as a going concern. Methven is close to the Mt Hutt snowfields. Asking price is $80,000.
Of interest to CATHS? visitors on the 2005 tour: Christchurch businessman David Henderson is reported to have sold the Odeon building to an Australian property developer who intends to continue the conversion back to a theatre.

Corrections
Peter Broome identified the 20th Century Fox representative in the Capitol staff photo (CR57 p.15). He was long-time Victorian manager Arthur Jepson.
In CR 57 p.8 two names were scrambled. The Manager of the Oatmill Cinema Mt Gambier is Teena Wastell and the owner is Shane Fulwood.
In CR56 Letters p.4 the address of contributor Stephen Jones was given as Hobart. Stephen lives in Geelong.

LETTERS

The Picket That Didn't Stop The Show!
The picket remnant unearthed on the site of what became the Capitol theatre (CinemaRecord 57) invites consideration of its possible history.
Robyn Annear in A City Lost and Found wrote about the sale of the land bounded by Collins, Swanston and Little Collins Streets. The first land auction in Bearbrass (an early name for the settlement) was in 1837 when Captain Henry Howey bought the two-acre site for one hundred and twenty pounds. At the outset this area was on the fringe of the 'Village', which was expanding from government buildings, mainly in William Street.
Development as far as Swanston Street was impeded by a creek, often impassable after heavy rain. This later became Elizabeth Street. Grazing and vineyards continued at the Spring Street end of Collins Street into the 1840s.
For the picket to have been buried four foot below street level suggests it was a squatter's farm fence. The land along what was to become Swanston Street must have been filled in before any substantial building could take place.
Captain Howey and his family were lost at sea between Melbourne and Sydney and the property was bequeathed to a brother. Howey Place, which threads its way through the block commemorates this history. In the Swanston Street section a Colonel Wilson bought a group of three-storey buildings on the south side of what became known as the Talma Building, formerly Buxton's Art Gallery.
These buildings - shoe shops and cafes - were demolished by Whelan The Wrecker in 1921, to make way for the ten-storey, maximum height office block and theatre designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Various names for the building were toyed with during construction, but Capitol prevailed.
The Howey family continued its link with the site. One member was on the board that first controlled the theatre.

John Payne, Mulgrave

A Change To Street Level
Princes Bridge, which spans the Yarra River dates from 1886 when it replaced a single arch bridge. The height of this new bridge necessitated raising street level along the west side of Swanston Street at least as far as Collins Street. Contemporary reports tell of shops losing their basements, of doors and windows protruding above the pavement.
Whether this re-alignment continued as far as the site of what would become the Capitol I do not know. Furthermore, this 'burial' would not explain a picket from a fence, but it is an example of the need to consider every fact.

Henry Jamieson, Balwyn

Modern Acoustics
The account of attempts to manage better acoustics (CR57), reminded me that the sound in the Melbourne Concert Hall was initially described in newspapers as 'thin and reedy', but I have no complaint about sound at any performance I have attended.
At the school where I taught the theatre looked to be a poor design - rectangular box, concrete blocks with plastic seats - but it had good acoustics, and for this reason was favoured by outside companies for operetta and musical comedy without amplification. No doubt experts can explain this.

Roderick Smith, Surrey Hills

Reporting by: Steve Maggs Qld., Ian Hanson NSW, David Kilderry and Brian Hunt Vic., Ray Peck Tas., Colin Flint SA, Peter Jackson WA and David Lascelles and Tony Froude NZ.