bogarde73
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As a chronic nostalgic and heritage tragic, I am interested in hearing about cinemas that you remember, that may or may not still be there, anywhere in Australia including country towns. They used to be art deco palaces back in the day.
I grew up in Sydney through the 1950s & 60s. There were 3 cinemas within walking distance, if you didn't mind a walk. The "Kinema" at Mosman, the "Kings" at Spit Junction and the Orpheum at Cremorne. Sorry, there was a 4th, I think it was called the Southern Cross at Neutral Bay, later became The Music Hall run by George Miller..
Saturday afternoons, if you weren't at the beach, were mostly spent at the Orpheum, trying to get under girls' skirts while occasionally watching some serial or western movie. I have one vivid memory of the Kinema, but I'd have to set the scene first. During the 1950s there was a popular radio quiz show, the Ampol Show, where people had to pick up the phone and a girl would answer with "Ampol Treasure House" and ask them to select a number for a prize. Anyway, one afternoon at the Kinema they were running a movie called Dial M for Murder (was it a Hitchcock? occasionally still shows on TV). At a critical suspense moment the female star picks up the phone and someone is waiting to strangle her. Out of the blue comes a voice from the audience: "Ampol Treasure House, number please". There's always one, but it brought the house down.
In the late 50s and through the 60s there were, I think three cinemas in Sydney CBD that showed exclusively foreign movies, mostly French and Italian. Which is where I saw all those movies and more that some of us have discussed in other threads. From memory most of these cinemas were formerly what were called Newsreel cinemas. They ran continuous news footage from various sources as well as short features in virtually a continuous loop. This was before TV the only source of film commentary on local and foreign news. People would go in and sit there till it came round to the same footage they'd already seen or for as long as they wanted really. TV killed them almost immediately as it killed most of the cinemas.
So what can anybody tell us about cinemas gone but not forgotten.
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