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The early thirties were the years when the Royal became part of my boyhood. The Saturday night scene I have
described is a reasonably faithful account of events as they were. I remember Mrs Plummer- or someone very
much like her. I remember the "unspoken" reserved seats for the regulars, and woe-betide any stranger who
innocently occupied them. I remember the excitement of the weekly event- "the pitchers on Saturdee night".
The program was unimportant. The main thing was to "see and be seen", in the upstairs Dress Circle of course.

I remember the big things, like the enormous lady who used to occupy the minuscule ticket box in the foyer. She
literally bulged out of it in a most interesting fashion. As a boy, I hoped that one day I'd be able to see her getting
into it- but never did. And I remember the little things- like the lackadaisical walk down the left hand stall aisle
by the Assistant Projectionist- a sure sign that the show was about to begin. He had to pull the rope that operated
the curtains. None of your motor driven modernities backstage at the Royal in the early thirties. I remember the
mens toilet, obviously an afterthought. It was a galvanised iron lean-to behind the main building.To get to it you
had to walk down a long open Janeway, or better still run down, as it was a "first come- first relieved". Standing
room only of course, but even so it was embarrassingly cramped. You needed to be on good terms with
everybody. Tempers could be frayed in a couple of shakes.

I remember the "lolly shop". The term "milk bar" had still to be invented. Apart from penny and threepenny ice
creams, the lolly shop had diversified into selling gramophone records. I bought my first "modem" record there
- a two shillings and sixpence Regal Zonophone, with George Barclay singing the hit of the moment, "Isle of
Capri". I proudly took it home, where it looked strangely out of place among my father's collection of "Peter
Dawson's" and "Madame Ala Gluck's". It was at Castlemaine's Theatre Royal that I first saw the child wonder
ofthe age- Miss Shirley Temple. It was there that I laughed along with the banjo-eyed Eddie Cantor as he traipsed
around in his toga, trying to come to grips with the scandals of ancient Rome, and it was at the Royal that I gripped
the sides of my seat as what Leslie Halliwell describes as the greatest monster movie of all time flashed upon
the screen. Most of those 1930's films are a blur in my mind today, but I still clearly recall the 1933 production
of "King Kong". But what about Lola Montez?

Lola, the most famed and infamous courtesan of her day, had performed privately with the King of Bavaria and
Franz Liszt, to name just two of many too numerous to mention. But with all that behind her, in the 1850's she
came to Australia and the "diggings" and performed in a theatre occupying the site of the present Theatre Royal
in Castlemaine, on Thursday 10th of April, and Friday 11th of April, 1856. Apparently she was not the world's
greatest actress or dancer. Her ''talents" lay in other directions - but she knew how to bring in the crowds.
According to contemporary reports, her "piece-de-resistance", the notorious and scandalous Spider Dance,
roused the Castlemaine audience to a frenzy. This is understandable, as the audience consisted largely of
miners, far from the pleasures and comforts of domesticity.

In the 1850's Castlemaine's population was growing rapidly to reach a peak in excess of 30,000 by the 1860's.
At that time there were more people living in Castle maine than in Melbourne, so it was natural that soon a large
theatre would be built. The new Theatre Royal and Royal Hotel which fronted it were joined by a lobby. The Royal
Hotel was probably little more than a bar. But in 1857 the building was destroyed by fire. However the theatre
did not take long to re-emerge from the ashes, virtually in its present form, and for nearly fifty years staged
travelling companies with their dramas, comedies, and variety shows. Another fire in 1887 temporarily halted
proceedings, but by the early 1890's, it was business as usual.

With the coming of motion pictures, the Royal became the Peoples' Popular Picture Palace. Over the years the
hotel disappeared, and the interior of the theatre was refurbished several times - at least once in the 1930's. I
can remember that we all thought the new decor was wonderful. From memory, they had built an upstairs lounge,
a larger ticket box, and a new modern proscenium with a motorised curtain. But with the advent of television,
the halcyon days were over. The Royal was no exception. In an effort to retain the theatre, the new owner Mr.
Ray Lindstrom, has given the old girl a new lease of life.

Today the Theatre Royal Entertainment Centre presents films, jazz nights, rock and roll nights, cabaret and
variety. There are tables and chairs in the stalls area where patrons can eat dinner while they watch a show, or
they can sit upstairs in the conventional comfort of the dress circle.

So, the Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, the oldest continuously operating theatre site on the Australian mainland,
is alive and well today. May it long continue so.

Oh! I forgot to mention "The Adventures of Dot". That's another chapter of the saga of the Theatre Royal which
we should recount in the future. Watch This Space. (Next Issue)