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15. ST. KILDA (BIOSCOPE) THEATRE by Peter Fogarty

A few years ago I began writing a thesis on the cinemas of St. Kilda, but recent ill-health has forced me to
withdraw from the course. However, during my time of research I have collected a lot of material about these
venues and, in order not to let this go to waste, I feel that the best thing is to give them to "Cinemarecord" for
publication. With this in mind I have enclosed what I have discovered about the St. Kilda (Bioscope) Theatre
which used to be in Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda, two doors away from where the new cinema complex is under
construction. If you find this material suitable, I can keep sending other writings about past and present picture
theatres in the area. If any other members can later add to or correct what I have found I would be grateful.
Also, I feel that credit must be given to Carole Matthews, whose appendix to her thesis on the Palais has given
me the clues to search out the primary sources for information on early St. Kilda cinemas.

As work has at last commenced (May 1994) on the new cinema complex in Fitzroy Street between the George
Hotel and Rivoli Buildings, it is perhaps time to remind people of another theatre - on the other side of Rivoli
Buildings - which, although demolished over fifty years ago, was one of the pioneers of film exhibition in
Melbourne's suburbs.

The St. Kilda (Bioscope) Theatre was opened at what is now 145 Fitzroy Street on Apri111 , 1911 . At the rear
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was a studio for both making and processing films. This was the first, substantial, purpose-built picture-theatre
in St. Kilda. The builders were Millard Johnson and William Gibson, film-makers who, before the building had
been completed, had joined with J & N Tait to form Amalgamated Pictures, a company described in the
Encyclopaedia Of Australian Film as "Australia's first major film monopoly fully owned and controlled by Aus-
tralians.n 2 It was this company that owned and operated the theatre and made films in the studio until it was
absorbed by Australasian Films in 1913. As Australasian Films was the production arm of Union Theatres,
which later became the Greater Union Organisation in 1931 , this made the St. Kilda (Bioscope) Theatre the
first in the Greater Union Chain. 3

"The St. Kilda Picture Theatre, then the finest place of the kind in the state" was its later description in The Star
of 1921 . The width of the theatre was 52 feet and the total length was 130 feet, the hall itself being 90 feet from
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the dress-circle to the stage, with the remainder allotted to the backstage and studio areas. 5 In 1915 the
theatre was re-decorated and renovated by its them lessee Cedric Johnson, the son of Millard Johnson. As he
also managed "The Broadway" open-air theatre on the Upper Esplanade, an arrangement was made by which
on hot nights the patrons of the Fitzroy Street theatre could transfer to the Broadway, with the reverse applying
on cold nights. 6

By 1920 the lessees of the St. Kilda Theatre were Griffith and West, and in March 1922 they came to the aid of
the Sacred Heart Parish when the Grey Street church was damaged by fire. David Moloney wrote of this:
"Messrs. Griffith and West.. ... responded generously to the plight of the West St. Kilda Catholics. They placed
their building at the disposal of Fr. Byrne, the only charge being for lighting and cleaning. Every Sunday for the
next eight months, the altar-boys re-arranged the theatre and set up the altar for Sunday Mass. There are
memories of the spring seats rattling like machine-guns when the congregation knelt or stood up. Parishioner
Mrs. Leila Hassett was caught out one evening when she went to see a film at the theatre and genuflected as
she entered the row of seats. • 7

Films continued to be exhibited at the theatre until 1933, when the whole structure then became "Studio
Number Three" of Cinesound, which had taken over Australasian Films. 8

There appears to be some confusion as to the actual location of the St. Kilda (Bioscope) Theatre. In the
December 1985 edition of Kino, Les Tod has written that the building survives, with shops at the front making
it unrecognisable. However, if one compares the rare photograph reproduced in that issue with the photo-
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graph of Fitzroy Street taken in 1930 in Cooper's history, the theatre - with its almost obscure name - is just
discernible between what is now the "Regal" board-house and "Rivoli Buildings", now called "Danish Blue". 10

In May 1939 Theatre News reported that Bert Matthews had "converted the Cinesound Studios ..... into a unique
rendezvous ...... named 'The Barn'. 11 This new coffee-lounge did not continue for long, as the building was
demolished soon after and the present block of flats on the site (incorporating a restaurant) "The Batt" was
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erected in about 1940. 2
As this theatre is so much a part of the early cinema in Australia, and as its location has been virtually forgot-
ten, perhaps now is the time for a commemorative plaque to be affixed to the present building on the site in
order to remind patrons of the new next-door-but-one cinema complex of the area's former cinematic activities.