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THE MEMORIAL .. ST. KILDA by Peter Fogarty

November 1994 will mark the 70th. anniversary of the opening of the Capitol Theatre in Swanston Street,
Melbourne. While this anniversary will be justly celebrated by cinema-lovers and those interested in the
buildings of Walter Burley Griffin, it is perhaps time to remember that November 1994 is also tile 70th. anniver-
sary of the construction of the building that later contained within one of its halls a well-loved picture-theatre in
the City of st. Kilda - the Memorial.

The Memorial picture-theatre was located on the south-west comer of Acland and Albert Streets, St. Kilda. It
was housed within the St. KUda Soldiers Memorial Hall which still remains there under its present name of "The
St. Kilda Army & Navy Club". The construction of the hall was first proposed in 1920, soon after the end of the
First World War. The first meeting to Implement this proposal was organised by Councillor Unworth in the by
now deserted St. Kilda Soldiers Lounge near the Palais de Danse Pictures in what is now Jacka Boulevard.
Although only about six or seven people were present at this first meeting, it was decided early on that "the
hall's incorporation should carry with it the power to secure revenues, and that these revenues, profits, should
be devoted each year to the relief of distressed soldiers and theirdependants.''1 It was also proposed that the
"memorial hall and club rooms ..... would have a guaranteed source of revenue from the day of its completion."
2
Arter a conlp~lilion among architects whO were returned servicemen, the firm of Messrs. Hudson & Wardrop-
who later designed the Shrine of Remembrance- was chosen, and this firm's tradition of academic classicism
can be seen in the exterior of the hall, albeit in what has been described in a recent citation as a •relatively
superficial" form. a The builder was R.L. Phillips and the total cost, including land, was 39,492 Pounds. This
sum was most raised by beach carnivals at Luna Park and special appeals and other entertainments, with the
St. Kilda Council in addition making a special grant from municipal funds of 3,000 Pounds. 4
The foundation stone of the Memorial Hall was laid by the Governor-General, Lord Forster and that of the club
rooms by the Hon. W.A. Watt, Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Armistice Day, November 11 ,
1923. Exactly one year later the Memorial Hall was opened by the Governor of Victoria, the Earl of Stradbroke,
with the first event held there being a ball in the evening. s The completed structure was four stories high with
twelve flats and four shops, and the hall itself could accommodate 500 for dancing and could seat 1 ,000. s
As one of the ways of earning the revenue that had been deemed necessary since that first meeting to plan the
hall, it was decided to lease part of it as a picture-theatre. Because of this the structure was therefore known
for many years to the cinema-going public of St, Kilda and elsewhere as "The Memorial", or else the more
familiarly-shortened "The Memo".

The theatre began operation three years after the hall's construction. On November 5, 1927 a programme
which included the film "Sweethearts" and a live show of "Exciting corroboree turns with eight full-blooded
aboriginals" was advertised as showing at the Cairo Theatre on the Upper Esplanade. 1 Two days later the
same programme of "Films and Aboriginal Turns'' was advertised as being also at the Memorial Hall, a which
is the first listing of the new theatre. The advertisement, consisting of a small rectangle about 45 by 25 mm.
which contained the name of the theatre, its address and the program was In marked contrast to the very large
advertisements proclaiming -with illustrations -the opening of th Palais in four days. a The following year the
Memorial Theatre was listed in the Sands & McDougall Directory under picture-theatres, 10 and by 1939 it had
joined the Hoyts chain with which it remained until its closure.

Although from the beginning, both in size and advertising, it can be seen as the poor relation of the Victory and
Palais theatres, this did not mean that the theatre was not popular. John-Michael Howson spent the greater
part of his childhood in St. Kilda and was at an early age a patron of its picture-theatres, all of which he
describes in various anecdotes about his formative years in his 1985 book "I Found It At The Flickers~. In this
he contrasts what he describes as the "baroque and Byzantine• of the Palais, the •marble and mahogany" of
the Victory, the "cozy kitsch" of the Astor and the "distinctive deco" of the New Windsor with the Memorial. He
recollects it as •a much-loved flea pit (with) uncomfortable seats, a tatty curtain, a couple of radiators on the
walls, and peculiar decorative lights tnat turned the puce curtains shades guaranteed to made even the colour-
blind bilious". 11

However, with all of these apparent shortcomings and lacking the glamour of the other St. Kilda picture~
theatres, it was still a well-patronised venue. It catered for those audiences who loved the detective, horror and
mystery films from what were then considered the lesser Hollywood studios such as Monogram and Republic.
Also, there was not the need to dress as formally as one would have had to when going to the other picture-
theatres nearby. The ushers were not as strict as elsewhere and this, combined with a laissez-faire attitude to
eating in the auditorium. often meant that food scraps thrown at the screen when the "villalnsw appeared

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