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In April 1995, David Marriner’s Stage Quotes: in duet with Laurie Wilson at the secondary
Developments Australia bought the complex console. Their work is preserved on several
for an estimated $3-$4 million. Marriner took ‘To be in the State Theatre will be like lingering recordings. The organ was ‘retired’ in 1956. In
possession in August, intimating that he might in a beautiful old world Italian garden, 1962 the secondary console was sold privately.
rename the venue the Old State Theatre and bordered by graceful walls of Florentine After a spell in Darwin, it found a permanent
eventually take it back to a single 2500-seat statuary.’ Stuart Doyle, The Australasian, 29 home in the Capri Theatre in Goodwood,
venue. He also announced that the first September 1929. Adelaide. The main console was purchased by
attraction under his management would be organist Gordon Hamilton in 1963. Five years
staged in the 540-seat upstairs theatre on ‘They don’t make theatres like this anymore’ – later he sold it to the City of Moorabbin. It was
25 October: the premiere of Max Gillies’ Film guru Ivan Hutchinson, 1986. installed in the Kingston (Moorabbin) Town
political satire, Gillies Live at the Club Hall where it was voluntarily restored by
Republic. Script problems led to its cancellation ‘In 20 years’ time this generation won’t have members of the Theatre Organ Society of
after a couple of previews, but it later surfaced fond memories of Cinema 4 in some big Australia.
at the Athenaeum. Similarly controversial was complex’ – State Historian Dr Bernard Barrett,
Steven Berkoff’s savage black comedy 1986.
Decadence, which opened on 2 July 1996.

After an extensive refurbishment that included
banquette seating, a dance floor, bars and a
pizza kitchen, Marriner unveiled the downstairs
venue, Forum I, on 18 August 1996. It can now
cater for 1500 with most of the seating removed
and 800 in a more intimate configuration. The
venue debuted with a locally-created ‘jukebox’
musical, Piano Men. Later attractions have
included Marianne Faithfull, Dein Perry’s Tap
Dogs, Urban Bush Woman, the Blind Boys of
Alabama, ventriloquist David Strassman, Julian
Clary, John Waters with his Jacques Brel
tribute, Bomber Perrier’s Circus of Dreams,
film screenings and Comedy Festival shows. In
February 1998, the Midsumma Festival
presented a Summa Cabaret with a starry lineup
including Combo Fiasco, Geraldine Turner, Jon
Jackson’s Great Big Opera Company and Hugh
Jackman, a few days before he left for London
to play Curly in Oklahoma!
American organist, Frank Lanterman at the
The Forum was added to the Historic Buildings Charles Bohringer Wurlitzer organ, 1929.
Register in November 1978, and its Born in Basel, Switzerland, Charles Bohringer
significance is recognised by the National (1891-1962) left his architectural practice in
Trust. ★ Berne to come to Australia in 1914 with fellow
architect Hans Miesch. Though they were lured
by the prospect of work in the nascent national
capital, their first venture was a prune farm at
Batlow, NSW. Bohringer’s initial Australian
architectural commission appears to have been
a small hotel in Sydney. In 1921 he was briefly
in partnership with Henry White. In 1923 he
designed a theatre in Cessnock, NSW. It was
the first of the dozens of theatres and cinemas,
large and small, on which he worked. Among
the most notable were his three ‘atmospherics’,
the Ambassadors, Perth (1927), the State,
Melbourne (1929) and the Civic, Auckland
(1929). In 1953 Bohringer was convicted for
tax evasion and fraud and was declared
bankrupt.

The Mightier Wurlitzer
All Wurlitzer theatre organs were “mighty”, but
the State’s £25,000 Model 270 was mightier
than most. It was one of the very few Wurlitzer
installations in the world to have twin consoles,
enabling the playing of duets. It also had a
linked grand piano. Over its long history, the
State had only four resident organists,
American Frank Lanterman (1929), Arnold
Coleman (1929-1940), Aubrey Whelan (1940-
1956) and Iris Norgrove (1956). Coleman’s
regular Sunday concerts were broadcast
throughout Australia. Whelan often performed

18 CINEMARECORD # 100