Page 4 - CinemaRecord #11R.pdf

Another Significant Centenary - No Celebrations? by Peter Wolfenden

Yet another significant Australian Cinema Centenary seems to have eluded many of us!

Australia's first major corporate film producer is now generally recognised to have been The Salvation Army. It
commenced motion picture film production work just over a hundred years ago. Certainly th.ere were earlier
producers, however they were largely individuals whereas The Salvation Army unit had the umbrella of a very
large established organisation behind it.

The "Limelight Department" was initially established (in 1891) to produce lantern slides to supJJOrt the Christian
outreach activities of The Salvation Army. The slides were usually about 75mm square, glass based, and
frequently hand tinted. The image was a photograph of actors or drawings portraying some aspect of the
outreach "lecture". These slides were projected onto a wall or screen by means of a lantern slide projector using
"lime-light" as the illuminant. Limelight was a soft warm-yellow light (by today's standards) and was produced
by heating a small piece of calcium-carbonate (lime) by means of a potent mixture of oxygen together with town
gas or hydrogen!

The Limelight Department's shows were quite sophisticated, making use of multi-projection facilities. music
and lecturers - indeed multi-media presentations! Joseph Perry was the man responsible for this entrepre-
neurial activity, and the story of his early exploits, both in Australia and New Zealand, can be read in the Cinema
Papers articles by Chris Long, in particular part 7 and 8 of the series on "Australia's First Films··.

1897 saw Perry, at the behest of the new commandant, Herbert Booth, purchasing and demonstrating an early
motion picture projector using "off the shelr French, short films. Booth was impressed and as a result, money
was allocated to expand the facilities to enable production and processing of future films. During 1897 facilities
and equipment were slowly brought together. Tests were conducted and in October 1897 Perry's first success-
ful Melbourne street scene film was reported.

... TH£SALVATIONARMY

6 69 BOURK£ STR&T
UMEUGHT DEPT
MELD. VIC. AUST.

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CELEBRATING A CENTURY Of
1897 Salvationists and the Silver Screen

This success caused additional funds to be made available by Booth to enable the production activities to
proceed in earnest. A new darkroom and glass roofed studio were constructed at the rear of the Bourke Street
headquarters and in February 1898, serious production started. There is little doubt that Salvation Army staff,
and in particular Joe Perry were key players in the early development of motion pictures and multi media in
Australia. The Limelight Department became involved in recording sound, preparing scripts for lecturers, ar-
ranging music, organising choirs and bands. It must have been an extremely exciting and rewarding time for all
involved! The "Army" was well pleased.

However, the Limelight Department spread its' talents even further by becoming involved in other significant
Australian productions such as the filming of activities surrounding the Federation of Australia in January 1901.
This was a commercial undertaking at the request of the New South Wales Government and is available on
video tape from the National Film and Sound Archive. Many films were produced over the relatively short life of

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