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ating on 16mm: "For a modest fee one could ring up and
book a comfortable seat and the projection standards were
impeccable. The whole arrangement filled me with envy
when I was taken a long to enjoy Tom and Jerry, Our Gang,
and Spencer Tracy in ·The Seventh Cross' ( 1944) ... "

Nearer home, my first experience of seeing a real home
cinema was at the residence of well-known Melbourne
amateur film maker Dr. Frank Tait, in East Kew. The year
would have been around 1950. He had built his cinema in
gauge before the new super 8 would lead to the release of a a large garden shed. If my youthful memory serves me right
remarkably wide range of sound shorts and features (and he used two 16mm Victors projecting on to a screen of about
feature condensations) for the home cinema projectionist. six foot width (two metres or thereabouts). He used to show
his travel films as charity fund-raisers. As he was produc-
The Home Cinema ing essentially silent travelogues he used mood music on a
set of turntables. Remember the old mood music catalogues
Look back at early advertising for home movies and you
designed to help select music to accompany silent programs?
get the image of mum, dad and the kids (and perhaps
"Dramatic'·, "Pastoral'·. "Stormy", "Romantic" etc.? 1 had
grandpa and grandma as well) all seated in the lounge room
an ancient wind-up turntable myself to play music in my
watching movies on a tripod screen (between a metre or
first garden shed-cum-cinema (that had no mains power).
two wide I'd guess) often with a fire burning on the hea11h.
Or perhaps several couples of well-heeled travellers
But let's go back to the roots of the home cinema scene in
unencumbered by children of course! A cosy scene but with
d1e 1930's and we can see the evolution of a distinction
little pretension to a home ·cinema'!
between ·the cinema at home' and 'home cinema'. The
former emphasised] running movies in your lounge room
(whether your own or commercial titles) while the latter
was the inspiration for many film fans to recreate at home
the ambience of the commercial cinema. To achieve this
has generally required the setting aside of a dedicated space
in which to create a home cinema, be it in a garage, spare
room, garden shed, attic, basement or even outdoor garden
cinema! With the best imagination in the world you can
hardly recreate an Odeon, Regent, Granada or what you
will with a screen pulled down from behind the lounge
window pel met, the audience seated on a motley collection
of dining room chairs and lounge sofa, with standard room
Ughting aod all the other household furnitme and fittings
Yet the urge to reproduce the trappings of a cinema al home
sprinkled around ... wh.ile the projector clatters away on a
wasn't too long in coming. As I've already remarked, the
table close behind grandma·s head! The interesting thing
home screening rooms of Hollywood moguls in the 1920s
is that much of the modern advertising for home video cin-
were often elaborately decorative affain. But even by the
ema follows a similar notion: the family on the louoge suite
1930's we can see a similar urge to create a recognisable
with a large bare screen in front of them and precious little
cinema setting in the homes of less exalted film lovers. An
cinema ambience!
account from the late 1930's,
"It all started when the son was given a hand-turned 9.5mm
projector and a few short, two minute little pictures. He
used to run the films in any room that happened to be free
at the time and would have to raid the airing cupboard for
a sheet to serve as a screen."

This youthful enthusiast evolved into an adult enthusiast
and, by the 1940's, he had achieved his ambition: His fam-
ily, living in North London. "Often invites friends to visit
the private cinema that they have built in a spare room.
It has a small stage. curtains and coloured lighting. rip-up
seats and air conditioning'"

Famous film historian Leslie Halliwell recalls visiting a
home cinema operated by a suburban householder in
Stourport-on-Severn built in a converted garage and oper-

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