Page 13 - RD_2015_12

Theatre Images

Brian Miller

It started in the twenties – slogans
to create an image for theatres –
placed before or after the theatre’s
nameplate in advertisements.
The Capitol Swanston Street was
proclaimed The Theatre Magnificent
in 1924. These words continued to be
used in newspapers until superseded
by After All, There Is Only One
Capitol, when Hoyts took over the
lease in 1940.
Never a company to do things by
half, MGM’s Metro Collins Street and
its Sydney equivalent the St. James
were each known as The Theatre Of
The Stars. With the studio’s huge roster
of contract players no one could deny
this statement, except younger children
not into film-star adulation - “Isn’t the
State the theatre of the stars?”
Sydney’s Prince Edward was
simply The Theatre Beautiful.
Presenting the best Paramount
attractions, its splendid floral
decorations, classic twenties
architecture, Noreen Hennessy at the
Wurlitzer and the Prince Edward
Show Band made a visit to the Prince
Edward an event to remember. This
was the theatre Melburnians often
spoke about on their return from
Sydney, an acknowledgment of the
truth of the statement.
There is a limit to the choice of
words that can economically be used
to describe a theatre. In Melbourne Sir
Benjamin Fuller also used The Theatre
Beautiful to describe his Princess. In
the same vein Fuller’s Palace, (later
the Metro Bourke Street) was The
House Exquisite.
Back in Collins Street the
Athenaeum used Melbourne’s Best
Talkie House for the run of ‘The Jazz
Singer’ and beyond. After the other
theatres caught up with sound, this
was changed in 1932 to All British
and an all British screening policy
remained in place for years.
Across the road at the Regent the
management had a disdain for these
add-ons. The majesty of the crown
Athenaeum Theatre and the gothic letters were considered
to be enough. However a display
alcove half-way up the stairs said it all
THE ALL BRITISH HOUSE Proprietor: Frank Talbot Pty Ltd – Australia’s Pre-eminent Show
Window.

CINEMARECORD 2003 13