Page 24 - RD_2015_12

his Empire in Quay St. Sydney (later
reworked as Her Majesty’s Theatre).
However, in May 1928 Naylor sold the
site to Stuart F. Doyle’s Union
Theatres. Construction started in July,
to a concept prepared by the American
architect John Eberson and supervised
locally by the architects Bohringer,
Taylor and Johnson. It was completed
in a remarkably short time.
The State was an ‘atmospheric’ – a
term coined to describe that special
style of interior décor that simulated an
exotic outdoor setting. The
‘atmospheric’ was the specialty of
John Eberson who earlier had advised
Henry White, Union Theatres
consulting architect on the design for
the Capitol in Sydney (1928). In many
respects the interior of the State is a
mirror image of the Capitol. These
two theatres are the surviving
‘atmospherics’ in Australia.
The State was a creation of fantasy
inside and out. One of relatively few
Melbourne 1928. The Wall Street
Australian cinemas to indulge in an
crash is a year ahead and the city
exotic exterior, it conveyed the
bustles with building activity. Two
impression of an enormous Moorish
massive cinemas, each destined to
palace, complete with minarets, one of
become a landmark, race to
which was said to have been modelled
completion. In Collins Street, progress
on a minaret on a Turkish mosque in
on the mighty Regent, the dream of
Cairo. From the corner of Flinders and
Francis W. Thring and Hoyts Theatres
Russell Street rose a 61 metre clock-
Ltd. was in competition with the
tower surmounted by a jewelled
structure on the corner of Flinders and
copper dome (the work of R. H.
Russell Streets where James Porter and
Mytton and Company, who also
Sons were building the grandiose State
supplied the zinc ceilings).
for Union Theatres Ltd.
The State won the race; its plush
curtain rose on 23 February 1929,
three weeks ahead of its rival. It joined
Melbourne’s other picture palaces, the
Capitol (1924) and the Palais (1927).
Its 3371 seats gave it the largest
capacity of any theatre in Australia and
in that sense at least it was truly
Australia’s Greatest Theatre.
The location was well away from
Bourke Street, traditionally
Melbourne’s entertainment focus. But
it was right opposite the city’s main
railway stations and was well serviced
by trams and buses. The site was
previously occupied by the Morning
Post–Herald building and on Russell
Street by the State Migration Office.
The frontages were 37 metres to
Flinders Street and 55 metres to
Russell Street.
The site had been bought in 1927
by Rufe Naylor’s Empire Theatres Ltd.
of Sydney. Naylor planned to erect a
large live theatre as a sister house for Like a mirage in an urban desert the State looms over the railway yards

24 2003 CINEMARECORD