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CATHS’ Saturday Arvo Matinee

Ron Lowe’s suggestion to fellow on stage to conduct the Childrens smaller scale event to make an
CATHS member and owner of the Cinema Club with its sing-a-long, impression. Ron Lowe was tireless in
wonderful art deco Astor Theatre in Lucky ticket and birthday prizes - was his efforts to achieve maximum
St.Kilda George Florence, to re-create a in the hands of Ron Lowe’s alter ego publicity and he pulled it off.
1950s Saturday Arvo Matinee, and also Reg Jones, loose-cannon projectionist The flyers produced by Optimum
help to spread the word about CATHS and every cinema manager’s nightmare. Design (the layout team for
promised a fun walk down memory After mayhem on stage there was CinemaRecord) and given to CATHS
lane, and that’s the way it turned out. more on-screen with the Marx Bros. in members for distribution, provided a
On 9 October 2004 an audience of Go West. basic core of information. More than
500-plus filled the stalls and 350 of them were sent to RSL, Senior
overflowed to upstairs. Citizens clubs and retirement villages.
With some of the audience dressed However it was the newsprint and radio
fifties retro, grandparents bringing stories that fleshed-out the possibilities
grandchildren, and congratulatory for the day and in doing so enabled
letters and phone calls, the power of readers to get involved. Even Ron was
cinema to create lasting memories was surprised by the way some of the stories
re-affirmed. And if a boy is prepared to took on a life of their own. The support
come dressed as Charlie Chaplin provided by Paul Harris (The Age and
complete with cane, it suggests that the 3AW), Ward Everart (Magic 693
magic is also alive and well for the new Radio), Golden Days Radio and Roland
generation. Rocchiccioli (Melbourne Weekly
The show was given a masterly Bayside) was invaluable.
introduction from the stage by CATHS Six weeks before the event The Port
patron and Channel Nine identity Peter Philip Leader ran with one story featuring
Smith, a St.Kilda boy who knew the Reg Jones, but Ron’s second story in
power of matinees at the two great Roland Rochiccioli’s column ViewPoint
venues of his time, the Palais and the in the Melbourne Weekly Bayside was
Victory. the one which gave the topic ‘legs,’ and
The program was classic matinee resulted in two follow-ups.
stuff: an amalgam of the fare provided No passer-by could escape these Viewpoint on 22 September was a
at every Hoyts Suburban Theatre and spruikers. L to R Ron Lowe, Maya and clever pastiche of photos and an
the independent theatres in the forties Reuben Lazarus and Jan Lowe. interview with Ron (as himself)
to mid-fifties. It included cartoons from discussing the power of the old
The event proved that people will
Disney and MGM, vintage trailers and matinees to sink into the psyche and
come out for this entertainment if they
an episode of the serial Congo Bill. lodge there forever. One of the stories
know about it. In a world of constant
The part kids always hated, because was how CATHS member Noel Kerr,
media competition it’s hard for the
it slowed down the show - the manager now in his sixties, watched every
18 2005 CINEMARECORD