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CATHS Tour Part 2 Koroit - St. Patrick’s Hall
CATHS Tour Part 2
We were unable to gain access to
this bio-box with its Kalee 21
Projectors in the South-West projectors. Kalee were first
Projectors in the South-West
manufactured by A. Kershaw & Sons,
Ross King appraises the contents of some projection rooms. of Leeds, England (my underlines). The
trade name was a compression of the
company and its address.
Sometimes a long-closed cinema,
Early Kalees were variations on
even after conversion to an alternate
German designs acquired following the
use, retains much of its projection
First World War. Kalee later became
equipment. Even if the cinema still
part of the J. Arthur Rank Organisation.
functions, albeit in a cut-down form,
For the Kalee story see CR 37.
some of the original equipment may
still be in use. To an ex- projectionist, Warrnambool - Capitol
opening the door of a disused bio-box
brings the expectation of a discovery as
good as Tutenkaman’s tomb. This is
what we found.
Colac
The cinemas within COPAC, the
Colac Performing Arts Centre use
Bauer equipment. Getting replacement This cinema is now a triple, with
parts was said to be difficult. the dress-circle - Cinema 1 - the larger
Eugen Bauer ran a small engineering and by far the best. The projector here
business in Stuttgart, Germany. Around was a Century with a Strong Xenon
1907 the proprietor of the first Stuttgart lamphouse (below).
cinema brought a Pathe Freres projector
to Bauer for overhaul.
Bauer was intrigued by the device
and by 1908 had made his own version,
Bauer Kino machines. One innovation
was the first left-hand machine suitable
for one-man operation.
In 1934 Bauer became a subsidiary of
the Robert Bosch GMBH conglomerate,
a move which provided the backing
needed to step- up projector output.
Television eroded the market to the
point where production had virtually
ceased by the late 1970s. The legacy of
Eugen Bauer is the many superbly
engineered machines still in service.

Camperdown - Theatre Royal
The bio-box in this working cinema
was a time capsule: Raycophone Above: Camperdown. Box for ‘spare’ Century (U.S.A) started life in the
Victory model projectors, incorporating sound parts. early 1930s as the Kaplan, a copy of the
Simplex, made by Sam Kaplan at his
rear scanning soundheads, carbon arcs
1960s. The Victory model appeared Kaplan Sure-Fit Company. This began
and change-overs every 2000ft spool
soon after the end of the Second World as a supplier of replacement Simplex
(top,centre).
War and was an excellent outfit. projector parts, but after developing
Raycophone was started by radio
When Village Theatres opened their their own machine the name was
engineer Raymond Cottam Alsop (my
first Melbourne city hardtop, the changed to the Kaplan Projector Co.
underlines). His equipment utilised the
Roma, in the basement of the former The Kaplan Projector was later
Australian Biograph projection head
Royal Mail Building in Bourke Street, a changed to the Century Projector
manufactured by the Sydney-based firm
pair of Victory machines were fitted Model K, when the Kaplan company
Cummings and Wilson. Raycophone is
with Zeiss Xenon lamps. Quite a became the Century Projector Company
a compression of Alsop’s name.
number of these plants are still in use in 1939. Under an arrangement with
Mr. James Cummings, the inventor
around the country at such locations as Western Electric, the holder of sound
of the Australian Biograph - later
Healesville and Swanpool. patents, the Century was at one time
marketed as C&W - died in 1926, but
manufactured in Australia as the
his basic design continued well into the
Centrex and in the U.K. as the Westar.
12 2008 CINEMARECORD