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government, I think - coming off the
wharves without paying tax. They
would bring in a new screen almost
every year. When I first went there the
screen was woven fibre-glass, it gave a
magnificent result.
I came in virtually on Showboat
when I was well into the projectionist’s
course at the Melbourne Technical
College (now RMIT University), and I
would have been 20. I remember
working the shift with Fred Lutchins
who never showed the second cue on
any of his changeovers. He was always
a fraction of a second early with the
changeover image.
We had finished the show and were
walking down Collins Street when he
shook my hand and said,
“Congratulations, you’ve done a good
job,” and my head swelled to about
twice its size. And chest thrown out I
went home very happy that weekend.
Just two of you in the bio-box?
The projection room as Brian first saw it. In 1954 the Simplex projectors shown here
That’s all. The equipment was
were replaced by Centrex, with Ashcraft arcs.
Simplex E7 front and rear-shutter
projectors on Westrex master
soundheads, the same as at the Regent
Did you ever need a cold shower? in which called for two projectionists -
actually. MGM won an Academy
It was a hot old box, yes, very hot. one for each projector - and one
Award for their flutter suppressor
Summer days we used to get around assistant on each shift. The machines
system, which sat on the sound head to
just in our white combination overalls ran in tandem, and the assistant showed
stop any flutter coming back through
and nothing underneath, except our the slides and re-wound film.
the sound. It wasn’t a big projection
undies of course.
room, only one projectionist could walk How big were the reels and how did
behind the projectors at a time. How long were the runs? you do changeovers?
The auditorium was a rebuild of the Eight to ten weeks, usually. The There were no changeovers. There
Auditorium, with a horse-shoe shaped weekend figures would decide. You were two main projectors, the Simplex
circle with wings, similar to the Regent. could come in on Monday and have a E7s, which showed a slightly better
The Royal boxes were curtained in lush new show, for all you knew. The length picture than the older model Simplex,
red velvet. There was a high arch of run at the Metro determined how which was the third machine. The E7s
proscenium with two sets of curtains, much rental could be charged on the were interlocked and larger spool boxes
one a heavy drape material, reddish, and suburban circuit, so sometimes, as with were attached to the projectors by
behind it the silver tabs. Both sets were a film like A Patch of Blue - which Westrex Corporation. This allowed for
motorised. came much later - they kept it on at the just over an hour of film for the first
A trapdoor next to the projection Metro Drive-In (which I’ll come to half - the feature came in two halves,
room led into the ceiling where, if you later) for twelve weeks. It wasn’t doing with an interval - and you put on the
looked down towards the stage, you business for the last seven, but the brass second two reels and synched them up
could see the top to the original could say, “It’s had this long run at the by the footage feeder and then we ran
proscenium and the plaster work of the Metro Drive-in”, - all very political. I the second half.
original ceiling. didn’t get mixed up in that side of And the audience wore special
things. They sent the film, we made it
As the Auditorium the theatre was glasses?
up and ran it.
a two-circle job - a middle and an Polaroid 3D glasses, polarized in
Upper Circle. And just off the I turned twenty-one while at the the shape of a V - the right eye came
projection room were the remnants of Metro, which you had to be to hold an down from the top right-hand corner
the Upper Circle toilets, one of which operator’s licence. I sat the exam just and the left eye saw through a filter
was kept as a toilet and the other was prior to Kiss Me Kate coming out in a which came down from the top left
turned into a cold shower for the 3D twin-film process. hand side of the screen.
projectionists. I was part of the way through the
examination, with only ‘Sound’ to do to
obtain my licence, when this film came

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