Page 21 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

later when Austin became relieving
manager at Toorak for a short time and
he said the same to Cyril.
Austin tells of the time that Cyril
noticed some tampering with a speaker
at the rear of the drive-in. It seems a
wire had been run from the speaker to a
block of flats over the back fence. Cyril
solved the problem by connecting the
illegal wire to the 240 volts mains
supply!
Shortly after the closure of the
Toorak Drive-In Cyril retired but his
friendship with Austin still continues to
this day. Asked if he had his time over
again would he choose a different
career? “No”. You enjoyed being a
projectionist? “Yeah”, said this man of
few words. ★

sessions nightly (this was possible prior References:
to daylight saving). This suggests that 1 - St Kilda Historical Society Inc.
business at Toorak was brisk if another website,
www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/pdf%
few hundred cars were willing to see a
Cyril & Austin at Cyril's birthday 20files/30.pdf
show at 10.00pm - late for the 1950’s
celebration, June 2009 (photo: G Varrasso) 2 - www.drive-insdownunder.com.au
and 1960’s. The pressure to realise the
May 2009
enormous value of the land became too
The Drive-In tribute website 3 - Opening and closing ads from
2 great the moment the business started to
Drive-ins Downunder gives a brief Herald newspaper 13/11/1956 and
slide. The land was snapped up by one 14/3/1984
history of the Toorak Drive-in and is
of Australia's largest companies, Coles- Cyril White interview with Keith
reproduced here with kind permission
Myer for new head offices.. Davies, November 2008.
from author David Kilderry:
Thanks to Cyril White, Austin Austin Bartolo interview with Keith
Originally opened as an Davies, May 2009.
Bartolo, Gina Varrasso and David
independent drive-in, the owner died in Photos of the Albany, Royal, Crystal
Kilderry for their assistance with this
the mid-1960’s. The drive-in was bought Palace & Toorak Drive-In courtesy of
article.
by Hoyts and Village. This was the first Kevin Adams
of several drive-ins and hardtops that
were jointly operated by the two
companies over the years. It was
advertised as a Village Drive-In in their
newspaper directories from 1966, yet
was staffed and operated by Hoyts,
whose staff were not allowed to display
the Hoyts logo on uniforms etc.
Although run by Hoyts, Toorak ran
Village product so it would not directly
compete with the Hoyts Skyline drive-in
just down the road at Burwood. When
most drive-ins ran just one big session
each evening, Toorak still advertised two

CINEMARECORD 2010 21