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The war brought everyone out to In 1949 manager Harwood
the pictures, but shows at the Plaza submitted a proposal to re-introduce
were only marginally better. Paramount stage shows: ‘There would be no
product every third week was still the moveable scenery and tabs would be
mainstay, interspersed with re-issues of treated with fire resisting solution’.
big titles from Warner Bros. and many Instead of a rigid safety curtain he
from Republic. Sometimes there was proposed a woollen curtain with
film which Hoyts declined, such as drenchers. In July that year architects
Christmas Holiday, with Deanna Cowper, Murphy and Associates
Durbin in a dramatic role. advised Health that they wished to
Towards the end of the 1940s build out the stage, construct new
Columbia was in the mix, but, true to dressing rooms and a prefabricated and
form, any major titles had been through removable proscenium, improve fire
Hoyts’ system at least a year earlier. protection by fitting the stage with an
Typical of the starvation diet was the automatic sprinkler system and
last program before the variety years: drencher pipe, and cut into the floor to
A Thousand and One Nights with form an orchestra pit. They wrote that
Cornel Wilde and The Man Who Dared the changes would reduce
(4)
with Leslie Brooks, both at least three accommodation by 200.
years old. One constant at the Plaza, The new stage and dressing rooms
and a source of wonder to us, was that presumably took up all of the original
every lame program ran for one week. front stalls, because the splayed walls
disappeared. This resulted in the
auditorium becoming almost a square.
Harwood sought permission for the
Right: Heralding a change in direction
theatre projectionist to work as the
for the Plaza, was the Vaudeville-Revue
switchboard operator, rather than
Show “Fun and Games”.
employ an A-grade electrician. The
1949 Northcote Leader advertisement.
request was approved. Health stipulated
that two firemen must be on duty at
“Theres No Business like Show Business!” each performance.

A.R. Harwood Harwood spent 30 years in the film business as
an independent producer, exhibitor and
At The Plaza publicist, juggling those interests with his role
as manager of the Plaza, a position he held from
the late 1930s. According to one assesment,
Q: Who made Australia's first talking 'What Harwood lacked in talent as a director, he
feature? Hint: It wasn’t F W Thring
made up in perseverance, usually in the face of
at Efftee, Ken Hall at Cinesound or Pat Hanna. formidable shortages of finance and
(2)
equipment'.
Alex Roy Harwood, who was always
A: known as Dick Harwood, and the film “Night Club” was his last attempt to enter
was “Out Of the Shadow”s (1931). This hour- feature film production. In it he played a private
long musical melodrama with a cast of 20 was detective, his daughter was cast as the feminine
shot in a St Kilda studio as a sound-on-disc interest, and they were supported by a number
talkie. The film was never released, so readers of amateur and semi-professional variety artists,
may say it is a trick question, but the film exists, including Joff Ellen.
and its rediscovery is a story in itself.
The sound was recorded wild, on a simple wire
Dick Harwood’s first film was The Man Who recorder. It was a brave attempt on a minimal
Forgot (1927) and all told he made five, low budget. So minimal, that it later proved
budget features. Night Club (1952) was his last. impossible to achieve perfect sound
Born in Melbourne in 1897 he was in Tahiti in synchronisation. After private previews at the
1925 working for an insurance company when end of 1952 (most likely at the Plaza), the film
he observed a Hollywood unit at work and virtually disappeared.
resolved to become a producer. In 1929 he took How many people would have guessed the
over the Southern Cross (Regal) Essendon, significance, when, in the third last week of the References
and ran it for a year. Hoyts then took it on, but Menck/Harwood administration, they read in 1 Ross King, personal comm.
couldn't make it work either. They closed it after the paper that Night Club was the support at the 2 Pike and Cooper, Australian Film 1900-1977
(1)
a year and it stayed dark until 1939. Plaza?* Did Dick Harwood watch it *Thursday Jan 23 1959 for one week: I Had
intermittently each night of that run, and ponder Seven Daughters (My Seven Little Sins)
what might have been? Maurice Chevalier. Night Club.

14 2010 CINEMARECORD