Page 10 - CR

In the meantime Potts’ company
Arpee Theatres Pty Ltd concluded a
lease of West’s premises from January
14, 1941 to screen at least three nights
per week, and the signatory was
Managing Director Roy Purves, a man
who had considerable experience in
running theatres both in Australia and
overseas.
One can only speculate if the
former hostile parties appreciated the
irony of the main feature title in the
opening program – Love Thy
Neighbour starring Jack Benny and
Fred Allen.
In any case Nowra cinema-goers
now had, in the typical hyperbole of a
local newspaper, “an ultra modern
theatre [where the] interior decorative
colour scheme breathes an air of
refinement, proclaiming the work of a
master craftsman, [and] a glorious
monument of entertainment”.
Re-construction in 1940/41.
A trade journal more realistically
referred to the interior colour scheme of
1941 Modernisation. green, cream, brown and orange.
Fittings comprised Dunlopillo chairs, a
new sound system, heaters, troughs of
concealed neon lighting in proscenium
wings, full-length streamlined vents in
a white plaster ceiling, and green stage
curtains with gold enrichments.
The street façade of cement render
featured artificial stone bands across
the top, decorative motifs, and a full-
length double-sided neon sign.
While external walls were all that
remained of the old theatre, they had
been increased in height.

Roy Purves.

10 2011 CINEMARECORD