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nice description of Bingara’s   I saw this article only recently but   I was interested in the story of the
          A Art-Deco  Roxy cinema and an     I first became aware of the Bingara   Bingara Roxy as my grandfather, Peter
          account of Bingara’s cinema scene   Roxy story in 2004 after reading   Feros, was one of the men involved in
          in the 1930s has been provided by   press reports about the restoration of   its development. Prior to 2004 this was
          Gerry Kennedy in his article  ‘The   the Roxy Cinema and coming across   unknown to me and my generation.
          Roxy Theatre and the Cinema War in   the late Kevin Cork’s unfinished PhD   We knew that our grandfather had a
          Bingara’ (CinemaRecord  Issue 43).  thesis on Greek cinema proprietors   cafe in Bingara but we had had no
                                             in New South  Wales (‘Parthenons   inkling of his  involvement with the
                                             Down Under: Greek Motion Picture   Roxy Cinema, of Bingara’s ‘cinema
                                             Exhibitors in NSW, 1915 to 1963’).   war’, or of the collapse of the Roxy
                                                                                enterprise in 1936.

                                                                                I visited Bingara on New  Year’s Day
                                                                                2005 and, after seeing the impressive
                                                                                cinema to which my grandfather had tied
                                                                                his fortunes, and speaking to a number
                                                                                of the people in the town, I decided to
                                                                                write a book about him and his brothers,
                                                                                including the Bingara episode.

                                                                                These men from the Greek island
                                                                                of Kythera arrived in  Australia at
                                                                                different times beginning in 1914.
                                                                                Peter and Phillip Feros had previously
                                                                                been youthful immigrants to the USA
                                                                                where they lived in St. Louis and later
                                                                                Jefferson City, Missouri. It is believed
                                                                                they were in the confectionery
                                                                                business there.

                                                                                My book ‘Katsehamos and the Great Idea’
                                                                                was launched at the Bingara Roxy in April
                                                                                2006 by Associate Professor Janis Wilton
                                                                                of the University of New England.


                                                                                TOP: Peter Feros, George Psaltis and
                                                                                Emanuel Aroney, founders of the Bingara
                                                                                Roxy. From 'Katsehamos and the Great Idea'.
                                                                                LEFT and OPPOSITE: The Roxy Theatre in
                                                                                its early days. An Art-Deco extravagance.
                                                                                © Peter Prineas.









           6  2011  CINEMAREC ORD
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