Page 10 - CR

The waiting cars would be lined up Directly behind the main building was
in Stanworth Road and into Sandgate a combined work shed and generator
Road. Police had to be hired to control room which was maintained by the
the traffic in and out of the theatre at projectionist and was run every Monday
these peak times. The theatre held 600 night to supply power to the whole
cars which meant we could have up theatre for the night.
When Boondall first opened there was to 1200 cars on a busy night and the
such a demand that we only showed average people per-car in those early
a newsreel, a short and or a cartoon days, was 3 to 3.5.
and a couple of ‘trailers’, then a short
interval to allow for a few more sales The projectionist at a drive-in had more
in the cafeteria followed by one movie to do than one at a normal ‘hard top’
per session. theatre. One of the extra tasks being the At Boondall we also created a character
need to maintain and service the ‘in-car by the name of ‘Boondall Bertie’ who not
Then we would empty the theatre speakers’. At the Boondall, that was only featured on slides recommending
between 9 and 9.30 pm and refill it for a 600 speakers and 300 junction-boxes certain foods and drinks at the cafeteria
second session! each containing a switch for the service but was also involved with ‘Uncle Ian’
lights, 3 bulbs and a volume control and the Boondall Birthday Club. I had
recorded a ‘chipmunk’ type voice for
and of course the speaker cone itself. ‘Boondall Bertie’.
Particularly in the early days, it was not
unusual to have several speakers ripped Initially this was set up just for children
out or souvenired nightly. These had to but was later widened to include
be repaired and replaced daily.
people of all ages. Children received a
package of lollies and adults received
a pass for a car-load of people to the
theatre and had their names called out
over the theatre public address system
on their birthday.

This was very successful and ran for many
years. The passes proved very popular and
people tended to spend well at the cafeteria
as they didn’t have to pay to come in..

Patrons were encouraged to attend even
on rainy nights because we always put a
‘special solution’ on their car windscreen
that would enable them to see the movies
clearly in the rain. People often asked
what it was but were always told it was a
‘secret’ solution. In actual fact it was only
a cake of the old plain ‘Bon-Ami’ that
was wiped on to the windscreen and then
hosed off. I guess other drive-ins used the
same ‘special’ solution.

Special occasions were celebrated
in a big way at the Boondall. For
example Guy Fawkes Night was still
celebrated legally in Queensland at
the time, so a large ‘Bon Fire’ would
be erected over several weeks leading
up to the night and for weeks before,
patrons would bring timber down to
help build our ‘Bon Fire’.

On the night, a bag full of a mixture of
crackers and sky rockets was given to
everyone entering the theatre, the Bon
Fire would be lit and everyone would
gather around to set off their crackers
and rockets. It was a great night for the
whole family.

10 2011 CINEMAREC ORD