Page 15 - CR

Late SUPPER SHOWS

at the

By Eric White

oyts Regent South Yarra for many The session was run quite separately
Hyears ran a unique ‘Late Supper from a normal Hoyts program. The
Show’ every Friday night at 11.30. projectionist even had to take separate
electricity readings between the end of
A film of above average quality (up- the normal Friday evening session and
market, if you like) was screened and the beginning of the late show, so that its
a light supper was served before the costs could be kept separate.
show. The supper-show ran from 1959
until the theatre closed on Wednesday It was in 1959 that Ava Gardner made
1st July 1970, the same night that Hoyts her reputed comment that Melbourne
closed the Regent Collins Street. was an ideal place to make a film
about the end of the world. Night-life
Though some people credit the idea was sparse after 11 pm, so when the
to Hoyts’ Melbourne supremo George late show was established that year it
Griffith, the supper show was the brain quickly became popular.
child of theatre manager Eric Thacker, a
larger-than-life character. Toorak Road where the Regent was
located was the heart of Melbourne’s gay
scene and this group formed a large part
of the late show’s clientele. Show-biz
folk and the avant-garde also attended.

The late shows were well-loved by all serious
film-goers. The film society movement was
growing, helped along by the increasingly
popular Melbourne Film Festival.

Current release art-house and foreign
films were really only shown by two
Melbourne CBD cinemas, the Russell
Street Savoy and the Collins Street
Australia - so it was at South Yarra and
at the film societies that classics and
revivals could be seen.

Photos: Regent and first Late Show ad.

CINEMAREC ORD 2012 15