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The Renown in 1982.

During the winter months Vic and Alf,
along with Wilf, Fred and Russell, would
light six drums of coke to warm the
theatre and its patrons. Fred finally took
this task on. He would begin at 3.00pm
when the coke fires were kindled by The movies began at 7.30pm and times
lighting up cut up pine boxes in thirteen ranged from sixty to ninety minutes which
gallon drums. necessitated changing machines every ten to
twenty minutes depending on the spool size.
When these burnt down, large pieces of Movies like Gone with the Wind and The Ten
coke that had been separated from the dust Commandments were sometimes four hours
and small pieces were put in on top of long and have up to twelve spools.
the pine embers. The large pieces of coke Safety film started to become available from
ensured that there would be a clean fire Early movie prints were made of extremely the early 1950’s, but some nitrate film was
with no smoke. flammable nitrate film. Two people always still in circulation until the 1960’s. The last
had to be in the projection room to quickly serials shown at the Renown in the 1960’s
By 6.30pm Fred and Wilf would be oiling shut off the carbon-arc light if the film broke were King of the Rocket Men, Fighting
the two projectors and cleaning their or was stuck in the gate, as it could catch fire Warrior, Phantom Empire and Batman.
sprocket teeth and the arc light lamp-houses. within three seconds! These were all nitrate film prints.

In November 1957, the theatre was remodelled,
with a complete roof and a sound-proof “Crying
Room” - the first in North Queensland! After
Alf and Victor passed away, the management
passed to Mrs Silvia Green and her son Russell
in April 1965. Fred became sole operator and
caretaker at the Renown with assistance
by Mr Egan and his wife. Owing to ill
health, Silvia Green closed the Renown in
November 1969 with the final programme
consisting of Fearless Vampire Killers and
1982.
Black Spurs.

Indoor Cricket Days.

CINEM AREC ORD 2012 15