Page 12 - CR

My Fair Lady enjoyed a highly successful
long season which ended on Wednesday
15 September 1966. Overnight the cinema
was renamed and re-opened the next day
as The Palladium with Who’s afraid
of Virginia Wolfe?

The smaller Embassy Cinema often
hosted a mix of new or move-over
product, sometimes also leased to
house product for other companies. In
September 1966, it was advertised under After a private Thursday night screening, the
the Metro Theatres banner and screening My Fair Lady / Palladium auditorium was
Mary Poppins! relaunched as East End Cinema One and
opened to the public on Friday June 9, 1972
By 1968 the Palladium was being operated with A Clockwork Orange.
by Palladium Entertainment Centre with an
increased seating of 899 and the Embassy Advertising boasted “Now completely
was being operated by Academy Theatres. renovated with clear-view lounge seating;
8-track stereophonic sound; 70mm wide-
In 1970 Village Theatres Ltd acquired screen projection; air-conditioning and
an interest in the cinemas and a couple central heating!”
of years later embarked on an extensive
program of refurbishing the foyers and Across the other side of the car-park
auditoriums to relaunch them as East drive-way, the Embassy was given a
End Cinemas. cosmetic revamp, but without having to
close at all. On June 1-7, the Embassy
The Palladium was closed for renovations continued screening a week of Sid James in
in May 1972 whilst the Embassy continued Carry on Loving.
screening. The stone amalgam panels in the
Cinema 1 foyers were replaced with timber Overnight it was renamed East End Two
finishes. New carpets and curtaining were and commenced screening James Joyce’s’
fitted and new lighting was installed in the Ulysses on June 8. This program was
foyer. “Rated R” and perhaps set a trend for the
smaller auditorium which would often
New signage was installed throughout the resort to a more risqué product line-up
complex and the largest illuminated poster in the future.
light boxes in Melbourne were located
between the Cinema 1 laneway entrance and As East End Two, the former Embassy
Bourke Street. pillars and ceiling were painted black
and the walls were redecorated with
orange and black carpet arranged in
angled stripes.

A new third small auditorium was soon
added by utilising part of the large foyer area
of the former Palladium. The walls were
covered with a carpet-like fabric and the
small screen was curtained. Cinemas 2 and
3 were equipped with Bauer projectors and
Speco platter systems.

My Fair Lady/East End 1.

12 2012 CINEM AREC ORD