Page 8 - CinemaRecord #11R.pdf

63. Picture Show Man Cinema- Merimbula N.S.W. by Gerry Kennedy

The Picture Showman Cinema is located at number 5A in the Centre Point Arcade, in Market Street Merimbula.
This popular holiday resort is on the Sapphire Coast 470 kms. south of Sydney.

Before Denis Parkes established this cinema, commercial films had not been shown in the area for some time.
Twyford Hall had been the town venue for films over the years, but in recent times the Pambula Drive-In
(demolished) and the Bega Kings (closed) provided cinema entertainment.

Denis Parkes designed the cinema space and has done a remarkable job in converting a shop space into a
cosy and intimate cinema, in just 135 square metres of floor space. Harry Waghorn of the Gala Cinema
Warrawong provided the industry expertise and guidance for Denis in this task.. Every last inch of ceiling
height has been used to accommodate the largest screen possible, given the sight lines from the projector. The
screen is 4.0m wide in widescreen and 5.0 wide for cinemascope .

.....----------------------, The cinema has a stepped, raked floor and seats
94. The comfortable high backed seats are covered
in a blue grey wool fabric and were made by Advance
Australia Theatre Seating. The chairs are arranged
in 7 rows of 12 seats and one row of 10.

The walls are covered in a steel grey coloured front
runner carpet like material. The floors throughout
the cinema are covered in a multi-coloured (mauve,
burgundy and steel grey) patterned carpet. Despite
SA Centrepoint Arcade. Merimbula. 2548
Phone: {064) 95 3744 - AJH: 95 2108 DENIS PARKES the small space the foyer is functional and includes
Mobile: 0 18 4890 15 Director a combined candy bar I ticket selling area and access
L---------------------' to the raised projection room. Toilet facilities are
located elsewhere in the complex.

For the technically minded, the single projector is an Italian Fedi machine with a Cinemeccanica lamp house
powered with 2.5 kw. Xenon lamp. The lamphouse was previously on a slide projector in a Canberra Drive In
theatre. A film platter is used to transport the film. The sound system includes a stereo optical system through
a Yamaha processor and amplifier. Four channels of surround sound are used in conjunction with three channels
of front sound and a sub-woofer speaker.