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CINEMARECORD

[15 cents), children half price. On the opening night half the net
profit will be donated ro the Blackburn and Mitcham branch of
the Ladies Benevolent Society'.
Public Hall, East Burwood

The East Burwood Public Hall was officially opened by the Hon.

constructed above the original entrance in Doncaster Road (now
closed off) and was accessed internally by the projectionists.
Memorial Hall, Templestowe

Further north again is Templestowe where, in 1922, a substantial

A.E. Chandler MLC on 14th February 1925. It still stands
essentially as it was buUt, apan from an extension added in more
recent times to the western side of the hall.
It was a standard rectangular-shaped weatherboard building with
the projection box built above the entrance and reached by an
external wooden stair (now removed to deter vandals).
Inside, it was typically sparse, with a stage ser high complete with
maroon stage curtains. It is believed to have been last regularly
used for films in the lme 1960s.
The remarkable thing about the East Burwood Public Hall was
that it was set in a relatively sparsely-settled area on Burwood
Road and, in order to function successfully. must have drawn its
clientele from a fairly wide area.
brick hall was built. making use of a pre-existing timber
Of course, adjacent to the hall was the Methodist Church's Tally Mechanics lnstiture Hall constructed in 1883.
Ho Boys Home. a self-sufficient commercial farming operation
The new Hall was designed as a memorial for World War I
which had been opened in 1905. By the 1920s the farm was
servicemen. It was planned to be a multi-purpose structure with a
accommodating some 100 boys and their social needs were
supplied, in pan, by films screened at the East Burwood Hall. ft stage for live performances while a projection box was added for
the screening of silent films during the 1920s. The box was sited
can be imagined how popular these films must have been for boys
above the small entrance foyer, extending slighlly into the hall to
separated from their inner suburban families and involved in
provide greater space inside and accessed by an internal swircase.
strenuous farm work all day! Imagine the noise at a Saturday
This can be seen in a surviviJlg photograph of the hall's interior
matinee at East Burwood!
dating from 1922.
The TallyHo farm was formally closed in 1976.
Public Hall Glen Waverley.
Glen Waverley was much slower to develop than areas to the
north, as the railway did not come until much later: an extension
of the line from East Malvern to Glen Waverley wasn ·t opened
until i 930. Glen Waverley had only the Public Hall for film
shows with a modest seating capacity of 140. Little is known
about its day-to-day operations as a cinema which appears to have
ceased screenings somewhere in the late 1950s.
The Athenaeum, Doncaster

We must move north to the main area of interest for this study of
cinemas of the outer-east. The Athenaeum Hall still stands in
Doncaster Road although much modernized and serving a wide
range of community uses. It had apparenlly ceased life as a venue
for regular film screenings by the end of the 1950s.
Audience inside Templestowe Memorial Hoi/ /922.
The Athenaeum seated about 250 people. The biobox was

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