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Selected Short

Subjects

David Kilderry

The phrases Full supporting
programme* and Selected short
subjects no longer appear on the
cinema pages of newspapers nor on Advertising for shorts could be bland or detailed.
theatre marquees. Gone are the rigid
11.00, 2.00, 5.00 and 8.00; or morning, The reason they outlasted the Disney continued with shorts and
matinee, intermediate and night newsreel was practical: they created an cartoons, not only to support their
sessions of old. With the ultra wide interval. Intervals or intermissions in feature production, but to provide
release patterns of the cinema business this era of colour television were vital; material to the education sector (16mm)
today, a film can take more than 50 an opportunity to lure patrons to the and eventually, to Disney’s own TV
percent of its total box-office in its first candy bar. shows. Otherwise it was the
two weeks when screened on the After the box-office, concessions independents which made shorts and
maximum number of screens with the sales ranked as the next most important the few theatrical cartoons from the
maximum number of sessions. There is revenue earner, and exhibitors were not 1970s onwards.
simply no time for shorts, cartoons or about to give up a prime sales During this last decade many of the
newsreels in today’s cinema. opportunity. Shorts filled out a program best cartoons and shorts from the
The mid-1970s to the mid-1980s to around two and a half hours, with an previous 50 years were re-issued to
was the last era of shorts in the cinema. intermission at around the 30-45 minute maintain program content.
For almost 80 years Hollywood, Britain mark. This sat neatly with the four These revivals often provided a high
and Australia had produced thousands sessions per day at city theatres and the quality and entertaining first half.
of short theatrical films. In fact the single nightly session at suburban and For much of this period I was an
short film predated the introduction of country locations. assistant projectionist, and later
the feature film by over a decade. projectionist, for Greater Union in
Film programs in the golden years Melbourne. The circuit then consisted
generally consisted of two features and of the Russell (six screens), Forum,
a selection of shorts. As feature films Rapallo, Bercy and Chelsea.
became longer and the production of B These ten screens all ran shorts
pictures decreased, the feature was unless a rare ‘feature occupies entire
supported by shorts only. programme’, was scheduled. Films the
The centre-piece of the shorts was length of 2001: A Space Odyssey (re-
always the newsreel, either a local or issued often at this time), A Passage To
overseas edition. By 1970 Cinesound India and The Right Stuff were now less
News (Greater Union) and Australian common.
Movietone News (Fox, Hoyts) were two Drive-in theatres were the first to Three of these Melbourne GU
of the last theatrical newsreels give up on shorts. After the early boom screens could run 70mm films, which
produced anywhere in the world. years the drive-in operator faced a meant the conversion of the projectors
dilemma: what sort of program suited
That year they combined their every session from 35mm to 70mm and
audiences best?
operations and produced a single back to 35mm for the shorts.
weekly edition called the Australian Daylight-saving had a big effect; Greater Union, unlike Hoyts, did
Movie Magazine. This title more audiences felt that they were out later not introduce platters until much latter,
accurately reflected the content. than they really were, so one program a ensuring that assistants were kept busy.
Television news bulletins had been night was an obvious decision. Interval Programs were diverse to say the
giving cinema newsreels a beating for was even more important in a drive-in, least; a story on Australian stamps may
years - immediate news as opposed to as the average customer spent more on have been offered with a 1950s
news a week in arrears. food than in a hardtop. In many cases CinemaScope Tom and Jerry cartoon. A
The Movie Magazine continued patrons made it the evening meal rather thematic approach to programming was
until 1975. Cinesound and Movietone, than just a snack. By the 1960s most non-existent; length dictated which
separately and combined, continued to drive-ins had settled on the double shorts were in the mix.
produce other shorts on various topics, feature, and continued with it for the A new print from the lab could be
some in colour, and these circulated for remainder of their days. coupled with a 30-year old faded,
a few more years. Production of theatrical shorts and ‘splicy’ and brittle print that had spent
cartoons had been winding down since
After the demise of the newsreel months on the deck of a ship after a
the 1950s even though animation
many observers wondered if any shorts circuit of the Pacific islands. These old
departments continued at Warner Bros.,
could survive, but they did, for one prints often required substantial repairs:
MGM and United Artists (Mirisch
final decade, providing the ‘first half’ some literally fell apart as they were
DePatie-Freleng) until the late 1960s or
of the show. wound on the bench.
early 1970s.
6 2006 CINEMARECORD