Page 25 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

TIME TO REFLECT
Whatever the reasoning behind the
choice, the name was original and apt.
It might have been meant as a prod -
time for a night at the pictures - or an
acknowledgment that theatre design
was now different - time for change -
an example of what a modern suburban
cinema should be.
The Time came in on a wave that
swelled in Melbourne in the mid-
thirties and ebbed even before the
construction of the Civic Ashburton in
1948. One look at pictures of the
exterior - the curved entrance, the
brickwork a deep chocolate at the base
grading into bands of pink, the tower
wall designed to integrate the word
TIME in render on the brickwork with
the iconic Hoyts neon - showed it was a
superior example of the genre. Not as
bold as the Padua Brunswick, but
scaled for harmony with the smaller
This emphasis on domesticity had the stall’s exits. Hoyts argued that the
shopping strip around it.
echoes in an argument between Hoyts full expanse of staircase was safe, it
The foyer lounges are a reminder
and the Health Department about the was never crowded, and fitting a
of how completely the Second World
installation of a centre hand-rail for the handrail would unevenly wear the
War shut down domestic architecture.
stairs to the ‘lounge’ foyer. carpet on the left-hand side.
Just in time could have been another
Hoyts didn’t want to put one in Today, domesticity at the cinema
reason for the name, for the foyers
because the staircase didn’t quite work has gone a step further. The best efforts
preview the décor of the building boom
as expected. It taught them an of the multiplex notwithstanding, the
of the 1950s.
interesting fact about human rise of the home cinema, with all its
In the mid-twenties the best of the
psychology. trappings, means that you can pretend
new theatres gave audiences an interior
Hoyts claimed that the stairs carried that you are out when you are in. ★
as far removed as possible from
mostly ‘one-way’ traffic - up to the - I.S.
anything at home. At the Time, the fire-
lounge. To the surprise of the staff,
places, the furniture, the window
patrons preferred to exit the theatre by
trimmings suggest a home away from
walking down the internal aisle steps to
home.
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