Page 15 - CR-92

person, or persons shut in the boot banged and
hollered to be let out. Maurie always obliged
and promptly charged them double the
admission price.
Jim, a tall man who once ran the Numurkah
theatre for Dad and then became the first TV
announcer when the Shepparton station
opened, was part of my Stargazer team.
When a firebrand driver sped past the ticket
box without paying, Jim hot-footed after him,
being led a merry chase along ramps where,
each time he almost caught up, the driver
accelerated off. It played havoc with Jim's
normal good humour so, in desperation, he hid
by a patron's car and leapt out to grab the
errant driver by the shirtfront as he drove by.
"Mate!" Jim yelled, "when I tell you to stop,
bloody well stop!" The offender dropped his
foot hard onto the gas pedal so Jim swung his
free hand, which brandished a metal lantern-
torch, into the windscreen, shattering it.

Fearing dire consequences, Jim raced towards
the buildings for sanctuary, bearing a slightly
dented torch in one hand and the collar off a
blue-check shirt in the other. Behind he heard
the wayward driver lament, "This is me
brudder's car. He'll kill me for taking it!" Jim,
once securely locked in the projection room,
watched the car drive out before returning to
the ticket box.

After interval one evening, a young lady
walked out the exit gate, an odd sight
considering we were well out of town. "She
must have had a blue with the boyfriend," Jim
presumed.
At the end of the screening, one patron's car
remained after the others left, which was not
uncommon as people often needed to be
awakened. Jim wandered over and, after
beckoning for me to come there, grinned
while indicating a naked man lying prostrate
across the front seat, his foot tightly wedged
The glass slide projector
in the glove compartment. "Where's June?"
The youth asked. "She went for help ages
walkway by the L-shaped counter in the cafe. Sometimes he turned up alone, sneaking out ago." "She might have been too embarrassed
Edna added up the cost of his soft drink, of the orphanage without the brothers to ask and walked home?" I knowingly
bucket of chips, hamburger and choc-top ice knowing, and entering the drive-in theatre offered. "OW!" he cried out in pain when we
cream. "That comes to two dollars thirty, through a gap in the fence. Telling him he wrenched his foot free and then, without
Mark," she told him. He counted the exact didn't have to pay admission fell on deaf ears, bothering to dress, he started the engine and
amount from his purse into his hand and evasion being the fun of the exercise. At those sped off.
proceeded to the check out, pausing along the times he always bought eight boxes of
way to add items from the sweets display to Fantales or Minties, shoving them down his Film industry people gossiped about the upset
his purchases. shirt after paying for them. We presumed he wife who, knowing her husband had taken a
took them back to the orphanage to share with floozy to a drive-in theatre, tearfully rang the
"How are you tonight, Mark?" greeted Dot, at others until the night he was discovered manager and persuaded him to make this
the check out. "Fine!" Mark shouted, handing circled by mares in the horse paddock, feeding announcement over the speakers: "Would the
her two dollars and thirty cents. "No, Mark. It them lollies. God certainly looks after his customer with another woman please go home
comes to four dollars and ten cents," Dot own, as anyone else unwrapping sweets in to his distressed wife?" Fifteen cars drove out.
corrected. Mark pointed at Edna and yelled, front of impatient horses would have been ✶
"She said it was two dollars thirty!" At this trampled to death, especially by bossy Rosie
point other customers watched with who chased other mares away from feed bins. (The final part of David Scott’s story will
amusement. "But Mark ..." Dot started to appear in the next issue of CinemaRecord).
explain. "Dot!" Edna attracted her attention, Maurie was far and away the most alert car
shaking her head and waving the palms of her hop, recognising vehicles whose back ends
hands. "Oh! You're right, Mark," Dot said, were slung too low, as well as noticing others
cottoning on. "Thanks for pointing it out to stopping on the road outside to transfer Images:
me." "Anytime!" Mark declared, his chest passengers into car boots. Rather than
swelling as he carried his precious bounty challenge drivers at the ticket box, he David Kilderry collection.
Ron Hanel collection.
back to the bus. followed them to where they parked, standing
behind the vehicle until the unfortunate

CINEMARECORD # 92 15