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5. CINEMAS OF WARRACKNABEAL by Brian Miller

For a small Wimmera town of about 3000, Warracknabeal had many diverse cinema locations and proprietors.

McCombe's Hall/Star Theatre (Scott Street North)- A hall built as an adjunct to the hotel next door, also
known as McCombe's. Used for silent films, with stage facilities for concerts and dances. Converted to a clothing
factory during and after World War II. Eventually condemned and demolished due to movement in the
foundations and subsequent cracking, a common problem in the Wimmera/Mallee.

Temperance Hall/Gardiner's Melba Theatre (Devereux Street) - A fairly large, bam-like wooden
structure, also with stage facilities. The writer remembers attending a special Saturday morning matinee in the
mid-thirties of a Shirley Temple feature. All the children were presented with a cardboard cut-out of the star,
probably a collector's item today. My father rarely attended the movies, however with the family absent in
Melbourne on holidays, he decided to attend the Melba and see the very popular "One Night of Love" with Grace
Moore. His complaint was that having made the effort, he arrived to find the "House Full" sign was out.

Mr. Gardiner, who was also a local undertaker, had a showman's flair and was reputed to have staged live
prologues with props and costumes borrowed from Melbourne cinemas, prior to major silent features. The
opening of the Dalmonte Theatre in opposition must have caused considerable competiition for programmes.
The Melba's orchestra included at times, Mr. Bert Taylor, the town band-master and his daughter, Mrs. Roma
Taylor Ross at the piano. Mrs. Ross MBE, continued playing, organising and producing local church and charity
concerts right up to her death in 1978. A memorial photograph hangs in the town hall supper room for her out-
standing community service.

My uncle, Mr. Arthur W. Harris assisted in The Melba bio-box in the silent era, and had some tales of limelight
arcs, nitrate film in hand-wound projectors and blazing hot summer nights in a wooden building. At 11 .00 pm on
Sunday 24th April, 1938 the town fire bell rang and The Melba and the previous night's film show were razed
to the ground. The "Melba" block of land in a residential street remained vacant except for bonfires on Guy
Fawkes nights until1946/4 7 when it became the site of O'Halloran 's Regent Open-air Theatre. The block is now
occupied by a private residence.

DAL MONTE THEATRE

The Dal Monte Theatre (Scott Street) -This building opened in 1928 and apparently opera-star names were
in vogue. The front of this fairly imposing property remains today, a brick two-story construction consisting of
shops at street level divided by a long corridor (originally with wrought-iron gates) in the ~nntre leading to the