Page 12 - untitled

11. "SOUTHERN" HAMPTON & "ROXY" SANDRINGHAM

The following articles are reproduced with the kind permission of Graeme Disney and Valerie Tarrant
from their book "Bayside Reflections"- A History and Heritage of Sandringham, Hampton, Black Rock
and Beaumaris. Publication still available from Disneys Newsagency in Hampton & "good bookshops".

The Picture Theatre
The habit of "going to the pictures" began in the days of silent movies, continued with the advent of sound film,
suffered a decline when television arrived (in 1956 in Melbourne for the Olympic Games) and revived, to some
extent, in the 1980s. Moving pictures revolutionised entertainment and for most people they became a major
source of recreation.

"Soldiers of the Cross", made in 1900 for the Salvation Army, is said to be the first full-length feature film in the
world. Six years later, the Tait Brothers made "The Story of the Kelly Gang".

In the early years of the century, special picture houses were built to accommodate audiences. Often, the black
and white moving pictures were interspersed with words in decorated frames, or words were placed underneath
the action shots. Many people recall the pianists who played populartunes to accompany the films.The designers
of the 1920s picture theatres made them large and ornate. Rudolph Valentino became a star and it is said that
women swooned over his performances in "The Sheik" and "Blood and Sand". The Sandringham Theatre, later
known as the Roxy, became important to the lives of many City of Sandringham residents.

The Australian film industry flourished in the days of silent black and white movies, but suffered a huge set-back
when sound pictures developed. The great movie magnates of the United States had enormous budgets to
spend, and the Australian Government did not introduce tariffs to protect the Australian industry. Consequently,
by the 1930s, Hollywood stars were becoming better known to Australian audiences than Dad, Mum, Dave and
Mabel of "On Our Selection" or the characters of the important "The Silence of Dean Maitland".
Looking back to the 1940s and early 1950s, residents recall Saturday matinees, Saturday nights at the Roxy and
the Black Rock to Sandringham electric tram. Miss Alma Good body, from Black Rock said that "we went to the
pictures in Sandringham. We walked down to save the tram fare but got the tram home for about 2d. or a bit
more". Her visits to the pictures in Sandringham stopped when she left her job at Semco and joined up as a
nursing orderly in the A.M.W.A.S. She was posted to Queensland and then to Port Moresby, where she served
during the Australia-U.S. campaign against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea.

Jim Bisset, resident in Bay Road, recalls Saturday nights at the Roxy and, in his boyhood, the habit of "chasing
the tram up the hill afterwards ... we would hop on the back and get a free ride."

When the Roxy was demolished, Sandringham lost a piece of community life. The Tulip Street Drive-in
succeeded it, and remained popular for several years, but in the 1980s that too closed down. Now, although
amateur live theatres flourishes in the City and thousands of residents watch videos in their own homes. there
is no longer a picture theatre.

The Flicks
Hoyts Southern Theatre was by far the largest and most imposing building in the Hampton Shopping centre.

With its bold square facade with HAMPTON THEATRE across it, its long curved verandah and large illuminated
HOYTS sign, it dominated the street on the site that is now Safeways supermarket. Today's children with their
colour television and electronic education and amusement, understandably have little concept of what it was like
when, apart from the wireless, a weekly visit to the cinema to watch "the pictures" or "the flicks" was our sole
means of entertainment.

During the 1940s "Saturday Arvo" to us kids meant the matinee at Hoyts, a ritual to be departed from only in
summer when it was a good beach day. The matinee started at about one o'clock and was extremely popular,
so much so that a queue of children often started to form shortly after eleven, and by the time the doors opened,
this often reached Coles. The program opened with the newsreel by Cinesound or Movietone, followed by
cartoons, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse or Mighty Mouse from Terry Toons, and these were especially popular
because they were often the only films in colour.

Then came the serial. Oh how this dominated our lives for the following week, as we agonised over the likely
fate of our current hero. Would the Phantom, left last Saturday up to his chin in the sucking swamp, live to fight
on for justice in the jungle? Today's watchers ofT. V. 's small screen could not imagine the gasp of relief, drawn