Page 14 - CinemaRecord #10R.pdf

"Ten Commandments" ran for nine days at the "Royal" at a time when programs were normally changed twice
weekly.

Touring stage shows in the 1920's used the venue, and it was also sub-let for prize-fighting. In later years
notable performers such as Anna Russell and Jack Davey appeared on the "Royal Stage", and on one occa-
sion Australia's Amateur Hour was broadcast from there. The area used as an open air cinema was later turned
into a huge ballroom and skating rink designed to accomodate about 2,500 people. One New Year's Eve an
estimated 3200 people crowded the place. One must assume that the ballroom held 2500 comfortably, and
3200 intimately.

The Royal Palais

By now, the theatre and/or Palais were the property of a Mr. Charles Smith, known affectionately in Albury as
"Pivot" Smith, because he had earlier established a Jewellers Shop in Dean Street, Albury called "The Pivot
Jewellers". It is the grandson of "Pivot" Smith who now controls Albury's Regent Theatre- but more of that
later.

Alas, the Theatre Royal, alias the Royal Palais, is no more. The complex was purchased by Blacklocks, the
Ford dealership, and transformed into what has been described as the most extensive used car yards and
panel shops between the Capital Cities. It is now a huge super K-Mart.

But in its' hey-day, the Theatre Royal was the epitome of Cinema excellence. A somewhat ingenuous journalist
writing in the local press in 1920, 5" years after the theatre opened, was obviously desperately searching for
superlatives to describe this paragon of picture palaces, and its' effect on Albury's citizens.
We quote: Pictures unquestionably are the people's entertainment. To stand and watch the crowds
leaving the Royal on a Saturday or Wednesday night and note the representative audience,
business, and professional men, working men, women and children, all happy, is a sight that
impresses one with the fact that this form of entertainment is without a rival. The merit of the
Royal's programmes, of course, has much to do with the popularity achieved.

With the growth of Albury in the 1920's, a farsighted gentleman called Betro Abicare financed the building of an
ornate and magnificent picture palace, the "Regent" in Dean Street. Construction was commenced in 1926,