Page 16 - CinemaRecord #10R.pdf

The Albury Regent

The Personalities

Down the years, certain personalities contributed much to the entertainment scene in the Border Cities.
Space allows me to mention only a few names. For instance there was George Osbourne, who was in his
seventies before he decided to retire as Manager of the Albury Regent.

George was the gentleman in the dinner suit, who was always there beside the ticket box to welcome the
patrons - a traditional manager who not only looked the part, but played it to perfection.
There was Ron "Rusty" Farmer, who worked as a projectionist at various Albury cinemas for a total of 37 years,
Jack Parnaby who clocked up 46 years in various Border Bio-Boxes, and Richard McCormach who had thirty-
five years as a projectionist to his credit.
But probably the man who excerted the greatest influence in the Albury!Wodonga entertainment scene was
C.H. (Pivot) Smith, the entrapaneur who founded his Pivot Jewellery shop, then spread his interests to include
the Palais de Dance at the Royal Palais, or Theatre Royal; the Mechanics Institute re-named the Plaza
Cinema, and the Regent.

I suppose it's not too fanciful to say that Charles "Pivot" Smith waged a two-pronged and profitable campaign
directed at many of the young "swains" of Albury. Sold them a ticket to a night of romance in the plush lounge
seats in one of his cinemas, or the Palais, where the atmosphere was right for the young Lothario to pop the
question (and in those days, the "question" inferred nothing less than a marriage proposal), and then if the girl
said "yes", it was just a short hop across Dean Street, to Pivot's Jewellery Shop, where he would sell them the
engagement ring!

Acknowledgements: We acknowledge that facts used in this article have been sourced from items published
in the "Border Morning Mail", material researched by Albury author and historian Cliff Chamberlain, and infor-
mation and illustrations supplied by Mr. John Stevens, founder of the Miklos Plaza Film Music Society.