Page 17 - CinemaRecord #11R.pdf

In 19551 had a heart problem and continually lifting and carrying and setting up the portables took its toll, so we
closed Dookie. We then fitted out Murchison with the RCA portables with RCA sound, Stanhope with Cummings
and Wilson with Pyrox sound, and Rushworth with Cummings and Wilson and Raycophone sound. Photophone
Theatres was named from the projection plant of RCA photophone portables. Those days Stanhope was a gold
mine.

My wife Lindsey sold the tickets and I had a lad called Mickey Mahoney assisting me. We used to paste
billboards in every town, and have dodgers or hand bills printed which advertised nine weeks of movies.

We had an experience with nitrate film at Mooroopna where the film got jammed up in the gate and about
1 OOOft (11 mins) of film went up. The only thing I found that cleaned the burnt film off everything was, of all
things - water!

When Cinemascope arrived, I purchased a pair of Australian made anamorphic lenses from a Tom Halpert of
Surfers Paradise, Queensland. I even had Cinemascope before McMillans of Shepparton. The lens cost 168
pounds ($336) for the pair. Our screen advertising was by Val Morgan and the rep was a fellow from Kilmore
called Ted Ryan.

With the onset of television the first theatre to close was Murchison, then Stanhope, and then Rushworth with
the last screening of "Son of Captain Blood" in 1966.

Jim Walshe - Photophone Theatre Rushworth

After Jim's retirement from screening movies he ran a shop for a short time then joined the PMG (Telecom)
until his retirement at the age of 60. Jim resides in Rushworth with son Brian, still has a keen interest in movies,
and is looking forward to his 80th birthday in July.