Page 9 - CinemaRecord #11R.pdf

It was necessary to revive the superior featurettes to cover program shortages and the most successful were
two top quality technicolor twenty minute ballet shorts, 'The Gay Parisienne' and 'Spanish Fiesta'. They were
made at Warner Brothers in 1940 by the Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, who were'··touring America at the
outbreak of war. The Company included Tamara Toumanova, who died just recently and the legendary character
dancer, Leonid Massine. Repeat screenings everx twelve or eighteen months always brought in the ballet fans.
RKO had a number of shorts only available on sixteen millimetre, so an additional projector was squeezed into
the last corner of the bio-box. Lack of an Australian newsreel was also a problem but necessity is the "Mother
of Invention".

Ted Lansdowne at the 16mm projector added to the new bio-box

Mr. Virgona and Staff took four sixteen millimetre silent cameras to the Melbourne Cup and filmed it for the first
time in color. Ted Lansdowne had a scoop when he filmed a fire in a hay storage area on the flat and this was
missed by the professionals. The sound track was recorded on disc but this produced the inevitable syncronisation
problems, particularly the day when the commentator announced the arrival of the State Governor and the
camera showed a horse's rear-end passing by, much to the audience's amusement Eventually, British Empire
Films supplied the Cinesound Review and solved the problem.

Staff included Messrs. J. Lazzaro, W. Scanlan and W. Ladson on the Managerial side, Messrs. E. Lansdowne,
I. Robilliard, W. Bartlett, B. Miller and later on K. Franzi and D. Lanigan in the projection room, two cashiers
and a team of usherettes to complete a happy group.

The arrival of television meant the demise of the newsreels and live shows were tried at one stage. A sensational
anti-smoking film showing a lung cancer operation in full color ran for several weeks and had audiences of the
day fainting in the aisles.

After forty-five years, the Star still continues as the Crazy Horse Adult Cinema, catering for an entirely different
clientele, quite unrelated to the innocent 1950's!