Page 6 - CinemaRecord #11R.pdf

Mind you, it was no ordinary tin roof, being set on rails which enabled picture watching under the sky on warm
evenings. The only trouble was the time taken to close the thing! Well-known CATHS-V identity, Alan Windley,
recalls seeing the roof opened in the 1930's. However when the weather turned sour and the roof could not be
closed quickly enough, ticket holders had to move to seats along the walls to gain some protection from an
unseasonable downpour. Local identity, Laurie Cunningham, found the tin roof a noisy choice.

When it rained, the soundtrack was virtually inaudible and when it didn't, troublemakers habitually threw stones
onto the roof, much to the annoyance of the viewing public!

Still, the Alhambra was doing well to show pictures at all, its opening having been delayed for the best part of
a year when the council building inspector found that doorways were narrower than approved, fire isolation of
the stairway was incomplete, balcony stair handrails were absent in places, and sanitary conveniences and
drainage were unsatisfactory. Allen's "new concrete theatre" was the third of Brunswick's picture theatres and
proved to be the suburb's second longest running cinema (after The Empire). In retrospect it was a curious mix
of extravagant ideas and penny-pinching realities.

Constructed by Johns and Waygood Ltd. of South Melbourne, the frontage incorporated three shops and an
entry to a theatre foyer where patrons purchased tickets and parked their prams and go-carts (a practice that
earned Allen numerous fines). From the foyer, theatre-goers reached the theatre through a double doorway or,
for those in the balcony, via a sturdy jarrah and redwood staircase. Today the original tin roof and proscenium
are the least disturbed aspect of one of the few old picture theatres in Brunswick that is relatively intact.

It seems that Allen was never completely satisfied with the size of his theatre. When a council building inspec-
tor called a month after the official opening he found a carpenter reducing the distance between rows in the
front part of the theatre from the 30 inches required by law to about 27 inches. Two years later, some of the
seats were only 24 inches apart, leading to fines of 1 0 pounds when Allen failed to rectify the situation.
On at least one occasion an inspection during a picture show found the audience substantially exceeded the
approved limit. More than a hundred extra people were found sitting or standing in the main hall or sitting on
chairs in the gallery obstructing the two upper exits. These were arranged asymmetrically, the s.:~uthern door
opening directly from the building to a stairway and Donald Street, while the northern door, reached along an
internal catwalk balcony, opened onto an external wooden staircase.