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CINEMARECORD

Nunawading Hall Cinema The Open Air Cinema was a temporary stop-gap measure, of
course, and by 1925 plans had be.en drawn up for the construction
of a Memorial Hall on the site. This was opened in 1926.
The Memorial Hall, Mitcham

If you buy your liquor at a well-known store on Springvale Road
next to the railway crossing you will be visiting the old cinema
that once operated at Tunstall (later renamed Nunawading).
For years a memorial to the fallen stood outside the hall. For a
Today, the only give-away is the old i.ron roof profile visible
simple wooden and plaster building it was graced by a distinctive
when viewed at a distance.
and attractive front elevation with pillars set each side of the
Before modernization of the liquor store in the 1980s the entrance in the classical style. You entered a tiny foyer with the
projection ports and origina 1 fancy pressed metal ceilings were ticket box window in the wall.
clearly observed. The biobox was constructed as a sort of
Seating was of the portable type with a nominal capacity of 325.
mezzanine at the back of the hall by lowering the ceiling at the
foyer to provide sufficient ro<>m above for the box. A refreshment The hall had a fairly unassum ing interior and stage while the
projection box was essentially a structure on stilts at the rear, built
area was provided at the side which has now been incorporated
back into the wall and protruding slightly above the entrance
into the area once used for the cinema. It was quite a small hall
below. A simple vertical ladder led up to the bio box from the
and one assumes could not have seated much more than a
back of the auditorium.
hundred or so people. One has to remember that Tunstall was,
even in the 1920s, a busy a:rea because of the large complex of The Memorial Hall operated first as a silent cinema, but in June
potteries and brickworks that were operating along the railway 1931 the talkies came. Regular film shows were finished by the
just east of the station. start of the 1960s, the last operator being described as Mitcham
Pictures Pry Ltd ... However, films continued to be shown right up
Soldiers Memorial Open Air until the demolition of the Memorial HaJJ as it was the home of
Cinema Mitcham the Blackburn and Mitcham Film Society who screened on 16mm.
I remember screening films myself from the box on several
Public meetings were urging a hall to be buiJt at Mitcham for the occasions at the end of the 1960s. Despite considerable public
Returned Services League. Fund-raising activities were conducted outcry the Memorial Hall was demolished by the Council in 1988
over the next few years and by 1921 land had been purchased on
to make way for a "commercial development" which took a long
the comer of Whitehorse Road and McDowell Street. Because of
time in coming. Many local arts groups lost their only affordable
the universal popularity of movies, the League decided to create, home with the passing of the ball.
initially, an open air cinema on the block of land. In a pamphlet
published in 1968 the League recalls the Open Air Cinema that Town Hall Cinema, Ringwood
started life in 1921:
' A working bee erected a fence around the block. A wooden
screen was erected and seats were made to accommodate 400
persons excluding the pianist. Carpenters and labour were
supplied by Ausr. Tesselated Tile Co. Prior to each screening the
Committee had ro spend hours in erecting hessian screens on the
wires around the top of the 6ft. [ 1.8 metre] picket fence ... Then
we had to contend with the full moon rising in the east and pitting
its light against the picture beam. There was no automatic switch-
over from one machine to the other in those days, and the
audience had to wait whilst the reels were changed'.
Recollections of audience members, recorded by the Nunawading
Historical Society, recall that the open air c inema was
understandably chilly on cold nights (Mitcham has its own special
brand of unpredictable weather!) but a great crowd pleaser.
Young boys would climb trees for a free view and child
Picture-going in Ringwood was a classier affair as movies shared
admissions were 3d (three cents) or free if you sneaked in through
the rear lavatories! the substantial Town Hall on Whitehorse Road almost opposite
the railway station entrance.

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