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was designed to look like an atmospheric garden with blue wallpaper on the ceiling covered with gaudy silver stars.
Repainting in plain blue toned this down. The corner shop was also converted to men's toilets during the reconstruction.

Finally there was a grand re-opening. Jack Oakie in "Rise and Shine" and Anton Walbrook in "Suicide Squadron'', later
known as "Dangerous Moonlight" and fearuring Richard Addinsall's "Warsaw Concerto", a popular musical item still
being played in concert halls.

The most successful films of all at the Glenhuntly were the Technicolor horse racing epics released by Twentieth Century
Fox. "Wings of the Morning", "Kentucky", ''Maryland", ''Home in Indiana" and "April Love" could not fail as the back
of the Caulfield Racecourse was one block from the theatre and many racing industry people lived in the district.

The theatre was completely surrounded by other Hoyts release houses. The New Malvern (Malvern) and the Crystal
Palace (Caulfield) were fust week release, the Renown (Eisternwick) the Glenhuntly second, Bentleigh and Carnegie
third and a fourth week repeat at the Victory (Malvern) if you missed it. Independent houses were also· in close proximity.

To balance the distribution, Glenhuntly was often given the less attractive mid-week show as a weekend release. Occa-
sionally, if a film brought good word of mouth, patrons could catch it mid-week at Glenhuntly. I remember "Carmen
Jones" playing to a near full house on a Wednesday night.
The early Fifties brought further changes and the release schedule was moved to third week, in parallel with the smaller
Bentleigh Theatre, two miles to the south and doing excellent business. Carnegie dropped back to fourth week.

The arrival of Cinemascope and Stereophonic Sound suited this wide auditorium. The interiors were completely redeco-
rated in soft pinks and greys but the Spanish theme remained throughout. The heavy red stage drapes were replaced with
elegant pink and white vertical striped curtains, giving a new sense of style to the auditorium.

In an area with so many screens showing the same product television soon took its toll. In 1958 the nearby Carnegie
closed and Glenhuntly was restricted to three nights a week. By 1959, the Glenhuntly and a number of other suburban
theatres closed permanently.

The unique design and decor of this building was never really appreciated in what was an "Art Deco" era and every good
suburb had at least one or more competing picture shows. Perhaps this is one of the penalties of being a bit different.

Recollections of Matinees at the New Glenhuntly from Gerry Kennedy

I have fond memories of frequent visits to Hoyts Glenhuntly in the early 1950's. The manager at the time ran a very well
disciplined matinee. As the stalls comprised three sections of seats, the management implemented an apartheid system
to minimise misbehaviour. Boys were seated in the left-hand bank, family in the middle and girls in the right hand
section. The neighbourhood gang went to great lengths to convince the front of house "Nazis" that they were either
related or were part of a birthday party group and so sit together in the middle section.

Just after interval the Manager would come on stage, to the accompaniment of loud booing and whistling from the
audience,.to announce the birthdays. After this, with appropriate gusto, the mob sang the Hoyts Children's Cinema Club
song to the tune of: Here we are again
Happy as can be
All good pals and jolly good company etc

After the matinee the neighbourhood gang would go to the nearby Caulfield Racecourse to see what mischief they could
get up to either at the lake or in the grandstands. Much to my disappointment my family moved to a country town where
matinees were rarely screened in the local town hall.

References: [1] The Dream Palaces Part Two: The Spanish lnfluence by Les Tod and Kevin Cork
Published by Australian Theatre Historical Society Inc
[2] Public Records Office: Building Files
[3] The Film Weekly: Motion Picture Directory, 1957/58 edition
[4) RecollectiQns of the theatre by Brian Miller

Photos: Courtesy - Archives and Wolanski Library, Sydney.
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