Page 19 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2002 #37

style, the Regent expressed a vigorous suburb to come and see for
romantic style. One was a theatre to himself he looked at the
admire, the other a theatre to love. In curtain and sniffed, “Pyjama
terms of the basics of sight and sound, material”. But it was one of
Gardiner was still the equal of the the theatres’s endearing
newcomer. Even so, audience loyalty aspects; any hint of
was tested. The tide of numbers began pretentiousness was
to wash back to Camberwell. undermined. There was no
At about this time bulges in the overdressing of the stage
side walls were noticed. Girders were with a valence or swags, no
bolted on to check further movement. effort made to conceal the
The west wall was the worst affected globes within the open weave Cameo figures indicative of the many designs used.
and was painted red, which must have of the proscenium arch. The The author was able to souvenir these during demolition.
increased heat absorption. The cause band of light across the stage The same decoration can be seen at The Princess and
of the movement was attributed to the was a simple effect, even a Athenaeum theatres and in the former Regent Thornbury.
vibration from trams as they clattered brazen one. The curtain of It was also used in the Merri North Fitzroy.
Their dimensions are 90 x 60cm.
across the points directly outside and the backdrop in the orchestra
from the more distant trains. In the pit did not match the main curtain (it had always been; one week after The
days of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc was white satin, the same as the inner New Malvern.
system, tram tremors would jump the curtains). The ceiling dome was a When the interior was re-painted in
needle across the record until feature in itself, not the frame for a 1958, the original colours of cream and
projectionist Clarrie Tyrell devised a chandelier. On cold nights, with the ivory walls with the figurines in blue
(9)
way to dampen the vibration . boiler stoked and the foot warmers too oval frames became heritage yellow
One current view is that the curved hot to touch, the pressure from cold highlighted by gold brushstrokes. A
roof was the real cause. On a span as air in the stage space would balloon ‘dimming down’ began, as if the light
large as Gardiner, gravity was the curtain across the footlights. In display was too extrovert for the times.
‘flattening’ the roof, forcing it out against this strange equilibrium, light glowed The open weave proscenium was filled
the walls. No cracks were ever seen in through the curtain to make unusual in and the curtain of the pit covered by
the brickwork at ground level. Faulty patterns. Links of chain were visible ply board. The wall lamps were
(4)
foundations were not the problem . where they had worn through the removed. As a partial compensation the
material. boxes were lit, their curves outlined by
As Good As It Gets Cinemascope brought technical gold velvet hung across the doors. The
I was taken to The Regent at the perfection to the theatre with the pendants over the balcony and in the
age of two and was under its influence perfect frame for the wide screen. foyer were replaced by the plaster
from an early age but my objective Brought forward to just behind the candelabras that infiltrated all Hoyts
memories are from its last decade. By curtain, the new screen became the suburban theatres.
this time the place of this Regent in third largest in the suburban chain Before these changes, I enjoyed one
the first family of theatres meant little, (after The Victory St Kilda and The moment as a self-appointed advisor. I
it was simply one of the handsome Regent Fitzroy) (10) . The four-track guessed that a youth speaking directly
theatres in the chain. stereophonic sound maintained the to the manager about showmanship
aural supremacy. would not be smart, so I set out my
In display cases the theatre was
shown as linked to the trappings of The theatre was always well idea in a letter. In this theatre of light,
royalty - a crown on a red velvet maintained but its fortunes had turning all of them off around the stage
cushion, but Gardiner was not a changed. When Hoyts introduced the during the Val Morgan slides seemed
‘velvet’ theatre. The reality was more ‘simultaneous with city’ policy and too extreme. My suggestion was - why
adventurous. The main curtain was called them ‘Regency Releases’, their not just dim the arch? On my next visit
unbleached heavy cotton with green last call on any residual magic in the that was the way it was done.
stripes. In the beam of the top lights name, South Yarra and Thornbury By the mid-fifties the walls were
(4)
and footlights this curtain shimmered. were in the club, but Gardiner was bulging again . Cleaning up flakes of
When I invited a friend from another not. Programming stayed the way it plaster in the side aisles became a daily
routine. Of course the public were
never aware of this. Technical specialist
Arthur Pyers came out almost weekly
to align the image to the screen (11) . In
1958 external steel rods were locked to
the rafters and encased in brick
buttresses. This time the west wall was
painted silver. The owners of homes
along the side street now had the sun
reflected into their front rooms from
this massive surface, a sort of private
Flush doors replaced the original doors to the stalls in 1941. A seven-side ticket box version of daylight saving.
(the ‘point’ faced the stalls) became an octagon. The booking office window and Gardiner was the first prestige
manager’s office were to the left. (Source: Public Records Office)
CINEMARECORD 2002 19