Page 30 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2002 #37

HOME THEA TRE
The PRINCE GEORGE

Revisited

by Ron Lo w e
ike most men (and women,
although it seems to be a
L man’s thing), my passion
for the cinema stretches back to
childhood, and it started off with my
first magic lantern when I was about
nine years of age. In 1949 I began
attending the Centre Theatre (now
Brighton Bay) in North Brighton on
Saturday afternoons and, after the show,
I would go around to the back of the
theatre where, on a good day, I would
find 35mm off cuts in the rubbish bin. I
set up my first theatre in my bedroom
with a blanket fixed with wooden
clothes pegs over four chairs and, with
the help of a small magic lantern
together with cardboard and pencil to
make signs and tickets, the scene was
set. My friends would enter the theatre
(full house of two) to watch off cut
Projectionist Reg Jones and Jan the lolly girl outside the Prince George
stills featuring the King, followed by a
still of Heckle & Jeckle then the main
We were living at Highett at the years ago. We were now living in a
feature was a mixed assortment of stills,
time and, by knocking a couple of different house and the urge again took
heavily dependant upon what had
portholes through a wall which divided over to convert the rear room into what
recently been showing at the Centre
the toilet from the rumpus room, I was I call a theatre, although the purists
Theatre.
able to set up the Ampro in the toilet, would simply call it an audio/visual
A few years later, I began taking
although things became a little room. Certainly, it contains all my
8mm movies and, later again, in the
awkward during interval! I hired films vinyls, tapes, CD’s and now, DVD’s.
early 1970’s, I purchased a Pathe Webo
for the weekend from Village
16mm camera and an Ampro Major
Roadshow at a cost of $40, whereby 20
projector.
people would kick in $2 each and I
would have to have the film back by
Monday morning. Friends would also
bring a plate and, after the movie, we
would shift the chairs back against the
wall and have supper, followed by
dancing to recordings of Frank
Johnsons’ Fabulous Dixielanders, Ray
Noble’s Orchestra and Bill Haley and
The Comets.
The cost of 16mm film, including
developing, was about half a week’s
wages for four minutes, so I quickly
became pretty good at filming, having
also made most of my mistakes on
8mm in earlier days. Those 16mm films
of our children growing up are
absolutely priceless and would be the
first things I would grab should the
house catch fire.
Soon the cost of hiring films was
out of reach, and videos began to make In the mood: one inanimate lolly boy
their mark. I sold my equipment, and and a wall of posters behind back
Ticket box other interests took over until about four stalls patrons.

30 2002 CINEMARECORD