Page 17 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2002 #37

THE REGENT CONCEPT travelled overseas together collecting licensing laws of the time prevented a
In 1924 Francis W. Thring ideas and decor for the Regent permit being issued for the cabaret, so
conceived the idea of a chain of Theatres of Sydney and Adelaide. Ballantyne reworked the space into a
splendid Regent Theatres across These theatres opened in 1928 in second theatre – The Plaza –
Australia ,and he commissioned Cedric March and June respectively. coincidentally giving Melbourne
Ballantyne to design the first of them. Ballantyne almost certainly worked on Australia’s first multi-cinema complex
Located in the Melbourne suburb of the reconstruction of His Majesty’s in – though Henry White’s Tivoli
South Yarra, it opened in April 1925. Brisbane the following year. Brisbane, opened in 1915, was
The classically-inspired Roman or The Regent site in Collins street - actually two live theatres, one atop the
early French Renaissance style, the opposite the Athenaeum and other. Thring decided that the Plaza
graceful arched proscenium and the air extending to Flinders Lane - had been decor would he Spanish rather than
of restrained elegance set the pattern purchased for £197 by Thomas Napier classical and that, although the
for all of the Regents that were to at the land sales of 1838. Melbourne’s Regent’s auditorium would remain in
follow. Thring was delighted. He set first Baptist church services were held Empire style, its foyers would be given
Ballantyne to work on a Regent for in a tent there. For many years the site an extravagant Spanish Gothic,
Ballarat; this opened in 1928. There is was occupied by the Argus newspaper. cathedral-like decor.
a suggestion that around this time, The site also incorporated Cambridge When the Regent opened on 15
with fellow architect Arthur Russell, Buildings, one of several Collins Street March the papers called it ‘the greatest
Ballantyne remodelled parts of properties owned by Sir George Tallis event in the world for 1929’. The
Ballarat’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, and the Taits. It was from makeshift Plaza followed on 10 May. Meanwhile
though there is no record of such studios in Cambridge Buildings on 13 a smart new office building was
work. October 1924 that one of Melbourne’s nearing completion alongside Regent
Thring had an interest in the first regular broadcasting services, Place, to the west of the Regent-Plaza
Victory Theatre (1921) in St Kilda. 3LO, went to air. The Taits’ complex. Also designed by Ballantyne,
He engaged Ballantyne to upgrade it in Auditorium, used for concerts and it was called Wentworth House,
1927 to compete with the nearby occasional films, was a few doors east possibly in recognition of Thring’s
Palais Pictures. Ballantyne re-worked of the Regent site. birthplace in New South Wales. Its
the auditorium, installed a new Detailed plans for the Regent eastern wall embraced the shops on the
proscenium and built a magnificent Collins Street were submitted in west side of Regent Place. Ernest
new facade and a ‘Regent style’ foyer. January 1928. They provided for a Hillier’s tempting soda fountain was
It re-opened in 1928. large two-level auditorium richly established on the Collins Street
After Ballantyne submitted initial decorated in Empire style, with a corner, with Tim the Toyman a few
plans for Melbourne’s Regent in 1927, luxurious classically decorated grand doors to the south.
the Thrings and the Ballantynes ballroom or cabaret beneath. The strict

The Regent South Yarra (1925).
The first ‘full rainbow’ proscenium and the template for the Regent Ballarat (1928) that was given the almost identical interior.
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