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The Plaza had an inner curtain of look like a twelve inch drop. Cheap said to still hang in the fly tower of
alternating white and pink vertical and nasty at best, it was very off- the theatre.
panels that scalloped up to reveal the putting to look at. No wonder the Firm What a disappointment I was to
screen. My Mother always said that lost it. The curtain from Hell! my parents. “I’d rather go the Capitol
this type of curtaining was a health The Comedy over the road had an please; I don’t care about the movie.
hazard, a black hole for the unlucky green curtain that was The red curtain is the most spectacular
accumulation of dust. I was always a replaced by the current dark blue (no red and the standard chandeliers at the
little wary of it. fringe) which was lush and full. There sides of the stage are magic… and I
This curtain was retired when was still a concern here though. If the must see the roof again...” Dead
Cinerama was installed, replaced by an fly-man was not one hundred percent silence.
ugly, plain lolly pink curtain which accurate at the fall of a fast curtain, The Palais St Kilda (opposite) had
curved its way over the vast new the hem chain would hit the stage with a brown house curtain, very stiff
screen. This had replaced a richly an almighty bang and the fly bar looking, which flew out in a stately,
draped and fringed brocade curtain - would descend below the proscenium but solid cement manner. It had a
much more in keeping with the arch, displaying the ties that attached strange woven section of fringe
theatre’s Spanish inspired décor. The the drape to the bar. Exciting! I sat descending to a row of mixed colour
old scalloped rag was not thrown away through endlessly drab plays in the tassels. There was the odd blue tassel
– I remember seeing it in the flies of Comedy just hoping there would be a that seemed to have found itself
the Regent many years later when I bang and a glimpse of the bar above. attached to the wrong job in the
was backstage. Like the Carrolls, Mostly I was not disappointed. workshop. These blue tassels had
Hoyts never threw anything out. The least said the better about the nothing to do with any architectural
The Savoy was a sad cinema not disastrous Glo-mesh pot scrubber rag feature in the theatre. An irritation.
helped by the fact that the last slide at at the Trak Cinema. The curtain really was stiff too, and
interval would remain on the screen The old State had a brightly lit, heavy to operate.
until an usherette found time to dash vivid, crushed gold velvet curtain that I was having a go taking it out and
through the auditorium, enter the stage seemed thin and not quite up to the in one afternoon when the theatre was
doorway (prompt side) and manually full bodied fabric used by rival Hoyts. dark, and I went over to touch it. Ken
close the drape with a series of jerks It didn’t hang heavily either, like Bromley the general manager said,
seldom seen anywhere else in the many other curtains seemed to. “Don’t touch it Bill, your finger will
world. This was the only Melbourne Surprise and rapture! An art deco probably poke a hole through it. It’s so
theatre I didn’t want to enter before curtain was revealed one Sunday old and brittle… and we can’t afford a
the end of the previous session. afternoon at the State at a church rally new one.” During one of the early
Elsewhere it was a treat to do so - advertised as an archaeological slide Melbourne Film Festivals, the house
watch the sequence of curtain, house show – Dead Men Do Tell Tales - a curtain was down as the audience
lights up, fading of house lights, revelation of the mysteries of Egypt. came in on the final night. The
curtains opening, advertisements, There it was, mid stage, concealing intention was to raise it to reveal
more lights fading and curtains the massed choir who sang with verve, Festival director Erwin Rado for the
swishing and, in some theatres a giant if not much finesse. It was magic; a awards announcements.
WurliTzer to entertain us. Then the kaleidoscope of colour and geometric The planned dramatic moment
next session would commence with all design unlike any other in the city. I gave way to the unscripted when, at
the trimmings. It irritated my father no went week after week just to see this the moment of lift, one of the tassels
end when I insisted on arriving early wondrous magical drape and the full on the fringe hooked on to a stray nail
so I see the full changeover. That can’t depth of stage it revealed. in the stage floor. No amount of
happen today. Continuous sessions As part of the makeover for jerking would release it and the
were great. I spent my childhood and Cinemascope the Capitol was given a upward movement ripped off almost a
teen years wagging school to watch stately red, plush house curtain that meter of fringe. To the crew’s credit it
those momentous events. glided smoothly to the proscenium was sewn back by the next session.
But back to colours and drapes. sides with the opening vertical seams Behind this front tab was a French
What a brown study His/Her at 90 degrees to the stage floor; a action curtain of a dried blood brown,
Majesty’s was – brown, brown, brown faultless French-action, discreetly I recall. It too would stick
and then to top it off, a brown house coming to a stop behind the standard occasionally and was eventually
curtain. Well, brownish with hints of chandeliers on either side of the stage. scrapped by the management as
greens and copper in an almost First class! This red drape was a unreliable. (Some say this was a
invisible cross weave. No matter how replacement for the original art deco lustrous silver satin, fringed at the
drab, it was superior in every way to one that was bundled backstage in a bottom.)
the ghastly, ill-fitting red replacement corner. It was green if I remember I could go on. The stiff, painted,
of the 1980s. Pulls in the seams, fabric correctly, with diamond deco vertical red house curtain of the Victorian Arts
cut short (or not enough of it) crooked panels. I never saw it hanging, but the Centre State Theatre (top, page 6), a
in the drop and a false addition at the photos of it are spectacular. (See replacement for the planned
bottom running horizontally, with two CinemaRecord 39 p6). This curtain is embroidered tapestry which John
rows of tacky fringe to try to make it

8 2003 CINEMARECORD