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Personal memories and more by Fred Page

Architecturally we all have a
favourite theatre – mine is the Capitol,
but the Kings was my favourite
entertainment house. My first
awareness of the Kings was in 1942.
My family were keen listeners to Will
Samson’s Community Singing which
was broadcast by 3KZ at 3pm on
Sunday afternoons. I clearly remember
Will Samson saying “…the next
broadcast will be from the Kings as a
screening picture house.” Nearly 50
years later the cutting (above, right)
was given to me:
My next recollection of this theatre
was the queue in the lane to the Upper
Circle for Snow White And The Seven
Dwarfs, which must have been a re-
release. Free chocolate frogs were on
offer to all babes in arms so my
mother picked up my six or seven year
old brother and received her freeby.
The Kings was a live house until
about 1942 when it became the
Melbourne outlet for Warner Brothers
films. Other product was also screened
there, for example Columbia’s The
Jolson Story.
The Kings returned to live shows
in 1949 with Rusty Bugles. Apart from
pantomimes, this was the first play I
had seen. My overwhelming
impression of the theatre was - a flea
pit. Old and dirty, the royal blue stage
curtain had holes and tears emphasized
by the light from backstage that shone Top: Trade
through them. But the play was great announcement of
and I became hooked on live theatre. the initial
My next visit was to a matinee on conversion to film.
Labour Day in 1951. The play was A Centre: The
Message for Margaret set in an program which
apartment during an English winter. hooked Fred Page
The temperature on the day was in the on live theatre.
nineties. The theatre was not air- Bottom: Painting
conditioned and the cast were in winter of the interior
clothes. Well, in spite of the heat, the commissioned by
performance was so convincing that Fred. The
the audience was buttoning up their ‘goddesses’ are
coats to face the cold as they left the suggested above
theatre. (I believe Dr Zhivago the proscenium.
produced the same reaction.)

20 2003 CINEMARECORD