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The State, the Melbourne building to teach tolerance in architecture, is joined by another that needs understanding –
Federation Square. The point of the article that accompanied this picture (The Age 16 Feb. 2001) was that unusual buildings of
each generation help to make an interesting city.
the theatre district. Just as Hoyts were part of town. And if the grand old University of Sydney 1981.
forced to vacate their flagship The building is taken for granted, it’s a Ross Thorne, Picture Palace
Regent, so Greater Union consolidated comfortable familiarity; the exterior is Architecture in Australia, Sun Books,
their screens by building the Russell as much a part of Melbourne as a green Sydney 1976.
C.R. Coster, Melbourne State –
Cinemas. The Forum became The tram. It’s impossible to imagine
Australia’s Greatest Theatre, Kino
Melbourne Revival Centre, its stage Flinders Street without that towering
Magazine March 1987.
facilities used regularly by choirs and dome and the minarets that balance the
for film and slide shows. spire of St Paul’s Cathedral further
This article first appeared in Historic
Now that it is one of the Marriner along the street. Environment Volume VI No.1 1987. It
Theatres, the building has edged The days of crowds and has been updated.
towards entertainment again. Forum I excitement might be gone, but the © Frank Van Straten. Reproduced with
is a quirky space for cabaret, rock shape and scale of what still stands, permission.
concerts and fringe comedy, while give an insight into the pride behind
Forum II returns to cinema at least the words of the opening night
once a year during the Melbourne Film program:
Festival. There is but one State. Never was a
The building carries a National theatre so beautiful…the great State
Trust classification and is recorded by Theatre at the portals of Melbourne –
the Historic Buildings Preservation the notable palace of pleasure ‘neath
Council. the Southern Cross. ★
And so after 84 years the State
survives, even though its original name REFERENCES
has been hijacked by the glittering main State News, Various weekly editions.
theatre at the nearby Victorian Arts Performing Arts Museum Collection.
Centre. Its flamboyant facade is familiar Simon Brand, Picture Palaces and
to – or taken for granted by? – today’s Flea Pits, Dreamweaver Press, Sydney
1983.
crowds as they hurry home, and today it
Terry O’Brien The Greater Union
faces the similarly flamboyant new
Story, Sydney, 1985.
Federation Square. But no longer is the
Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via
city the automatic choice for a night of
U.S.A., Architecture Department,
entertainment, and certainly not in that
CINEMARECORD 2003 27