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Facts About The White, asked Eberson to prepare moment selecting fifty musicians to
drawings for the Capitol Sydney,
form the State Orchestra (30) and the
State based on Eberson’s Riviera in Omaha. State Showband (20.)
White supervised the construction of On the stage you will meet the
Everything about the State was the Sydney theatre while his colleague worlds greatest artists selected from
big. No other theatre opening in Charles Bohringer, (Bohringer Taylor the 1500 stage stars of the Keith-
Melbourne was preceded by seven and Johnson), did the same in Albee-Orpheum Circuit New York,
weeks of daily newspaper columns Melbourne. Much of the elaborate together with the more famous
extolling its wonders. Facts About The interior plasterwork, including the Australian players, supported by the
State prepared the public for the statuary for both the Capitol and the State Corps de Ballet. Wonderful
cinema experience of a lifetime. State was sent from the U.S.A. The Australian girls, chosen for their
Readers were invited to write in for a statues were cast by the Michelangelo beauty and ability to interpret the
free booklet that would expand on the Studio Boston, a company controlled dance, adding a deft touch of superb
marvels of the new theatre. by Eberson. showmanship to this wonderful
The descriptions that follow are a Seating. ‘The actual seats have entertainment’.
mix of original text and interpretation, been created from the original chairs in Entertainment Plus. ‘The theatre
including comment from other sources. the lounge of the Roxy theatre New will open daily at 10.30 am, the
At the time the column started, the York. No discrimination will exist, all entertainment running continuously. At
theatre was far from finished. patrons will receive exactly the same 10 30 our Attache Corps will conduct
Forget the Past. “Think of the first treatment. We claim that the seats in patrons on a tour of inspection. These
‘motion picture theatres’, little stuffy the State will excel in comfort any young gentlemen, chosen for their
darkened places of uncomfortable seats in any theatre in the world’. appearance and education will describe
seats, often merely benches, plain The State was never the 4,000 seat the theatre’s many wonders and will be
walls, with sometimes a few gaudy whopper claimed, (a legend that dies ready to answer any questions.
decorations, and the noisy whirr of the hard) but it was always the biggest. Four sessions will prevail, the first
machines at the back. But as unlike Apparently opening with a capacity of at 11.00 being the early shoppers
even as an ordinary new motion 2050 seats in the stalls and 1372 in the session. The afternoon or Matinee
picture theatre is to the tin shed, so balcony, a total of 3371, seating was Deluxe session will take place at 2.15
does the State stand alone, a pioneer in increased in 1930 to 2043 and 1377 to pm while at 5.00 a special session is
the Australian entertainment field, a make 3420. One patron complained being set aside for the convenience of
monument to beauty, a theatre of the about conditions at a matinee in April those remaining in town, and for
finer arts, decoration, modern music 1929. ‘The place was crowded. People distant residents. At 8.00 the Evening
and screen presentation. To be in the standing two deep in the aisles from Deluxe session will take place. At
State will be like lingering in a the back of the theatre to the stage. 11.00 and 5.00 the musical
beautiful Old World garden, bordered The aisles are so narrow that two accompaniment will be provided by
by graceful walls of Florentine people cannot stand abreast in them.’ the State Wurlitzer. The full
architecture. Pieces of famous statuary, In 1957 Film Weekly listed the entertainment of Leon Rosebrook and
real trees, hanging gardens and the capacity as 3427. the State Unit Orchestra and Frank
charm of old Florence everywhere! Comparative costs. Ben M. Hall Lanterman at the console of the mighty
Overhead the blue vault of summer in The Best Remaining Seats points out State Wurlitzer and the Stage Band,
night skies, star-lit and perfect, with that an ‘atmospheric’ cost about will be offered in conjunction with the
little gently moving clouds.…..there one–fourth as much to build as the pictorial entertainment at 2.15 and 8.00
will be summer skies forever in the standard marble, crystal and ormulu o’clock’.
State Theatre”. model. The plaster vault of the ceiling Table Talk wrote of this approach,
They Must Be Giants. Seven was cheap in comparison to the cost of ‘This mixed form of entertainment,
hundred men (some reports say 800) a classic dome with a chandelier. Of though new, is evidently declared to be
worked three shifts a day and later, course publicity did not talk about this, popular, for it received an enthusiastic
24 hours a day, seven days a week for it emphasised the ambience: ‘The sky reception on Saturday night.’
seven months, generating a weekly dome allows of no central light, nor Of National Significance is the
wages bill of £4500. “However will any huge chandelier, so that some classification given the State/Forum
they get ready?” is the question asked beautiful old Florentine tones will steal by the National Trust of Victoria. Their
every minute by the passing crowd. in through many places.’ 1994 citation says of the exterior
The cranes on site carried the words Music and Dance. ‘Frank ‘…the most exotic and ornate of all
‘Watch the Mighty State Grow,’ and it Lanterman, wizard of the organ from picture palaces in Australia (perhaps of
did. the 4000 seat Metropolitan Theatre any city building), an eclectic
Design credits. Each of the Los Angeles will take charge of the combination of Moorish, Moghul and
‘atmospheric’ theatres opened by £25,000 Wurlitzer. Mr Lanterman says Alhambresque elements’. ★
Union Theatres were based on a that it is the biggest ever sent out of
designs supplied by John Eberson, the America by the company.
father of the concept. On a theatre tour Leon Rosebrook, director of music
of the U.S.A., Stuart Doyle, Managing has been Orchestra Leader for Florenz
Director of Union Theatres, Ziegfeld, Earl Carroll and the
accompanied by architect Henry Shuberts. Mr. Rosebrook is at the

28 2003 CINEMARECORD