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Odyssey finished its run at the end of The Party, a 70mm revival of West Side earlier in the year. (When this venture
June 1968. Hoyts at the time were short Story, Omar Sharif as Che (Guevara) failed the Athenaeum reverted to
of 70mm outlets. Their Cinema Centre and Anthony Quinn dancing across the films.)
was not to open until June 1969 and the screen yet again as Zorba The Greek. When the Plaza closed in
Esquire and Paris, the two other None of these seasons lasted too long. November, Ted Sharry the Plaza’s
70mm houses, were tied up with long The last gasp of Cinerama was surviving projectionist, then crossed
runs. Hawaii had to run at the Krakatoa East Of Java. It was a school back over Collins Street to resume
Athenaeum in 35mm and The Bible,in holiday attraction and that was all that operating at the theatre he had left 12
70mm was give to the Capitol, which saved it. The people who realized that years earlier in order to work at
had long ceased to be a Hoyts theatre. Krakatoa is west of Java avoided it. It Cinerama.
Around The World In Eighty Days was was a less than mediocre film and a sad The fittings from the Plaza and
due for a tenth anniversary re-release end to Cinerama in Melbourne. Regent were sold at auction late in
and for the first time in Melbourne in The Plaza did end in a blaze of 1970. The Plaza’s organ had been
70mm TODD-AO. (The 1958 season at glory, however. Hoyts had booked a hit removed in 1968 and sold to the
the Esquire had been in 35mm into the place, Butch Cassidy And The Theatre Organ Society. It was installed
Cinestage, a non-standard anamorphic Sundance Kid. It ran from 26 February in the auditorium of a private school in
process.) It was now to go into the 1970 and closed the Plaza on 4 Adelaide, where it remains today. The
Plaza. November 1970. Cinerama equipment and prints were
For legal reasons, Cinerama’s While Butch Cassidy continued at sent to a Hoyts warehouse in Sydney,
equipment could not be used for the Plaza, above it the Regent, once where they were eventually joined by
presenting non-Cinerama shows. This the prize of the Hoyts chain, closed in the equipment from the Sydney Plaza
meant that in order to present Around June 1970. Hoyts had investigated the which closed in 1977.
The World In Eighty Days the Cinerama possibility of ‘twinning’ the Regent in The equipment then went in various
vertical louvred screen would have to be the same way Greater Union had directions. Four of the arc-lamps went
replaced. A ‘single-sheet’ conventional twinned the State, but decided that it to Victorian Drive-In theatres. Two of
screen following the same curve was was more practical to build the Cinema the projector heads were restored to
installed and the Altec-Lansing speakers Centre, three modern auditoriums with conventional 35mm use and went to a
were replaced with second-hand a common foyer, restaurant and office Sydney outer suburban theatre. Some of
Westrex A4 units. There was no loss of tower above. Once this opened the the equipment ended up in private
sound quality. A conventional Westrex Regent’s fate was sealed. hands. It was frequent practice
six-track stereo sound system was also
It was a strange night-time sight, the throughout the world for Cinerama
in place, complete with an ‘integrator’
once inviting entrance now dark while equipment to be abandoned where it
for split left, rear and right sound on the
the Plaza was lights and bustle. If the stood. Even today, 35 years after the
surround track. The special Cinerama
Regent had to go, so eventually would last official screenings, equipment and
lenses were also replaced and the screen
its small sister. prints pop up from time to time, and in
slightly reduced in width. There was a unlikely places.
The Plaza might have been
small problem of cross reflection of
Cinerama continued for a few years
light from one side of the screen to the
as a film distributor. The last 70mm
other. The film ran for three months.
show it released was Song of Norway.
Further technical decline was to It ran at the Cinema Centre for a year.
follow. The next film was not even The Cinema Centre had been
70mm. It was The Fox, a tasteful but equipped with deeply curved screens
avant-garde tale of suppressed lesbian and genuine Cinerama projection
love. Art films were becoming lenses, but there was never another
mainstream cinema fare and it ran for a Cinerama presentation.
month. It looked satisfactory on the
The Regent and Plaza were
masked down screen. The Christmas
purchased by the Melbourne City
attraction, The Charge Of The Light
Council and lay derelict for 25 years.
Brigade was at least Cinemascope and
The story of their rescue and restoration
it did good business. After that, there
is well told by Frank van Straten in
was a return to 70mm Cinerama with
The Regent Theatre –Melbourne’s
Custer Of The West and Ice Station
Palace of Dreams. The Sydney Plaza
Zebra, which finished at the end of
is also still standing, but as a
June 1969 when Hoyts Cinema Centre hamburger restaurant. ★
opened.
The Cinema Centre now got the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
best of Hoyts product and the old expected to close on the same day as The International Cinerama Society,
theatres showed the lesser stuff. The the Regent, but it was doing too well David Coles, Ted Sharry and the
Paris began to run continuous sessions with Butch Cassidy. Meanwhile, Hoyts Melbourne Cinerama projectionists, Gil
Whelan, David Kilderry, Ken Mogg
of difficult-to-program films such as was short of one city outlet as the and Brian Beatty and Ross Thorne.
The Staircase and the Esquire drifted Athenaeum had been sub-let to a live
to action shows. The Plaza ran a bit of theatre company, Philip productions,
everything. There was Peter Sellars’s
CINEMARECORD 2004 17