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Broadway, the next street north, was an
apt choice for a new theatre name.

The outline of the Broadway high
on the hill was itself an effective
advertisement: by day the black letters
‘Hoyts’ on the silver roof; by night the
fish-tail neon sitting higher than any
lighting from surrounding shops.
Across the road, the bulk of the
Broadway was balanced on the skyline
by the imposing tower of the Palace
Hotel, built in the 1880s and still
providing refreshment today.
At the Broadway, major renovations
began in 1936, under the direction of Above: A typical Camberwell scene for
architects and acoustic specialists nearly 60 years: an SW6 Class tram
H.V.Taylor, Soilleux and Overend. The passes the Broadway on Sunday 8 Feb.
process of change continued on and off 1970. Davies’ building is three doors
until 1941 when Cowper, Murphy and south. Image: John Fitzsimons Collection.
Appleford raised the projection room
from the stalls to behind the dress Right: Davies’ Buildings in 2005; one
circle, lowered the ceiling, re-patterned surviving link to the Broadway.
the walls and changed a flat floor to
‘parabolic’ (sloping upwards from the in those days the screen curtains were
front stalls to the stage) as well as operated manually. Jimmy had the job
making improvements to the of opening and closing the curtains
ventilation. This became the interior each night. How I envied him, to me
remembered by locals. It was not that was like being ‘in the pictures’; he
changed again until the stage was got a few shillings a week for his
widened for CinemaScope. efforts. At that time the projection room
Similar work was carried out on was off the main entrance foyer, on the
other ‘tired’ Hoyts suburbans at this ground floor. The auditorium floor was
time. The new-look Broadway turned flat and the screen rather high, so you
out to be a bland ‘ripple and curve’ had to look up all the time, a bit tough
moderne. The original barrel-vault on the neck. I suppose there was an
ceiling was hidden above a flat expanse upstairs area, but that was too
of parallel lines, a pattern said to be expensive for us, we always sat in the
identical to the one at the Plaza stalls. It was so cold on winter nights,
Frankston. For all of its existence the we always took a rug or two to keep
Broadway was destined to be warm. I still remember some of the
compared with, and always fell short films we saw – The Petrified Forest,
of, the imagination given expression Gold Diggers of 1937 and They Won't The Broadway came into its own
first at the Rivoli on Burke Road, and Forget. with Hoyt’s roll out of CinemaScope to
from 1940, at its successor, the second “In later years I worked many shifts selected suburban theatres. The
Rivoli on Camberwell Road. at the Broadway as Manager; this was program sequence at the Broadway,
Gordon Onams who was born in from the 1950’s on. There were not which by this time was the only theatre
Camberwell and lived there until the many changes made to the theatre since open on Burke Road Camberwell, had
forties, knew the three theatres of the old days, it was always, in my traditionally been one week after the
Burke Road well. Gordon rounded out opinion, a barn. As a first release Hoyts Regent Gardiner, three km. south (and
his experiences of the Broadway by theatre it was in their B category, but just off Burke Road.) With car transport
becoming manager there in the fifties. there was never much that a Manager in the ascendancy, Hoyt’s choice of the
Gordon has fond memories of the early could do to jazz -up the place; there Broadway as one of four suburbans to
days: were no soft drapes or tapestry about, go ‘Simultaneous with City’ gave a
“A school friend of mine Jimmy the Circle lounge foyer wasn’t anything more mobile population access to a first
Killgower lived with his family in a to get excited about, and the entrance release theatre. The Broadway never
fruit shop opposite the Broadway, and foyer was very ordinary.” looked back.

24 2005 CINEMARECORD