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Casualties of Sound and the Depression

Strand ▲ Star ▲

The Strand The Star The Empire
Opened as: New Victoria Opened: 11 Feb. 1911 Opened: 22 May 1916
18 March 1915 Closed: 1930 Closed: 1933
As Strand: 6 May 1918 Maximillian and Harriett The Empire is the least
As Mayfair: 2 Dec. 1933 Kreitmeyer’s Waxworks was the documented of the Bourke Street
Closed: 24 Nov. 1934 equivalent of Madame Tussaud’s, theatres in design and policy. A pity,
complete with a chamber of horrors, because architect Sydney Wilson is not
Opening on the same night as the
and carnival-style freak shows. Into this known for other theatre work, and his
De Luxe, and only a few doors away,
mix Francis W. Thring introduced a office may have turned out something
suggests a strong competitor, but the
picture-show as supplementary interesting.
New Victoria had neither the presence
entertainment. Opening a few months The World’s Pictures high on the
nor the programs to be a real threat.
before the Melba, some reports credit façade was a phrase used pre-1916 for
After three years the theatre was re-
Thring with introducing to Melbourne advertising films at the Bijou. The
furbished and renamed the Strand .
the continuous pictures policy which words may indicate a film franchise
This well known central theatre has
was to become the signature of the that moved up the hill when the
been re-named, effectively decorated,
Melba. Empire opened, or it may simply be a
thoroughly improved and illuminated
Soon the increasing popularity of coincidence – every cinema owner
with a soft inverted system of electric
films warranted more space for the would have wanted the public to think
lighting which enables patrons to
Star and less for the wax figures. The that their choice of films was unlimited.
secure their own seats and find their
balcony was enlarged, the building Built as a truly independent house
way to any part of the theatre. The
made more theatre-like and eventually under the direction of A. Amos Lewis,
system does not in the least offset the
the figures were banished. The Star the Empire struggled for product and
crispness of the picture, which in all
was said to seat 1,200. often survived on serials. It was later
respects is second to none in the
When Electric Theatres Pty. Ltd absorbed into the JCW Films-Electric
Commonwealth.
was formed in 1914, its initial assets Theatres Group. In its final years the
The Strand is bright, clean and
were the Star and the land on which Empire did not advertise in
well seated. Most For Least Money. -
the Paramount (later the Lyceum) newspapers.
(Variations on this text ran in The
would be built. Thring and Mrs.
Herald for a few weeks after opening). Image: LaTrobe Library, Victoria
Kreitmeyer held 19 percent and 15
Later, as Hoyts Mayfair, the future
percent of the new shares respectively.
looked promising for the All-British
From this beginning Electric
policy. I Was A Spy with Herbert
Theatres (with JCW Films) would later
Marshall, Madeleine Carroll and
control the Star, Empire, Paramount
Conrad Veidt ran for 10 weeks, but
and Strand. Thring would rise to
public interest soon waned.
become Joint Managing Director of
Today, the Village Centre Cinema
Hoyts Theatres Ltd.
2 sits over the site.
Image: LaTrobe Library, Victoria
26 2005 CINEMARECORD