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Union Theatres had one trump, a
strong distribution arm with access to
British films. Interest in films British
was a fickle thing; after the Great War
audiences wanted all things American.
Gradually the mood turned: Empire
was our heritage, and wasn’t this what
Australia had fought for? The new
mood prompted the lessee of the
Athenaeum, Godfrey Talbot - who in
1932 had taken the theatre back from
Union Theatres – to introduce an All
British policy which met with great
success. The Athenaeum claimed to be
the world’s first all-British film theatre.
Union’s Majestic was the next to go
British. Union’s management toyed
with the idea of a name change (a week
before opening, the advertising
promised Mayfair), but this was
dumped. It was as the Majestic that All
British came to Flinders Street.
The Plaza tried it next, and even the
De Luxe shared long runs of British
comedies. In 1932 Fuller’s Bijou ran Bourke Street c.1890 north side, looking east. The Theatre Royal is far left, before
weekly seasons of first release the verandah was added. Next to the Coffee Palace is the Duke Hotel, which will be re-
Celebrity Films. The big British stars in built and eventually house the Strand. The flag reads ‘Waxworks’. This building will get
the early thirties were Jack Hulbert, a new frontage when it morphs into the Star. Parer’s Crystal Café provides a bearing to
Gracie Fields and Cecily Courtneidge. the present streetscape. This will be the site of the Mid City cinemas.
Later it was Conrad Veidt, Madeleine Image source: A New City: Photograhs of Melbourne’s Land Boom, by Ian Morris.
Carroll and George Formby. Bourke
Street cinemas were now trend
followers, not leaders.
All–British seemed to have found
a permanent home in Bourke Street
when Hoyts renovated the Strand and
called it the Mayfair. It re-opened with
Jack Hulbert in I’m Alright Jack.
Successful at first, the Mayfair faded
within a year.
One of its last films was the world
premiere of F. W. Thring’s Clara
Gibbings (Efftee Productions), which
ran for three weeks in Melbourne, but
did not get a Sydney release. The
Mayfair was demolished to make way
for another department store -
Treadways.
By the end of 1933 the working
picture theatres on Bourke Street were
the Melba, De Luxe, Lyceum (the new
name for the Paramount), and the
Times Theatrette. The live theatres Twelve years on. The Theatre Royal (far left) now has an elaborate verandah. Higher
were the Tivoli and Palace. Bourke St up the block ‘Parer’ is legible on the tallest building. The Star next to it is too small to
had passed from a street of flourishing be seen. In 1915 it will be joined by the New Victoria, which will become the Strand.
theatres to one better known for its Image: Mike Trickett collection.
department stores. These survivors did
prove to be resilient. Re-built or re-
furbished, they continued to entertain
for another 40 years. The Palace
building survives, as a night club.

30 2005 CINEMARECORD