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Technicolor films came into
Coming Australia in a different way. With no

Attractions: colour processing laboratories here, the
12 or so prints were imported from the
U.S.A. or Britain. Thereafter, the steps
The Role of the to release were almost identical. If the
Censor ruled that cuts had to be made,
Film Exchanges. all 12 prints had to be taken to the
censor's office and the sections deleted
By William Gray one by one.

From the time of the first regular When a new print was available for
film shows audiences knew that the viewing, the executives of the exchange
images they were watching were would be the first to see it in their
created in a so-called studio, theatrette. The print would then be sent
somewhere far away. Some no doubt across to the head office of the
marvelled at the steps in the chain to appropriate theatre circuit (for example,
bring it to them, but for most it was a Hoyts or Greater Union) for a decision
case of out of sight, out of mind. What on where the film would open. Each
mattered was that once a week, or twice city house became identified with
a week, a new show came to their local certain types of films. In Melbourne
theatre. big-star attractions would go into the
Every night in thousands of homes Decades after the demise of RKO Radio Regent or State, British films into the
across Australia, someone would open Pictures, their logo was still visible at 300 Athenaeum, De Luxe (in the 1940s),
a still-warm newspaper at the Pitt Street, Sydney. The building on the Odeon or Grosvenor and the lesser
entertainment page, their practiced eye roof was the theatrette. USA product graded to match the less
moving swiftly to one of three columns attractive outlets. On the lowest rung
of alphabetic listings of theatres by From the 1930s to 1950s, MGM, was the Lyceum, home to third-rate
suburb. If the show in one local theatre Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO westerns. The distributors left these
was a bit of a dud, there was usually an had their own buildings in Sydney; the decisions to the exhibitors, and a
alternative. If what was on offer at local smaller companies rented space. In release date would be set.
theatres failed to excite, there was one Melbourne MGM, Paramount and Advertising blocks and displays to
last strategy - compare programs at Universal also had their own buildings. be used in Australia were selected from
theatres a bit further away, and leave In later years Fox shared the Paramount the range of examples sent out in the
home earlier. building. After the arrival of television press books. In the 1930s printers used
To be able to make this choice the companies divided their operations; local artists to copy or modify the
relied upon the smooth workings of a administration was in the city or designs before running them off.
coordinated system. A theatre might suburbs and separate from despatch. Sometimes the censor would have a say
only screen five nights a week with a When a black-and-white feature about the art-work: a low-cut dress or
matinee Saturday, but a lot of thought was ready for release, each studio too much emphasis on a gun or knife in
and a lot of transportation was would ship out a fine-grain master the hand might need adjustment.
happening in daylight hours to move positive print. This was placed in a Usually first release was in Sydney,
the films around. bond store in Sydney. It could only be sometimes Melbourne, and occasionally
Film distribution companies moved to go to the office of the Chief elsewhere. If, for example several titles
represented the studios of the United Censor for classification. Any cuts suitable for the Regent Sydney were
States and Great Britain, which needed ordered were done there and then, the available all at once, the decision might
a local presence to keep the product offending frames retained by the be to make a release in another state. In
moving and to monitor wear and tear censor. The print then went back to the theory any number of the 12 prints
on each print. The nuts and bolts of bond store. It was released from bond could be sent from Sydney, but in
distribution centred on a film exchange, after the censorship classification and practice they were tightly rationed.
with its head office in Sydney and when the exchange had paid a Customs Consider a Hoyts first-release in
branches in each of the mainland Duty levied at so much per foot of film. Melbourne:
States. Head office organised the With the print now in their Three, or a maximum of four prints
contracts to supply a years output of possession, the exchange arranged for a would be sent from the Sydney
films to a theatre circuit and housed the negative to be struck in a Sydney exchange. Hoyts’ head-office staff in
largest film storage vaults. Each branch laboratory, and from this negative 12 the Regent Collins Street building,
also had a despatch section, which prints were run off. These 12 prints would view the film in their theatrette
included storage for new prints and would eventually service all of the and decide on the advertising policy. A
ones which had completed their initial Australian market. Local film film opening in Melbourne usually
run, and a winding room, always laboratories were capable of producing included a simultaneous regional
staffed by women, trained in the world-standard prints. By using their release. Under this system the Regent
inspection and repair of prints. services, the companies made Ballarat, Ozone Mildura and Hoyts
enormous cost savings. Albury screened a film before it
reached the Melbourne suburbs.

24 2005 CINEMARECORD