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(12m.x 6m.) for hot nights, electric five years. The Bioscope of
lighting (with gas standby) and a large 11August 1910 reported
arc-lit sign at the front of the building. that Spencer later carried
Like most of this building the out extensive alterations
projection room was utilitarian and and improvements…the
located outside the main building for large hall has been
safety reasons. It measured only eight transformed into a model
feet by six feet (2.4m. x 1.8m.), a very picture theatre. The
tight space, especially if there was also building covers 3 acres of
a slide projector! It appears that only ground…with a large
one motion picture projector was used. amphitheatre capable of
One account claimed that its throw accommodating 5,000.
was about 100 feet (30m.), which The old Olympia had
provided a picture 51 feet wide (16m). only 3,670 seats, so the
One hundred and ten amps of current new figure, if correct,
were drawn by the projector lantern represented a 33 percent
from a specially installed electric increase! There seems to be
(1)
generator. something special about
Table Talk magazine reported having, or claiming to have,
however that the screen was 31 feet a 5,000-seat house in
wide (9.4m.) and the throw 135 feet Melbourne in 1910!
(41m), (10) which is a better match to Two months after the
the length of the hall and screen sizes opening of West’s Palace Entertainments on the city fringe: For a short time the
of the times. the Tait brothers, Olympia, West’s Palace, the Glaciarium and the
The building also had a winter ‘determined to make Garrick all showed films. The latter opened in 1912 as
(13)
garden complete with ferneries and themselves felt' leased Snowden’s Pictures. Plan by the author.
grottoes in which refreshments and the ice-skating rink the
(8) Glaciarium, which was just across the
afternoon tea were served.
road, and opened it to films.
The whole lot cost 10,000 pounds
($20,000) to build and equip, and it was West’s manager reported that: The Bioscope reported that:
reported to be the finest picture hall in A firm of entertainers, whose building the claim of Mr. West, perhaps one of
the Commonwealth and further, is adjacent to ours, posted men on the best known members of the moving
claimed to be the first of its type built. Princes Bridge, over which most of our picture business, to be a world’s (15)
The Bioscope referred to it as ‘a palatial patrons have to cross, with free tickets, entrepreneur must be admitted…
building solely for the display of one for every couple crossing. A man In Australia, West’s Journal of Daily
pictures’. would present one of these free entries, Events was screened. There is not a lot
so that only one ticket had to be
By now T. J. West controlled about known about how often these ‘West
purchased.
twenty picture shows in this part of the Newsreels’ were released, and it is
world, reportedly on a scale unknown The manager then reported that the highly likely that they were made up of
in Great Britain. ‘artful scheme’ lasted for a few nights Pathe material.
(14)
only, and that it soon faded out.
T.J. was not the only big ‘living
picture’ showman in Australia at that One estimate of the popularity of
time, nor was West’s Palace the only the cinema at this time suggested that a
venue presenting films in this corner of total of 15,000 seats were available in
the city (geographically within the City and around Princes Park, all of them
of South Melbourne). sold on a Saturday night. This
concentration of venues just west of
Competitors included Cousens
Princes Bridge accounted for about 50
Spencer, a long-time operator
percent of the total cinema seats in
sometimes called the ‘Pioneer of the (11)
(12) Melbourne and suburbs.
Art in Australia,’ and Melbourne’s
own Dr. Arthur Russell who launched After Spencer vacated the Olympia, West was the appointed distributor
Hoyt’s Pictures in St. Georges Hall Hoyts moved in and ran it from 1 for Pathe’s Art Films in Australia and
Bourke Street, two days after West August 1914. T.J. could no longer New Zealand, and it may be that by
opened his theatre. claim that he had the largest cinema in releasing footage under his own name,
town, and perhaps the world, but his he got around arrangements which
Within the central city at least seven
achievement - the first, largest, Pathe had with other exhibitors. There
halls and traditional theatres were
(13) purpose-built cinema in Melbourne - is still research to be done in this area.
showing films, either as the main
could not be challenged. Above all, T.J. West was a
attraction or as a novelty item within a
vaudeville show. At his peak West’s theatre holdings showman. He understood promotion
included outlets in England, Scotland, and the media, but like all showmen,
Competition was fierce for a while.
The Channel Islands Australia and New his tendency to overstatement, clouds
Spencer moved into the Olympia as
Zealand. He also commissioned films the truth about his business situation.
soon as West moved out, and stayed for
for his theatres.
8 2006 CINEMARECORD