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while at the remainder, management
were exercising their prerogative as
independent operators - choosing titles
and making their own deals with
distributors after Hoyts and 'big three'
participants had finished with them.
A Numbers Game
Suburban Melbourne in the 1950s
was broadly defined by the electric rail
network. People lived bayside from
Altona to Frankston, from St Albans to
the foothills of Ferntree Gully and
Dandenong, and from St Kilda north to
Thomastown.
Within these boundaries 132
purpose-built theatres, church halls and
meeting rooms screened commercial
films. Hoyts Suburban Theatres, the
dominant chain, directly and indirectly
controlled about 44 theatres (33
percent), their holdings concentrated in
the inner, populous suburbs where
audience numbers warranted screenings
six nights a week.
The other 90 theatres, controlled by
65 exhibitors, included buildings that
rivalled the best in the Hoyt’s chain.
Many independent exhibitors
utilized halls and venues seating 200-
300 people, and screening one or two
nights a week.
Statistics for 1957, just before
television began the disintegration of
the system, show a total of 130,000
cinema seats across the suburbs. Of
these, Hoyts controlled 44 percent and
the independents 56 percent. No
independent exhibitor controlled more
than six theatres outright.
On a total seat basis the three
largest independent groups - Yeomans
and Heron, Victoria Theatres and the
Robert McLeish group, each held
between four percent and five percent
of them all.
Collectively, the two columns -
Independent Theatres and Suburban
Entertainment - advertised the programs
of 60 percent of the independent
theatres across Melbourne. That left a
lot of secondary and fringe venues to
pursue other program mixes. ★
- Additional reporting: Ian Smith.

Architect R. A. Le Poeur Terry did not do a lot of theatre work; his specialty in this field seems to have been makeovers. His changes
to the interior of the Kinema have to be admired, if only for their boldness.
Top: Simplicity for a new era. The metal frame for the neon looks suspiciously like the recycled ‘Hoyts’, with an additional letter
added.
Above: The new owners of the Kinema were competing with Hoyt’s brand new Park. The interior meets the challenge head-on.
Ross Thorne summed up the use of mural panels and rope-like ceiling coils as ‘a different approach to the moderne theme of the day’*
*Ross Thorne, Cinemas of Australia via USA, p.229

26 2006 CINEMARECORD