Page 27 - cr53

A Switch

In Time

By Roger Seccombe
Working-class Richmond, the
suburb immediately east of the City of
Melbourne, was well served by
cinemas. The Oriental and Kings may
be long forgotten, but on Bridge Road
much of the brick-work of the
National, Cinema Richmond and the
Richmond Theatre remains.
The cavernous Hoyts Cinema,
perhaps the best known of these
theatres, was just west of the Town Hall.
When it opened it was in immediate
competition with the older Richmond
Theatre, on the east side of the town
hall. The Theatre closed in 1925.
Up the hill towards the city, the
National would later entice the crowds
to its Art Moderne splendour.
Down towards East Richmond
Station, on Church Street, was the
Globe, a theatre with a sliding roof,
while east along Swan Street was the
Burnley, the building most recognisable
today as a former theatre. North
Richmond had the Victoria, which later
became the Valhalla.
The Cinema regularly ‘switched’
programs with cinemas in Richmond,
and Hoyts theatres across the Yarra: the illegal ‘two-up’ in lanes behind they would carry his bags for him.
Regent South Yarra, the Empress factories than they did of regular Snowy was happy to oblige too!
Prahran, and even as far afield as St. employment. Joseph Leslie Theodore Taylor was
Kilda. Criminals like ‘Squizzv’ Tavlor a jockey on a Melbourne Pony circuit.
An affectionately remembered would openly swagger through the Born in 1888, his catalogue of crimes
resident of Richmond was Les 'Snowy' streets of Richmond dressed up like a ranged from assault, theft and murder.
Gamble. He lived and worked in the ‘toff’, spats on his shoes and attended He reputedly derived his income from
suburb all his life, growing up during by a retinue of small boys. prostitution, sly grog sales, drugs and
the Depression in a tough world, where Snowv used to tell how Squizzy protection rackets.
many men knew more about playing would throw a few coins to the boys if

CINEMARECORD 2006 27