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Memories of The Paramount,

Maryborough

The best buildings of Maryborough in north- central Victoria, show that
it was a town built on the proceeds from gold. By 1926 when the theatre opened,
the population had stabilised at 5,000 people.
The Paramount was built for Mrs. Rosina McDonald of Melbourne.
She also built the Paramount Oakleigh, Regent Mordialloc and the
Paramount/Regent in Colac. One report (unconfirmed) also credits
her with building a theatre at Fairfield and Richmond in Victoria, and one in Between plan (above) and realisation
New South Wales. If true, she was in the top rank of independent owners in the (opposite) the Paramount ‘flattened’ a bit.
second decade of cinema construction. A mezzanine foyer may have been
intended.
A history of the Paramount ran in the Maryborough Advertiser on 13 October
2006. The stories here are the personal memories of two CATHS’ members. Otherwise the matinee was cartoons
and something like a Hopalong Cassidy
Roderick Smith: The cinema was not the venue for western. It was a different show on a
Conversations with My Mother school speech nights in those days; Wednesday.
News of the 80th birthday films were too profitable. Speech nights During the early war years there
celebrations for the Paramount, were held at the fire-brigade hall. was a brass band concert, with cartoons
Maryborough in CinemaRecord 49 Mum recalls some films from the shown either after or as a fill-in. One of
reminded me that this was the cinema era: her friends remembers that her
of my mother’s teenage years. David Copperfield. This MGM Saturday dates around 1942-43
consisted of a night at the pictures
My grandfather, Bob Gillespie, was version is the richest, most literal
(back stalls one shilling and sixpence
a Victorian Railways stationmaster. adaptation of a Charles Dickens story
(15 cents) plus a Cream-Between (ice-
Every few years the family shifted as ever brought to the screen. It probably
cream) and a Violet Crumble.
he obtained promotion, or transferred to screened at the Paramount in 1935.
a location better suited to his children’s “If the night was cold you selected
education or his wife’s health. your row carefully, for the heat pods
were in every second row in the back
Bob obtained a transfer from
stalls. You then went up to the
Berriwillock to Carisbrook in 1935, as the
Workman’s Hall, where for a shilling
children were ready for secondary school.
you fitted in an hour’s dancing before
Both commenced at Maryborough
midnight”.
Technical School in 1936, cycling the six
km from Carisbrook. My mother Rowland’s Music Store advertised
transferred to the high school after two the coming film, and received free
years, and matriculated at the end of 1940. tickets. Films were also shown in the
Town Hall, but on a less regular basis,
My mother was too young to cycle
presumably by a travelling firm.
home from the cinema after an evening
show, but did cycle to and from an By the time Bob obtained a move to
occasional matinee. There were long Pakenham in 1942, both children had
stretches of prospector-riddled bush on left home to further their education in
each side of the road. Many jobless and Melbourne. Much later the cinema was
pensioners supplemented their taken over by the enlarged secondary
subsistence with slowly-gathered gold school, to be used for assemblies.
Magic casting: W.C. Fields as Mr.
dust, and camped in the scrub. Three When I joined CATHS, about 10
Macawber and Freddie Bartholomew as
houses were set a long way back from years ago, there was news that the
David.
the road at lengthy intervals until you Paramount had been reactivated as a
were nearly back to Carisbrook. There The Little Princess with Shirley cinema, but the balcony was
were also heavy frosts. Temple, at a Saturday matinee in 1936. condemned. If that was ever true the
Mum had more opportunity to A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald problem was fixed, because the balcony
attend the cinema when she was Colman. MGM had struck gold with section was the first to reopen.
boarding in Maryborough, while Bob their initial foray into Dickens. This time, I attended a special program on
travelled on annual leave (it was hard the production team found that what read Sunday 17 September 2000 as part of a
for a railwayman to obtain leave which well on the page looked ludicrous on the train tour from Melbourne. The cinema
coincided with school holidays). screen. With extreme care they made it had just been twinned. Long may it
When she was 15 or 16 she worked work. The film probably reached the continue to show films.
pre-Christmas at Lewis’s drapery, and Paramount in 1936.
cycled home of an evening, and had the Programs changed bi-weekly - the
chance for more cinema. She booked main show ran Saturday and Monday,
tickets in the standard (cheap) seats. plus a matinee if the film was suitable.

34 2007 CINEMARECORD