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Sputnik Helps Hoyts By Rod Cook

In October 1957, the world looked
to the night skies to see a streak of light
moving through the stars. This was the
first man-made satellite, Sputnik,
launched by the Russians.
On earth, cinema operators were
confronting a new threat from the skies,
the television signal. The television
receiver was capturing more and more
of the audience. As more seats remained
unfilled, it was time for action.
Hoyts, the only fully-fledged
cinema chain in the Melbourne suburbs,
was looking at ways to sustain their
cinema investment.
‘Ranch Night’ on a Wednesday was
one way to attract an audience to the
less prestigious houses in the chain, as
well as to their drive-ins. Even so, the
theatres screening such fare gradually
disappeared.
The post-war years saw large-scale
migration, particularly from Europe,
and the Melbourne suburb of
Brunswick had a large percentage of
The Southern Hampton (left) and the
Italian migrants.
delightful Glenhuntly (at one time New
Hoyts used its Lygon Theatre to
Glenhuntly) were ten road km apart, an
advantage.
easy switch for those days.
Looking at suburban advertising on
Wednesday 25 November 1957, the
Lygon screened an Italian language
double Bicycle Thieves and The
Fugitive. It was a single screening; the
Lygon continued with mainstream fare
until it closed.
That same night, to cash in on the
‘space race’, two Hoyts’ theatres, the
Southern Hampton and the nearby
Glenhuntly, ran a SUPER SPUTNIK
SPACE SHOW. The films were
Universal’s This Island Earth and
Riders To The Stars.
It was all in a night’s work for the
programming department; a constant
search for a new angle, a new gimmick.
After all, that’s what showmanship is
about. ★

Footnote: At the bottom of the ‘Ranch
Night’ and Lygon ad you will see
reference to Broadmeadows Drive In.
It opened the following night, Thursday
26 November 1957 with A Town Like
Alice.

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