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BOOK REVIEW

Life In The Operating Box:
A Glimpse of the Empire Theatre
January 1958 - January 1960
Forty pages (inc. cover), 41 images
$13 (includes postage within Australia)
Author: Keith Hoffmann
Ask a ‘southerner’ to name a provincial theatre
in Queensland and the chances are that it will be
the Empire Toowoomba. There may have been
bigger ‘tropicals’, but the Empire exuded a heady
allure of substance with exhuberance, lifting it
above the merely functional.
Toowoomba residents knew they had something
too good to lose, and through Friends Of The
Empire and the City Of Toowoomba, put their
energies and wallets into ensuring its survival. On
28 June 1997 the theatre reopened as a performing
arts venue.
To celebrate ten years onward, The Empire
Theatre Foundation has published Keith
Hoffmann’s recollections of his time in the
projection room. The title pins down exactly what The dimmers for the proscenium lights were on a
is between the covers - a straightforward account of rack on the stage wall, reached from a ladder. Then
the day-to-day activities of an assistant there was sometimes work to be done on the roof
projectionist, taking the reader through parts of the neon. Back in the projection room a ladder to a door
building that only staff see and work outside was the entrance to the gas heaters in the ceiling,
projection hours that an audience never thinks which had to be manually lit before the night show.
about. It’s not a showy book like the When discussing the maintenance jobs that involved
commemorative folder produced for the re-opening, the dimmers, Keith wryly comments on the ‘then’
but a layout suited to the subject. and ‘now’ of occupational health and safety.
After two years on projection duties Keith A projectionist’s working day or night is about
realised that the Empire’s best years as a cinema extraordinary attention to detail. My quibble
were behind it. He moved on in his career. The therefore (and this is from a reader largely ignorant
book is his return as a Friend, his photos explaining about technical detail, but willing to learn) is the
changes in the rooms and corridors he knew so photo and description of the projectors. There is a
well. Nor is the public Empire forgotten; there are neat drawing of the layout of the projection room - a
three excellent colour photos of the restored rather spacious one - but in the author’s 1959 photo
interior, including the ‘bomber’ light in the ceiling, of it, he is leaning on the slide machine and blocking
and three historic black-and-white interiors. the view. His description - ‘Two 35mm Western
Electric projectors’, goes only part way to
When Keith started at the Empire the theatre ran
understanding the gear.
a daily matinee and the show often included a live
segment. At this time Toowoomba (current There is no provision for special film screenings
population 96,000) supported four ‘hard-tops’ and a in the re-vitalised Empire. The former projection
drive-in. The Empire was the heart of the town’s room is now the repository for air-conditioning
entertainment on a Saturday night, with ticket sellers equipment. The city has two multiplexes; one of
in two boxes. The theatre held 2,400. them - the Strand - was a cinema long before the
Empire. Keith’s current photo of it shows a 1915-
Giving patrons’ their moneys worth involved
style exterior with a ‘bulging’ bio-room (like the
much pre and post-show activity. As the junior in
Shore p.5). No match for the Empire in pizzaz, but
the box, Keith Hoffman had a lot of walking or
a delightful complement to the showy sister. A good
running to do. The main stage curtain had to be
read. - I.S.
raised manually, and only on a wet night was he
allowed to use a door near the proscenium.
The book is available from:
Otherwise it was down from the projection room,
out the front, down the side to the back of the stage Empire Theatre
and in through a rear door. PO Box 1227 Toowoomba Queensland 4350
Tel: 1300 655299 or empire@empiretheatre.com.au

32 2008 CINEMARECORD