Page 20 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

TIME BALWYN

By John Holloway

It took many years for me to majestically curved entrance at the
understand my affection for the Time, corner of Whitehorse Road and Iramoo
rather than the older Balwyn Theatre Street. Internally, the L-shaped upper
(now Palace’s Balwyn), also on and lower foyer provided access to the
Whitehorse Road, in the Melbourne auditorium. The approach to the upper
suburb of Balwyn. foyer-entrance to the rear of the raised
As a young movie enthusiast, I had stalls (the circle in a conventional
no real understanding that the Time design) - was from a smart Art-
was part of the vast Hoyts’ circuit (even Moderne staircase opposite the ticket
though the magnificent vertical neon box, a feature in itself. Building
with the chaser lights bore witness to magazine said of it:
this fact) and thus, had access to all the In the foyer the circular drop ceiling
major cinema releases. And I still can’t appears to be supported from the centre
explain the pride I felt when I saw the of the ticket box in a canopy style. light fittings of fibrous plaster when
display for Can-Can and the words Lights in the base of the stem reflect up illuminated from the bowl base appear
‘Thursday Next’. Such a huge film of the curved plaster faces and ceiling. to be glass. This feature was said to
its time, playing at my local! The ground floor foyer surface was have excited much comment.
Commiseration was all I could feel terrazzo and an open fireplace in both A charity premiere on Friday 13
for the Balwyn Theatre, less than one foyers was a prominent feature. While I June 1941 preceded the official opening
km. west, which appeared to exist on a cannot recall a log-fire burning, on Saturday 14 June which featured
policy of out-dated MGM musicals. photographs of the exterior clearly spirited performances by Tyrone Powell
(Remember, I was very young and show a high chimney, and the Health and Linda Darnell in The Mark Of
naive!) Department file refers to a storage area Zorro. The seating capacity of 1,176
The Time was a beautiful example for the wood, so they were the real reflected a scale-back from the 1,500
of the innovative stadium-style thing. plus of the heady days, but it was still
auditorium, now the favoured layout for Approaching the end of the foyer, large for the period. Outer suburban or
a multiplex. Stadium seating had been leading to the front (or stalls) area of country stadium-style theatres of the
used in the early 1920s - Hoyts the auditorium, was a wall of glass that time had capacities of around 800.
Ivanhoe and Hoyts Glenhuntly were looked out on to a flood-lit garden, or, The third of May 1945 was the date
examples - but the rise of ‘palace-style’ more precisely, an enclosed court-yard of the most dramatic incident of the
in the mid-twenties and the expectation of exotic plants. theatre’s life - apart from final closure -
of big audiences to go with it, favoured In describing the auditorium, I must when an explosion in the gas-fired
the traditional balcony. apologise to the Architectural Purists, heating system took hold. Fan-forced,
unburned gas flowed into the ducts
Now, at a time of more modest and in layman terms settle for a
under the stage. The gas ignited, flames
expectations, stadium was back. The description, ‘an assortment of Art-
shooting out of the wire grilles under
notion of a single level auditorium with Moderne/Deco/Chocolate Box’. A
the stage, which ignited the curtains.
a steep rise towards the rear was hailed magnificent blend of swirling plaster
The ducts were of caneite, a fibre that
as a major economic saving, both in architraves at ceiling height above art-
burned like paper. This was a wartime
construction and heating, along with deco curved patterns on the side walls
compromise; flat iron was
the added advantage of offering descended to the front of the theatre,
unobtainable.
superior sightlines. and in effect, disappeared behind a
Other contemporary examples seemingly free-standing proscenium. The theatre was declared
included the Maling at Canterbury, the Large ‘flying saucer’ shaped lights structurally unsafe. It re-opened eight
Circle Preston and the Sun at moulded out of the ceiling also feature days later on 11 May with a temporary
Yarraville. The only surviving example in my memory. Building was again partition erected in front of the
(albeit altered) is the Sun at Yarraville. complimentary: damaged stage, and seating reduced by
The architectural firm of Cowper, The swirl pattern of the ceiling 400.There was no heating, but
Murphy and Appleford was responsible reflects different designs from different ventilation was assured through the
for the Circle, Sun and Time, each angles. A wide drop cornice continues opening for the screen. The Department
from the late 1930s-early 1940s. around the full auditorium to frame the noted that ‘conditions will be hygienic,
Externally, the Time was a fine ceiling. On each side of the proscenium but uncomfortably cool’. Restoration to
example of red and cream brick Art- fine reeded plaster becomes larger the original plan began in earnest in
June 1945. This time the ducts were
Moderne simplicity, incorporating a flutes then curved acoustic rolls. The
brick, concrete and fibro-cement.

20 2008 CINEMARECORD