Page 11 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

The Corio’s affiliation with 20th
Century Fox continued well into the
CinemaScope era. The Corio was the
first of the Geelong Cinemas to convert
to CinemaScope and with the Fox
CinemaScope releases on their
program; they were well placed ahead
of their competitors.
The first ‘Scope film to be screened
at the Corio was “River of No Return”,
staring Marilyn Monroe and Robert
Projectionist Lex De Vries with Bauer B14 projector. Photo: Lex De Vries
Mitchum - the opening night was
Friday December 17th 1954. For
several months before the event, the
Corio’s newspaper advertising carried
The advertising by the Corio’s
the heading “CinemaScope is coming”.
competitors on the day of the ‘Scope
The Corio’s change to
premiere is quite amusing. Not wanting
CinemaScope also brought a change of
to be completely outdone by the Corio, In the 1970s the Corio Theatre was
equipment. At this time, the projectors
the Geelong Theatre was advertising a leased by Village Theatres, Geelong.
were updated to a pair of German made
forgettable black and white film “Is The Corio’s advertising was
Bauer B14s, with new lamphouses and
Your Honeymoon Really Necessary”, incorporated into a single block ad
lenses. The new screen had a height of
staring Diana Dors as being screened in along with the Geelong Theatre and
four metres, its width was set at 7.7
W-I-D-E Screen on the Miracle Mirror the two drive-ins - Geelong had become
metres for widescreen and 9.1 metres
(5) Screen, the Pix was showing a western a Village town - the other major venue,
for CinemaScope
in “Panascope” and the Regent just the Regent having closed in 1964. With
ignored all of the wide screen claims by the press announcement that the
screening the Marlon Brando film “The Geelong Theatre was to be converted
Wild One” with the tag line - A Good into the Village Twin Cinema, the
Film on any Screen. Corio’s days were numbered.

: Proscenium 1982. Photo: Lex De Vries

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