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Harry”.
His wife, Dallas, a former usherette, ran
the sweet shop and kept things going while
looking for a new manager.
Australian-born John Neal, then New
Zealand manager for United Artists and a
close personal friend of the Griffith family,
suggested Lionel Ward.
Lionel was a projectionist who had
worked in Palmerston North before moving
to Auckland as manager for a few suburban
theatres. He had some big shoes to fill and
once told me “selling movies to the Roxy's
customers was the easy part – management
of the place the hardest”.
Looking at the operation, he found the
theatre a very lucrative business. Given a
1967.
free hand, he wound up the distribution
company and employed Ian Hislop (former
However with a rise in rent (coupled complied.
printing department assistant at Universal
with approaches by Russell Rankin of New Three weeks later the Roxy freighted the
Pictures) as manager of the Princess.
Zealand Film Services who unofficially print to Auckland.
Screening policy never changed, only
controlled the Paramount) pressured the
This was a busy year for the Roxy,
society for a move to the Paramount who some £2,000 (pounds) was spent on the films as frequently as needed. Lionel’s
offered them excellent terms and films. management, coupled with Mrs. Griffith’s
improvements to the theatre and a new
abrasive style of hands-on interference was
The society agreed and a September 16, wall-to-wall screen was installed along with
not conducive to a pleasant working
1962 screening of La Strada was pulled new sound equipment.
relationship.
from the Roxy with no advance notice. The company also moved into film
With the departure of the regular
Harry felt betrayed, feeling that his distribution forming Roxy Film Distributors
projectionists some years earlier, the theatre
special screenings over the years as Ltd and its first import was Love and the
saw a number of different operators through
representing his “contribution to art”. French Woman which was booked to
the door: Dave Hartley, Cyril Brimble,
He never forgave the Film Society, but independents around the country and
Vince Hartley, John Buckley, Rob Hamill
continued to do business with NZFS – after launched the re-opening of the Paramount
and Sid Vinsen (who would do the final
all he was a commercial exhibitor. in Wellington. But most of its films were
screening some years later).
Earlier that year on the January 19, the Asian crime and action imports sourced Times were changing, as was the
Roxy company leased the nearby Princess from a Fiji-based Indian film distributor. industry, percentages were gradually
Theatre from Kerridge-Odeon and ceased The films were all well made and did well replacing flat-rate hire costs – even for
advertising in the Dominion Newspaper. At at the Roxy but attracted little bookings places like the Roxy.
this time distributors had a number of films elsewhere.
By 1969 the theatre needed 1400 paying
available for release that had been rejected By the mid 1960s the Roxy was the
customers a week to break even. Clashes
by both theatre chains … a number of 20th only continuous show in the country – aptly
over style and management policy became
Century-Fox black-and-white westerns, called ‘Harry's Show’ for that was the sort
bitter and nasty although they were kept
many Universal titles and others. Harry took of familiarity the legion of faithful
very much ‘in-house’.
most of them after all he was now customers attached to the little Manners
programming for the Princess too. Street picture-house. Suddenly without warning, Lionel was
released from his contract, paid off and was
New Zealand Film Services were But suddenly Harry was diagnosed with
gone. Ian Hislop who had seen the writing
contracted to Amalgamated Theatres for cancer and died in Wellington Hospital on
on the wall resigned.
first release product. However in 1966 November 17th, 1968. The industry was
Amalgamated passed on the British film A shocked and saddened at his passing and the Almost overnight Tom Mellor became
Study In Terror (1965) a sharp little thriller ‘Roxy Regulars’ mourned “no nonsense the new manager. Tom, a close friend of
that had Sherlock Holmes unmasking Jack Mrs. Griffith was manager of Kerridge-
the Ripper in 1880s London. Odeon’s Prince Edward Theatre in
Woburn when offered the job, some weeks
Harry was offered the film and put it
before Lionel’s termination.
into the Roxy with very little extra
publicity, it was booked for a three-day run. Tom’s arrival in 1970 was a low-key
The film took off, reviews were excellent, affair but his style was very different both
word of mouth spread and other he and Dallas got along famously.
independents around the country wanted New films were still being offered to
this film to boost their coffers. When the theatre and Tom and myself would look
Amalgamated Theatres saw the figures, Joe at these two or three times a week between
Moodabe rang Ron Usmar at NZFS and 10.30pm until around 2am. Operator Dave
said “Ron we made a mistake and will take Hartley never complained – he was being
the film for the rest of the country.” Ron well paid! Some films were booked – others
CINEMARECORD 2011 29