Page 10 - CR

The 1915 original Thornbury Theatre.
Foyer stairway dome. Image: Robert Titchener
High, wide and handsome. The orchestra pit is also back-lit.
Above: c.1946. The entrance doors and fanlight above them repeat the design at the Regent factory to discuss their casting. Some of the
South Yarra. Source: SLV. Below: Proscenium Crest. Image: Robert Titchener. same nymphs were used for a third time at the
10 2012 CINEM AREC ORD
Sam Snr. died at home in 1923 aged 68.
Sam Jnr. and his brother Jim became joint
managers of the firm and took on the major
responsibility for completing the project.
The Thornbury Regent opened as planned
on Saturday 8 August 1925. It was also the
birthday of Sam’s widow Jessie, who was in
the audience.
After the Regent Orchestra played the Slavonic
Rhapsody, F. W. Thring introduced the Mayor of
Northcote who spoke of the late Mr. Millsom’s
dream to build a sumptuous theatre. “He had not
been able to see his ideals fulfilled, but his sons
had carried on the project”. The Mayor included
a little history in his address: “Twelve years
earlier the Thornbury Theatre [on a different
site] was catering for a population of 22,000.
Now Thornbury has 38,000. The Regent would
fill the needs of the growing population. There
was no need for local people to go to the city
when they could get such entertainment near
home.” (3)
The Northcote Leader was fulsome in its
praise: ‘….a magnificent edifice, and the last
word in up-to-date picture-theatres.…The
decorative scheme is delightful, figures in art
statuary occupying a prominent place on the
walls and ceiling.’ Those words are still true.
For the Millsoms, the theatre was a giant
advertisement for their plaster modeling skills,
as well as a shrewd investment.
The classical figurines which adorn the foyer
and auditorium are without peer. These temple
acolytes perform their calisthenics in a silent
symphony, robes billowing. Some nymphs
exercise with a scarf, others are supplicants,
offering gifts of fruit. Their first use seems
to have been in Henry White’s renovation of
the Melbourne Princess Theatre on Spring
Street in 1922. White was known to immerse
himself in every aspect of design, and it is not
far-fetched to imagine him visiting the Millsom
Regent in Gardiner.
A signature Millsom flourish for Thornbury
are the rearing horse motifs in the foyers, a
re-working of those high on the façade. The
actual entrance at street level, with ‘Regent’
in leadlight above the doors, was a duplicate
of the entrance at the South Yarra Regent.