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The location of the Memorial Hall was less
concerned with commercial realities. It was 400
metres from the station, away from the shops,
almost alongside the Canterbury Gardens.
Health’s seemingly nonchalant approach to
films at the hall was no doubt well based - there
probably weren’t many!

With Hoyts hogging the action the trustees
were unlikely to attract a full-time lessee,
Opening Ceremony and occasional operators (like Alex Gunn)
would have used portable equipment.
The building opened in 1923 with some fittings CATHS’ member Jim White had one stint of
typical of a theatre. The downstairs foyer back-stage duties there in the 1960s. An ABC
included a sweets counter and the so-called colleague Keith Adams had written a children’s
‘Typhoon’ ventilating system which was also play with songs about native bush animals, a sort
installed at Hoyts New Malvern (1921). of antipodean Wind in the Willows. Jim was roped
in to help with the staging and lighting effects.
The Memorial was exempt from registration
as a theatre because it was on council land, The Hall was booked for a single Saturday
but was otherwise required to conform to all matinee performance. A great deal of work
conditions of the Health Act. In this respect went into the hand-made costumes and
it seems to have been treated with leniency. rehearsal for this one-off performance, which
No follow-up inspections were made to was well received by the audience of local
check whether an initial list of deficiencies children and their parents. Jim remembers
in the bio-room had been remedied. It’s also possible that Hoyts shored-up their the stage as small and shallow.
dominance in Canterbury by paying the
How often were films shown there? There is one Trustees not to show films, a practice used
instance on file. In 1924 Balwyn State School successfully in other suburbs.
used the hall for a film show. The operator was
Alex Gunn and Sons, Bioscope Entertainers.
Cinema action in Canterbury in the 1920s
was at Hoyts Canterbury, a building which
still stands, its back facing the train station. It
is at the centre of the Maling Road shopping
strip, exactly where an ambitious company
would want their cinema. Some 20 years later
Hoyts built their modern Maling Theatre a The Memorial Hall was demolished in
little further up Maling Road. 1979 and replaced by the Canterbury
Soldiers Memorial Home units. H

References:
Public Records Office: File PB7882P1 Unit 162.
Dances, balls and dinners were the hall’s Acknowledgments:
main uses. It was from here that R G Menzies Mr Ian Williams located Mrs Frances Barret
who confirmed the location of the hall and its
(later Sir Robert) launched his 1949 election subsequent history.
campaign, the success of which ushered in the Dr Ross Thorne identified the style of building.
Menzies Years. He returned to the same stage Photographs from the State Library of Victoria
to deliver his policy speeches of 1951, 1954, and the Kevin Adams Collection.
Above: The Canterbury Theatre. 1958 and 1961. St.Kilda Memorial photo courtesy Robert Taylor.
Below: Maling Theatre demolition 1993.

The St.Kilda Memo - far more basic!

CINEM AREC ORD 2012 31