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Here he erected the Dendy Cinema, named
after the founder of the town of Brighton
– later also to become the name of a chain
of pioneering art-house cinemas and a film
distribution company specializing in quality
and off-beat movies which was the brainchild
of Robert Fraser Ward III.
We haven’t seen each other for years, but I
will always be proud that we were friends
and that I was in a very minor way a partner
in one or two of his visionary enterprises.

It was at the Prince George that I first
became involved with the Ward family in my
limited spare time from my duties as (I hope)
a conscientious teacher.
Dendy Theatre with original proscenium.
I have been interested in theatres and
projection since I can remember, ever since
my head-teacher father recognized my However, they projected bright and rock
passion for the magic of film to the extent steady pictures by courtesy of their patent
of buying me a tin toy projector which pin-cross movements which were whisper
employed a real maltese-cross movement quiet and which, in my opinion, were the
(minus a shutter) to show dim travel- best intermittent mechanisms ever invented.
ghosted tinted offcuts from the countless
reels of silent movies looking for some sort Later, when CinemaScope was introduced,
of use in the thirties, and later getting me a they must have been the only Powers
position with Hoyts-Ozone Theatres as a projectors in the world to have had four-track
‘third boy’ trainee projectionist while I was magnetic sound heads on top. They were
still at school. unusual, too, in projecting pictures through
Delrama mirror anamorphics.
I don’t remember how Robert and I first To say that the projectors at the Prince
began our friendship, but I do know that it George were primitive is an understatement. Alongside them was a Sydney built Harmour
was not long afterwards that I was regularly They were Powers machines with front and Heath 16mm arc projector with an 8-face
operating the equipment at the Prince shutters on top of pull-through sound heads star wheel intermittent movement and spools
George, visiting the Dendy down the road with open gearing which could grab a capable of holding 6,000 feet of film. It was
and the hospitable lounge room (and dining carelessly dangling tie in a trice, and very able, with a running time of about three
table) of the house in Well Street. short gate-shoes. hours, to accommodate most full length
feature films. The result was the ability to
screen almost any film with an excellent
standard of presentation.

Why was this necessary, and why did the
humble Prince George have film enthusiasts
flocking to it from all over the vast Melbourne
metropolitan area?

In those days the film distributors had a strict
policy of releasing films in stages in roughly
concentric zones beginning in the city. Films
would open there and in subsequent weeks
would move progressively outwards to the
outer suburban areas. It had the big advantage
for them that their box office takings would
be maximized, and for the general public that
a film would be available for several weeks
if it proved to be worth seeing and had been
missed during its initial screenings.

This, however, was very much at the expense
of third tier exhibitors like the Wards who
had built fine theatres but had to show films
Dendy Theatre proscenium and wall detail. after nearby cinemas had milked them of
much of their financial potential.

CINEM AREC ORD 2012 21