Page 28 - CinemaRecord #77C

ollongong is situated on the coast 82km south of Sydney in the Illawarra District of NSW. Although explorers
WBass and Flinders had visited in 1796 and were followed by cedar cutters and graziers, the town was not
gazetted until 1834. It became noted for coal mining and dairying, with heavy industry and port facilities established in
the 1920s at nearby Port Kembla. The population of the City of Wollongong is now just over 200,000.
A
His first recorded role as a picture-
Town Hall was opened Crown 1915. show proprietor was in Wollongong at
in 1887 and it was there the Crown Picture-Palace. He also ran
that moving pictures were first shows at the surrounding towns of Port
screened in the town in February Kembla and Thirroul, before entering
1897, some six months after the into long-term arrangements at the
technology had been demonstrated by Carl Princess Woonona in 1914, Wollongong
Hertz at the Melbourne Opera House. Globe in 1918 (former Church Street
Garden Picture Palace) and Corrimal
In July 1911 the first purpose-built picture Strand in 1921.
theatre was erected in Church Street by hotelier
Henry Marriott; the second was the Crown He must have become aware of what these In November 1923 he placed his growing
Picture-Palace opened in Keira Street in entrepreneurs were doing at their theatre cinema interests on a formal commercial
October 1911 by Bennington’s Pictures, a around the corner in Enmore Road from June basis by establishing Wollongong Theatres
syndicate from Parramatta. 1911, and, having worked, as it is thought, Ltd. Initial shareholders were Herbert,
as a representative for a film distributing sister Elsie, her husband (W James),
The Crown was to be the hub of a significant company, Boland may have decided to try
company for some fifty-three years although his luck in running a picture show, but in a Margaret Campbell, contractor Adam
initial operations were not promising, and in place where there was less competition. Frost, Muriel Campbell and solicitor
early 1912 Herbert Lionel Boland became Harold Cox.
proprietor. Boland was born in Springwood, a
town in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, on
22 September 1883 where grandfather and father Woonona Princess 1930.
were involved in running hotels. Herbert tried
this occupation at the Imperial Hotel, Clifton, a
small coastal village to the north of Wollongong,
from December 1905 to March 1906.

His very short tenure as publican may be
explained by inexperience at age
21 to ensure compliance with
new licensing regulations
especially in relation to
after-hours drinking.
He returned to live in
Simmons Street, Enmore,
a suburb of Sydney,
where he was a neighbour
of the operators of
the Enmore
Picture
Palace,
Szarka
brothers.

28 2013 CINEM AREC ORD