Page 11 - CinemaRecord #79

View from the balcony.

It has been suggested that the Waverley was
disadvantaged by its proximity to Caulfield
Racecourse, which otherwise would have been
streets of houses with potential patrons, but I
feel that when I was first associated with it, it
was as successful as most suburban theatres.

The Waverley was on third release, as was our
sister theatre the Ormond Plaza. We switched
prints with the Plaza which was three km
south. Whichever way you tried to get there,
you had to get through a railway crossing, so
that always added a bit of excitement!
I think that having the Embassy/Metro
release MGM product simultaneously with
the city, probably did affect Waverley. But
Paramount was strong at this time too, and the
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour
movies had good runs. I think the Hoyts circuit
had better houses than us with their 20th-
Century Fox, Warner Bros. RKO, Columbia,
United Artists and Universal product.

In my mind the Waverley was the complete Entrance foyer with terrazzo WT monogram.
little suburban theatre. You walked into a
broad, symmetrical foyer, with a concession
bar on both the left and the right. On Saturday
night they were both staffed. In addition to that
there were the lolly-boys with trays, one in
each aisle downstairs and another two upstairs.

Stairs to the left and right led to the dress
circle lounge. Every week the upstairs foyer
was enhanced by lavish flower arrangements
with huge stems of gladioli of mixed colours.
It looked a million dollars. The cleaner,
Jimmy Lieschman told me those flowers
were expensive. It was his wife who did the
arrangements.
Management did things well at the Waverley.
The manager’s office was in the lounge foyer,
his office door centrally placed in the rear
(street) wall. Opposite were the entrance stairs The comfortable Dress-Circle foyer.
to the circle and lounge.

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