Page 15 - CinemaRecord #82

BYE BROTHERS
Bothwell Town Hall with the
Bye Brothers Touring van.
Inside Bothwell Today:

The travelling picture show program consisted The brothers agreed that the best film they ever
of a newsreel, a cartoon, two feature movies screened was The Ten Commandments starring
and it would run for around 3 hours. Charlton Heston. They claim that the most
popular film they screened was the 1961 film
First the Bye brothers would play the newsreel, The Parent Trap. They recall that the first film
bringing home images of the war, of royal they ever screened commercially was Love Me
weddings and coronations and of Tonight.
cultures and people that seemed The picture shows always started at
a million miles away. Until the 8.00pm, but when The
advent of television, newsreels Ten Commandments was
were the only way for people screened, the show had to
to see such images. start at 7.40pm as the film
was so long. ManyAustralian
The cartoon would follow the films were screened, such as
newsreel - some light relief The Broken Melody and Forty
after the news. Then the ‘B’ Thousand Horsemen. For
grade picture would follow. years Allan retold a joke about
The program had one a trip to Bothwell. He said that
20-minute interval and then once on the way to screen Forty
the main feature presentation Thousand Horsemen the road
would be shown. was so rough that when he got there, Use a ladder
and remember
there were only Twenty Thousand
A small kiosk was housed in the left! to duck!
foyer of the Town Hall, and for
many years this was operated by the A local resident recalls that on some
Leedham family. ‘Jaffas’, ‘Fantales’ nights people would be lined up out
and ‘Jubes’ were a popular choice. the door and around the corner. He
Large canvas bag/canisters packed said, “When we were young we would
with ice creams surrounded by dry i c e sit with our parents, but as we got older we
were delivered by train. Abbott’s and Cascade would sit with our friends on the hard wooden
cordial was available for purchase - at room benches at the front of the hall”.
temperature of course.
The brothers fondly recalled many stories of
people who married as a result of meeting and
courting at their fortnightly shows.

The Bye brothers were true pioneers of the
travelling picture show. They recalled amazing
audiences with the ‘talkies,’ and spent time
trying to convince viewers that they were not
‘making the voices backstage.’
Like elsewhere, the brothers had to eventually On the old
acknowledge that ‘television had ruined bio box walls.
pictures as a “commercial entertainment”.

Sadly they ended their travelling picture show
more than 40 years ago but their stories and
their achievements in the industry have formed
an important part of the history of Campbell
Town and Bothwell.

Resources and Photographs:
The Examiner‐Express, p8, December 3. 1966.
Alan with the old Pictures from inside the Projec�on Room in
projector. Photos by Jason Branch
Bothwell Town Hall by Jason Branch.

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