Page 22 - CinemaRecord #82

EMPIRE DAYS

My family arrived in Melbourne in 1938 from During the war, manpower was controlled
the Victorian country town of Stawell - via by the government, support services such as
Watchem and Warrnambool. electrical engineering were protected industries.
My father, H. V. Shuttleworth, being a qualified It wasn’t until after the war that my father was
electrician and electrical engineer soon found able to start his own business at 38 Holmes
employment in his chosen career with Claude Road, Moonee Ponds.
Elder Electricians (Elder was then Mayor of
Essendon). Part of his business activities saw him
becoming involved in electrical installation and
A youthful Eddie. maintenance in the theatre industry.

“H.V.” got a taste for the picture business when
he started to do work for Bill Howard who
ran movies at the North Melbourne Town
Hall, before taking over the Regal Theatre
in Buckley Street, Essendon, and later the
Elsternwick Theatre in Elsternwick.
So, as a teenager I had the opportunity to be both
participant and observer of the mechanics of a
picture theatre’s operation at close quarters.

Towards the end of the war when any type of
power generating equipment was impossible
to obtain, H.V. put together, on a fabricated
chassis, a generator driven by a straight eight
Cadillac engine to provide power for welding
railway tank transporters for the army.
This factory was in Brunswick somewhere near
where the Tullamarine Freeway now runs.
Shortly after the war in late 1945, there were
power strikes that presented opportunities for
Times Newsreel adjacent to the Liberty Theatre. the willing and able to provide solutions to
Below: No projec�on ports in the Times auditorium! commerce and industry in the form of standby
generator sets. War surplus ex army generators
were put to use at dog race tracks at Geelong
and North Essendon.

Generator sets made up with 5KVA generators
supplied by Farm and Pastoral were mounted
on a chassis and driven by a Ford 10 HP motor.
These found places in a number of theatres, but
the most interesting installation was in theTimes
Theatrette, located in the basement under the
Liberty Theatre in the City of Melbourne.

The installation involved cutting a hole in the
floor of the Liberty in the early hours of Sunday
morning and lowering the unit into the Times
behind the picture screen. The Times’ screen
was made up of glass beads to allow for rear
projection.
Shortly after, H.V. bought the freehold of the
Tasma Theatre at 512 Bell Street, Pascoe Vale
South. It was just a short step to my becoming
interested in taking up a position as assistant
projectionist at the Empire Theatre in the inner
suburb of Brunswick.

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