Page 23 - CinemaRecord #82

EMPIRE DAYS

Elsternwick. Brunswick Empire.

I didn’t have an interview and was expected to
arrive one afternoon in my 1926 Morris Oxford
Empire model car. Making a right hand turn
(from the left) into Sydney Road out of Victoria
Street I bumped a car turning in front of me.
No damage was done to the other car but the
steering on mine was knocked slightly out of
alignment.
I wobbled my way down to the Empire and met
Jack Drysdale, the projectionist, who in no time
had my car around the back and was underneath
fixing the problem.
Jack was familiar with cars from the vintage era,
being an owner of a 1927 Erskine (cars from
the 1920s were not considered to be old in the
1950s). Jack was quite an athletic old timer and
even delighted in doing hand stands against the
wall in the foyer!
Upstairs where all the action takes place, much
The Empire had originally presented live acts
of the projection equipment was very aged and
and vaudeville shows as well as movies and
worn. The projector heads were Simplex with
had a huge stage area behind the cinema screen. Westinghouse sound heads. The lamp-houses
During the time of the live shows, Jack had been were antique hand-fed trans-arcs - probably
employed as the operator of the spot lights. A
from the very early days. Later in my time
variety of acts included circus performances
the lamp-houses were replaced with modern
complete with elephants!
automatic feed arcs powered by fan-cooled
When the movies became popular and selenium rectifiers.
completely took over the programs, Jack was the
obvious choice to become the movie projector The Empire staff in the early 1950s included:
operator initially on silent flickers and later the Front of house:
talkies. Manager: Mr Joyce (Hocka) later replaced by
Mr Harry Hannigan People from my generation have been lucky to
At some time, possibly in the early-to-mid Box Office (ticket seller): not known. have lived in the age of the movie revolution:
thirties, the building was given a make over. Ushers: Mr Ron Short, Mr Eddie Smith, Mr going through the early days of the talkies;
The opening roof (for cool air on hot nights) was Reddick, Mr Greenhorne. the introduction of colour becoming the norm,
replaced with a closed-in plaster ceiling, but the Fireman: Mr Harry Bibby. and the giants of the movie production houses
proscenium seems to have been retained with Cleaner/Bill Poster: only known as “Harold”. like MGM and Paramount with their stables of
the original fireproof screen still in place, as Bio Box Staff: actors and actresses.
were the old conical soda acid fire extinguishers. Projectionist: Mr Jack Drysdale.
The stage area behind the screen was huge and Assistant Projectionist:Mr Eddie Shuttleworth.
provided a lot of space for our Christmas parties! Former Assistant Projectionist: Mr Anthony Photographs from the Shu�leworth collec�on, the
Roachford. CATHS Archive and Kevin Adams.
In the “front-of-the-house” foyer area, little
seemed to have been improved. The boxoffice
was original and nothing had been done to
enlarge or update the ladies’ toilets. The men’s
toilets were external at the rear of the building
- next to the generator plant and open to the
elements!
Access to the rear of the building was by a
street-front side door that also gave entry to the
Manager’s office.
Our manager at the time decided to confront the
male theatre patrons who had decided not to go
all the way to the rear toilets and used the area
outside his door – the unhappy result being the
manager’s wet trouser cuffs and shoes!

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