Page 31 - CinemaRecord #82

SURREY REVISITED
Removal of the built‐up façade revealed the
auditorium roof and the site of the bio box.
BELOW: Authors sketch of what was hidden.

The original ‘false front’ along Union Road
was now entirely gone. Of course, a false upper
facade had been a satisfactory way of hiding
from the passers-by a sea of corrugated iron
which would otherwise have made up the view
above the street awning or canopy (and the
Surrey had plenty of that!)
While the theatre had been enclosed all around Over the ensuing years the it went through
by a sturdy brick wall, the actual auditorium the inevitable changes in both ownership
had a significantly different roof elevation to and circuit affiliation. It joined with Victoria
the foyer. The foyer was merely a somewhat Theatres in 1950 and later advertised under
insubstantial, iron-roofed, single-storied Regional Theatres from 1958.
structure.
On 3 June 1959 it was screening a grotesque
By contrast the iron roof of the auditorium coupling of the Steve Reeves feature Hercules
was built at almost a two-storied elevation, with an ancient revival of the Marx Brothers’
high enough for the cinema to have included Go West. I’d suggest it was hardly a program
Suburban circuit cinemas controlled by Hoyts
a shallow dress circle if the builders had so to appeal to Middle Australian audiences in
chosen. Surrey Hills! But by then, the Surrey was were not particularly eager to consider hiring
on the slippery slide after television. It would their venues to film societies. They seemed to
nd
Between the foyer and auditorium I could see finally close on 22 October 1960. feel that this meant closing to the public for the
night and getting instead student-type, long-
a substantial brick wall into which had been
haired weirdos who wanted to watch old films:
built the biobox. When a friendly workman In 2003, I heard a comment that the Surrey
permitted me to enter the demolition site the “was later demolished…(and) the site is now hardly of appeal to Hoyts! Some cinemas still
first thing I saw was that this biobox was still an office block.” I’d demur on this based on saw film societies even as “the opposition.”
intact! Not only the biobox, but there too was the evidence I’ve already presented.
It was the independent cinemas that first
the film rewind room attached on the southern
welcomed film societies: cinemas like the
side. In early 2014 much of the structural walls were
still fairly intact and so was the auditorium roof, Burnley Theatre (Richmond) and New
While the double-entrance between foyer both the bio-box and adjacent rewind room and Theatre (City), Melbourne University’s Union
Theatre, the Balwyn Theatre and the Surrey
and auditorium had earlier been bricked up, the interconnecting upstairs passageways.
in Surrey Hills.
another interesting discovery I made was that A partly reconstructed emergency exit (into
the original corrugated iron roof on the biobox the adjacent right-of-way) was still in evidence
was still in situ, abutting up against the rear of too. But after this present reconstruction of Together, these independents made possible the
the auditorium roof structure. the building as yet another apartment block I important work of spreading the film society
ideals by such early groups as Melbourne Film
suspect there’ll be very little of the old Surrey
Society, Realist Film Association, Continental
Opened as the War commenced, both architects remaining!
Film Group, Balwyn and Deepdene Film
and builders had clearly reigned in their
expenditure in creating a relatively plain and However, the theatre deserves further mention Society and Surrey Film Society.
unadorned building, depending on the high for another reason that historians have They may not have known it around 1950 but it
‘false front facade’ to “hide a multitude of neglected. It was honorably one of several
was this growing art-house audience that would
sins” as the expression goes! Such as the Melbourne cinemas which co-operated with
save some of the independents from inevitable
expanse of corrugated iron making up the the Federation of Victorian Film Societies
changing roof levels and the high roof structure to permit the setting up of pioneering film closure after the coming of television.
over the auditorium. societies. 2014 photos and sketch by Roger Seccombe.
Immediately after the War these were
And speaking of the auditorium, it offered little attempting to encourage Melburnians to think
more than minimal decorative plasterwork and of the cinema as not merely “a night at the
a simple, inverted barrel-shaped ceiling. If the movies” but also as a new art form.
interior suggested any type of architectural
style it would doubtless have leant towards an In the forties there were still too few feature
undistiguished Art Moderne look. films available for nontheatrical screening
on 16mm prints. For new film societies it
The Surrey had opened as an independent was often necessary to source suitable films
theatre, screening films from distributors such on 35mm prints. With the draconian Health
as MGM, Rank and Paramount. Department regulations this meant screening
in registered cinema venues.
Proposed apartments for the site.

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