Page 32 - CinemaRecord #83

Competition with the Renown was intense. In ventilation. Consequently, many of the stumps Associates. The proscenium was widened and
Jim’s day, young George Griffiths was running and bearers were rotted. As an owner/builder, new rooms for housing the heating and cooling
the Renown for Hoyts and they did their Prentice was the right person at the right time. plant were built beneath and behind the screen.
damndest to kill trade at the Wick. They wrote And he had the right lessee to hand. The interior was transformed into a modified
their programs on the footpath outside our stadium design - a Cowper Murphy specialty
front doors, and scathingly referred to us as Bill Howard was an experienced manager who - by replacing the balcony with stepped seating
‘the little show around the corner’ in their had modernised the Southern Cross Essendon down to the stalls. An innovation was a coffee
advertising. All this made no difference. and re-opened it as the Regal. He also ran films lounge, off the main foyer. This utilised space
Wally Grant (a shrewd manager) would watch at the North Melbourne Town Hall, before created by the stadium design, and was ideal
what they were screening, and when they came opening the Central North Melbourne (now for supper after the show. By 1962, the only
out with a big show he’d pick up something Lithuanian Hall). opposition cinema still in business was the
just ordinary, something cheap. But when it Renown. Careful selection of double features
was an ordinary show at the Renown, Wally’d The Esquire Years ensured that it was still necessary to book seats
get something big and ‘give ‘em hell.’ He was at the Esquire on a Saturday night.
doing that all the time. 5 Howard had learned that Hoyts’ lease on the
Dorchester was to expire on the 30 June 1946. Bill Howard relinquished his lease in 1968 at
Shifting alliances in the 1920s saw the theatre In a canny move, he approached the managing about the time the freehold was sold to
become a ‘pass-the-parcel’ - from Union agents at 9 am on 1 July and his offer was Kadimah – The Jewish Cultural Centre and
Theatres, to one year of private partnership, accepted. Hoyts executives were said to be National Library. The history of Kadimah in
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then to F.W. Thring’s Associated Theatres Pty. furious at this turn of events. Naturally enough, Melbourne is as long and colourful as that of
Ltd. until the 1926 merger with Hoyts. By this
time, Thring was Governing Director of the
biggest cinema circuit in Victoria.

Thring’s friend, architect Cedric Ballantyne,
was brought in to modify the Elsternwick. The
balcony was enlarged and the projection room
moved upstairs. The entrance foyer was moved
to the south-side of the building to create a
larger auditorium.
The Health Department informed Hoyts that
the Elsternwick ‘was one of the worst
ventilated theatres ever to come to [our]
notice’. A final remedial notice was issued in
1931, but Hoyts side-stepped it. The building
was no longer a cinema, but it could still be
registered as a dance hall. The Dorchester
Dance Palais opened in November 1931.
The Yiddish Theatre performs The Dybbuk
Film Interrupted
Paramount, MGM and BEF were delighted to the Elsternwick Theatre, and its charter of
This was a sad and desperate phase. By the war support Howard. They rated the location promoting Jewish culture meant that plays,
years the building was hosting charity highly. films and music were always high on its
functions, though visibly dilapidated. 6 agenda. The purchase included a building
The theatre, re-badged as the Esquire, opened behind the theatre which was to give Kadimah
The Dorchester was purchased in 1941 by Geo. to Plottel’s design on Thursday 19 September a site with two frontages; the theatre on Gordon
Prentice Pty. Ltd., a firm of builders in 1946. Whatever celebration might have been Street, and their new cultural centre on Selwyn
Hawthorn. Prentice planned to revitalise it as organised at Gordon Street, the re-opening was Street.
a picture theatre and engaged architect just another entry in the Suburban
J. Plottel for the upgrade. Plottel is best known Entertainment column of the daily papers. This Intending to retain the Esquire as a working
for the Beehive Building at 92-94 Elizabeth was one week before Hoyts re-opened the De cinema, Kadimah also sought approval to stage
Street, Melbourne which is still an office Luxe Bourke Street, now renovated as the occasional live shows. Subsequently, live
block, although the distinctive beehive on the Esquire. performances varied from as few as seven per
pediment is long gone. year to as many as 20.
The coincidence of names is significant. Bill
War-time building restrictions stymied that Howard was happy to relate how his exquisite Hartley Davey, who was projectionist at the
plan. Prentice then sought permission to re- timing to register ‘Esquire’ had forced Hoyts Northland Drive-in, was approached to work
open as a picture theatre. As others had found to pay “a considerable sum” for it. With for Kadimah on Sunday nights. Some of the
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before him, conditions tolerated by the Health Howard at the helm, the Esquire ran for 23 films were on nitrate stock in 1,000 foot
Department whilst a theatre was in continuous years as a second-week house. lengths (10 minutes of screen time). At first,
use were never accepted once registration had Hartley would rack up the image so that the
lapsed. The initial plan was to switch with another subtitles in English were visible, but this often
second-week house, the Camden Caulfield, cut off the heads of the actors. After a few of
Forced to bide his time, Prentice rented out but the management there refused, so Howard these truncated presentations, a Kadimah
parts of the building. In 1942 it was used by opened by switching with his Central North representative told Hartley not to bother with
the Renown Comfort Workers, citizens Melbourne. However the distance between the subtitles, as the audience understood the
involved with welfare work for soldiers on the two proved to be impractical. The problem language and wanted to see the heads!
leave and their families. By May 1944, was solved by dropping North Melbourne back
Prentice had approvals for basic repairs, but to a fourth or fifth week release. Many of these shows were on 16 mm film,
problems with the building were greater than with no leaders or tails. Hartley had no
first thought. The auditorium floor was below With CinemaScope and VistaVision on their assistant, and he sorted the reels by the
ground level and, in the course of inspections, way to the suburbs, the Esquire was upgraded numbers on the film edges. To add to his
it was found that there was no sub-floor in 1955 to plans by Cowper Murphy and problems, the 16 mm projector - a Bell and

32 CINEMARECORD # 83