Page 21 - CinemaRecord #84

operator. He also father was the projectionist, whilst his friend
served in France would play the piano to accompany the film.
from 1918 to 1919. I did not find any of this information until mid
2007 whilst visiting my twin sister's house (our
He returned to parents original home) in South Lismore. Our
Australia after the father had always carried a solid wooden trunk
war and landed in with him during the Great War and, when he
Sydney where he was alive, forbade any of us children to touch
was discharged from the trunk. It was during one of my many visits
active service in to see my twin sisters (Mary and Emily) in
June 1919. It was 2007 that they asked me to help move the trunk
while he was in to take out some blankets they had stored. It
Sydney that he took was after the contents had been removed that
up a course of I looked at the inside base of the trunk, and
"Instruction in noticed that it appeared to be higher on the
Motion Picture inside than on the outside. I tapped the bottom
Projection" at and there was a hollow sound about it. On
Haymarket Theatres closer inspection, I noticed a small hole in one
Ltd., Paramount corner of the "floor". Using a stiff piece of wire
House, 302 Pitt as a hook, I managed to lift the entire floor to
Street, Sydney, in reveal all of our father's World War 1
scene closely and, just when the bubbles got July 1919. (I still have the original bill, receipt documents, Kodak camera, radio signalling
close to the embankment, this hideous "hand"
plunged upwards out of the water to make a Star Court Cinema c. 1980
grab for the woman. The reaction from the
patrons was quite dramatic to say the least. The
girl in front of me screamed and it took me by
surprise too, because suddenly my cold hand
grabbed her neck! The reaction from this poor
girl was even more dramatic. She screamed
loud and high, saying that she had been
grabbed around her neck by the monster. I was
frozen by her reaction and could not let go of
her neck. By this time, they had stopped the
film, turned on the lights and the manager and
other theatre staff came running down the aisle
to see what was happening. The girl was still
screaming that the monster was holding her,
and then I realised it was me who was the
"monster". I let go of her neck, she fainted on
the spot, the manager grabbed me by my arm,
while other staff attended to her, I was dragged
up to the managers office. He threatened to
phone the police and I pleaded with him to let
me off. He told me not to come anywhere near
the theatre for a whole month, and this I did to
keep the peace. The girl was revived and given
free passes for the next month as
compensation. That is one movie night I will
never forget.

Amazingly, running an actual movie show was
in both my father's blood and mine, but I did
not know this until some 40 years after my
father's death. He was born in Bishopsgate,
England, in December 1898 and came to
Australia alone in 1911, settling in Melbourne.
In 1916, he joined up with the Australian
Flying Corps 67th Squadron to serve in the
First World War Middle East campaigns as a
second aircraft mechanic and wireless
and a signed reference). In late 1920, he arrived codes etc. but, most important of all, was the
in Lismore to begin working for the Lismore discovery of 180 black and white photo
County Council as an electrical linesman, negatives in a special negative binder. These
where he remained until 1941, at which point were the negatives of photos he had taken
he set up his own domestic electrical between 1916 and 1918 throughout the Middle
contracting business. East.

From 1925 to 1929, my father, together with The negative holder had pockets numbered 1
a good friend of his, would drive to Dunoon to 100 and, at the very back, were 5 lined
(18 km north of Lismore) every Friday night pages, each numbered line matching up with
to screen silent movies in the original Dunoon the negative pocket. There was my father's
Hall, charging sixpence for admission. My hand-written details of where each photograph
A.I.F. Theatre Lismore, c.1920 had been taken, together with accurate dates.