Page 10 - CinemaRecord #86

The Barkly proscenium 1938
balanced and, according to the suppliers, was taken up by F.W. Thring’s Associated
(5)
would never jam. The directors took fright Theatres, a name soon to be synonymous with Design Deficiencies
at the cost and chose to ignore this detail. Hoyts.
The narrow entrance kept Hoyts and the Health
Although she did not sing from this stage, there By the 1920s, Associated controlled the three Department in correspondence for decades.
is proof that Dame Nellie Melba visited the important theatres in Footscray. In block Described in 1937 as “cramped and
theatre to hear a local singer, a Mr. Whitehead. advertisements the Barkly topped the bill, unimpressive” it was functional enough when
The rest of the story may be fantasy: Melba is followed by the Trocadero, then, in smaller patrons were arriving and entering in small
said to have been so impressed that she print, the Grand. As befitting its premier groups. The reverse situation was the worry –
(6)
arranged for him to study in Paris. One exotic status, talkies came to the Barkly on Saturday a mass exodus of people pressing into a space
stage attraction was Lenora de Vere, billed as 14 September 1930. A full house rated the only 6.1 m wide.
“The Enchantress, The Famous Parisian installation an immediate success. “The
Beauty, A Dream of Loveliness”, who opinion of many was that the talkies were more Another problem was the lavatories. A report
performed her Dance of the Sea to great pleasingly presented than in most of the big on the external ‘conveniences’ is an eye-
acclaim, her sinuous form buffeted by city theatres”. (8) At least Hoyts was not opener: “The south and west walls of the
projected waves. treating Footscray residents as lesser citizens; theatre are extensively used as urinals during
this fit-out was months before some theatres the interval, while the urinal compartment is
The Homaz Trio (1915) were acrobats who in the eastern suburbs. The Trocadero was little used. This is undoubtedly due to the
later toured with Wirth’s Circus. The Health wired later, by which time Associated/Hoyts inconvenient location of the sanitary block as
(7)
Department, unimpressed by these stage had closed the Grand. a whole, the entrance there to remote from the
prologues which were flouting the law, served theatre and to the poor lighting in the block,
notice that unless the fire curtain was installed, It was a strange time to do so but, in 1931, where much of the light is absorbed by the
legal action was imminent. The company Hoyts revisited the idea of stage shows. The black wall surfaces”. ((5) June 1937)
secretary promised to comply, but again took response from the Health Department was the
no action. same – the theatre must have a fire curtain – The Barkly Slips A Notch
and their reply offered a tongue-in-cheek
Pressed yet again by Health, the secretary suggestion; the Department could supply the Hoyts’ management ignored these irritations
explained that the theatre was now leased to plans for the curtain of 1914 if Hoyts wanted while they pondered a new strategy. The rival
Messrs. H. Salter and Co., and would only them. They didn’t. Grand had re-opened in 1936 after a major
show films. That finished the matter for 16 make-over, and was now providing stiff
years. Salter and Co. is thought to have held competition.
the lease for about five years, after which it

10 CINEMARECORD # 86