Page 12 - CinemaRecord #86

Three CATHS members have been associated
with the Barkly. Jim White enjoyed his time
there in 1948 as assistant projectionist to Jack
Garry. Jim observed that front-of-house staff
were like a family, proud of their theatre and
prepared to go the extra step to give the best
possible presentation. Keith Gulliver was one
of the team who installed the CinemaScope
screen. Keith dispelled any illusion that
elaborate optical measurements were necessary
to match image to screen, telling me that the
frame for the screen was given its curve by
kicking it into place.

The Last Hurrah

Ross King was assistant to Bob Buttner in
1960-61, by which time Ross could see that
the theatre was on its last legs. Ross recalls an
interior painted in Hoyts’ mauve and the stage
curtains as white and mauve silk stripes. The
upper foyer still looked grand, and the curtains
covering the French doors were in a red and
white Regency stripe. The ceiling lights were
now the unimaginative plaster ‘chandeliers’
which invaded and diminished every Hoyts
suburban theatre.
The Barkly turnstiles, a short-lived experiment. Image: Ian Hanson
The former dressing rooms were now storage
Cowper Murphy and Associates. Their plan of the screen was slightly curved, unlike later areas, musty and damp. Plaster moulds of the
1947 shows a remodelled stage. The second installations. This was all prelude to a new heads of Corinthian columns lay about. Such
proscenium is their work. release pattern. On Thursday 10 June 1954, the columns were never part of the Barkly decor,
Barkly joined an elite group - Broadway so Ross wondered if they came from the
In 1949, Hoyts wanted to install turnstiles in Camberwell, Regent South Yarra, Regent Regent Collins Street.
the foyer for better crowd control. The Thornbury and Victory St Kilda – as
proposal was rejected: “When the vestibule is Simultaneous with Regent Collins Street. Ross recalls that the bio-room had its share of
widened it will be possible to redesign it so that These five theatres enjoyed nearly six months surprises. “The slide bi-unal was directly at the
there is a fixed turnstile”. (5) of exclusive CinemaScope presentations, soon top of the entrance stairs. When showing slides
to be called Regency Releases, until fit-outs you had to be careful not to step back or risk
Hoyts applied again four years later and this began in earnest in the other theatres of the falling down the stairs. One night I went to
time they got their way. For whatever reason, chain. The Trocadero was one of the last to carbon-up the slide arc-lamp, which I had not
the turnstile experiment was a failure. It was get CinemaScope. switched off properly. I was lining up the
certainly an aesthetic one. Patrons were yarded carbons and the lamp struck. Surprised, I
like sheep between metal barriers. The status of the ‘New’ Barkly was not helped involuntarily jumped backwards, luckily
by a news report in 1955 that four circle grabbing the stair rail which stopped my
Hoyts never widened the entrance, offering the patrons rushing an external exit to ‘beat the descent.
excuse that to take in one shop would mean Anthem’ had fallen 25 feet when the stairs
breaking a lease, and they didn’t remodel the gave way. An investigation concluded that “In the corner of the bio-box was a metal
upstairs toilets. They did however improve the decayed timber had gone unnoticed because funnel that protruded about 2 feet from the
external ones and remodelled the bio-room, in there were no external signs of it. (5) floor. This was a pissoir for the operating staff
anticipation of CinemaScope, which was to at a time when they were not allowed to leave
restore the fortunes of the old theatre.
Back on Top

The Robe opened on Thursday 3 June 1954,
the fifth theatre in the chain to be fitted out. In
the Hoyts newspaper column the theatre was
temporarily listed as The New Barkly. The
stage was resplendent with a gold curtain and

Regency Release cinema slide c.1954
Image: Ross King Another view of the Barkly turnstiles. Image: Kevin Adams.

12 CINEMARECORD # 86