Page 30 - CinemaRecord #87

urwillumbah’s Regent Theatre still Murwillumbah’s premier theatre. (The School Club Cinema, with a club in the former stalls
Mstands today, albeit much altered, still of Arts was demolished long ago). area and the cinema in the dress circle. Over
operating as a cinema, and still dominating the the years, the stalls area became a fabric shop,
streetscape around it. The Regent’s new site did not save it from fruit shop, and finally a supermarket, with the
flooding either, as evidenced by the 1954 cinema walled off and confined to the former
The Regent opened 26 May 1947 for the floods which damaged the entire stalls area and dress circle.
T J Dorgan circuit, and was built to replace the vestibule. In 1955 CinemaScope was installed.
earlier Regent Theatre which had burnt down In 1983, fire damaged the supermarket and the
in 1945. The latter was also near the river and Around 1968/69, the Dorgan company ceased original proscenium was destroyed. The
very susceptible to flooding, so the new to operate the Regent and sold it to a transport supermarket reopened the following year, but
Regent was built further away from the river, firm. The Regent was leased out as the Sports the Regent’s misfortunes continued. After that
on the corner of Brisbane and Wollumbin
Streets. In the distance can be seen Mount
Warning, said to have been Australia’s super
volcano.

The Regent seated 999 on two levels and was
designed by theatre architect, George Rae, who
told this writer in 1985 that he regarded it as
one of his best theatre designs. The building
was brick and quite substantial and included
an outdoor smoker’s patio above the entrance
doors. The façade featured a blocky Art Deco
form and the interior was itself a refined Art
Deco.

T J Dorgan also screened films in the School
of Arts from as early as 1933 until he closed
it in 1958, but it was the Regent which was
The Regent during the 1954 floods

30 CINEMARECORD # 87