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RECOLLECTIONS OF HARRY DAVIDSON

By Ross King

After having been closed for about three
years, I re-opened the Gisborne Theatre in
the Gisborne Mechanic’s Hall in January
1967. The old projection equipment, (Kalee
6s) were in rather poor condition, and the
whole place was a bit of a mess. I set about
cleaning up, repairing seats, remounting the
screen etc. I replaced the projection
equipment with a plant of C&W P5s on early
model RCA sound heads. After about six
months, the show had been running well with
good attendances, so I spoke with Harry about
getting a better plant. He offered me a pair of
Raycophone J3 projectors from his Point
Lonsdale show, then in its winter recess. My
understanding at the time these machines had
been at Point Lonsdale for some years.

My late brother had a utility so, one Saturday
he article on the Point Lonsdale Theatre in July, we went down to Point Lonsdale,
Tby Eric Reed in the last edition of where I proceeded to dismantle the plant. The
CinemaRecord, brought to mind my bio-box was accessed by an external steel
experiences with the late Harry Davidson. ladder on the southern side of the building. Above: Coastline Cinema promotion and at left
We lowered the various sections of the Memorial Portarlington ticket (Craige Blencoe
I had known Harry Davidson for some time, projectors by rope and loaded the collection)
(although he was some years older than I), as machines onto the utility
we both grew up and lived in the Melbourne for transport back to When installed at Coburg in 1931, this was the
suburb of Essendon. Harry had been a Melbourne. first Raycophone installation in Victoria.
collector of all things cinematic and had a very
large collection of film, much of it rare. Under the name of Coastline Cinemas,
Harry stored his collection in the family Harry operated a number of shows around
home in Forrester Street. One summer’s the Bellarine peninsular - Portarlington,
day, the nitrate film spontaneously This Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale and later St.
combusted and the house was destroyed by was the first Leonards. By far his most prestigious theatre
the fire. Harry then moved to Heidelberg, and association I had was the Grand at Queenscliff. Originally the
it wasn’t long before that house also went up with the show at Point ballroom of the Grand Hotel, the building
in flames. These events never daunted Lonsdale. Harry replaced the featured ornate Victorian plasterwork akin to
Harry’s enthusiasm for film and particularly Point Lonsdale equipment with a pair a city theatre. However, the bio-box was only
silent cinema. He would often say “the world of Kalee 7s on Raycophone sound heads he accessible by a steel ladder attached to the
should have stopped evolving in 1927, before had acquired from the Coburg Town Hall. interior rear wall.
the talkies arrived.”
In 1971, as the holiday season was tapering
Below: The Gisborne Theatre auditorium (Ross King collection)
off, Harry contacted me to see if I would run
the show at Point Lonsdale. I would drive
down in the afternoon, have a swim at the
beach then go to the hall and make up the
programme for the evening show, usually two
features. On one occasion, within about 15
minutes of starting the show, there was a
power blackout across the whole district. We
waited until about 9 pm but, as power was not
restored, we gave the admission money back
to the audience and called it a night. Just as
well, as the power was not restored until the
following morning.

The following year, I again filled in a few
times to help Harry out when he could not get
an operator. This was still a time when a
licenced projectionist was required for
showing films. At times when Harry was
unable to get a licensed operator for one of his
shows, he would train a local teenager in how
to run the machines and pay him a few dollars
to run the show. Should an inspector arrive
from the Health department to do a licence

36 CINEMARECORD # 88