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The Memorial Theatre, Portarlington c. 1978 (Craige Blencoe collection) Above: Halls Gap Cinema advertising (Ross King
collection)
check, the trainee was instructed to say that
the projectionist had suddenly taken ill and
had to go home, leaving him to run the film,
but he couldn’t play that card too often.

The next I heard of the Point Lonsdale was
that it had been destroyed in a fire.

By the late 1970’s, Harry had set up and
started running the show at Halls Gap, a
tourist town situated in the Grampians in
Western Victoria.
Over the years, I have met many folk
passionate about cinema, but I think Harry
was the most passionate. Apart from running
his own shows, Harry worked as a news
cameraman for the ABC and was a
Above: The St. Leonards Theatre c. 1978. (Craige Blencoe collection)
Below: Harry setting up the platter at the Dendy.
projectionist at the Dendy, Collins Street, acquired by the National Film and Sound
Melbourne where the first platter system in Archive.
Victoria was installed.
I’m sure quite a few of CATHS members
In the later years of his life, I had lost track of will remember Harry. ¬
Harry as I had moved to work in the country,
but was saddened to learn that he had died
unexpectedly in 1980 at the early age of 49 Acknowledgement:
years.
Harry Davidson images are frame grabs from the
Much of his rare film collection, including ABC TV production What Happened to
some of the Georges Méliès lost film, was Entertainment.

CINEMARECORD # 88 37