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THE LAKESIDE DRIVE-IN, YARRAWONGA

by David Scott

In CinemaRecord #88, we featured an article
about Jack Scott’s Northern Victoria circuit
of theatres, written by his daughter, Pat
Tallent. Pat’s younger brother, David Scott,
became involved with the Lakeside Drive-in
theatre at Yarrawonga, and the Stargazer
Drive-in theatre in Thurgoona (North
Albury). David has now written a book about
these two theatres and his time in the industry,
and we are pleased to be able to publish his
story in parts over the next few editions of
CinemaRecord. - Editor.

he day after Dad's funeral, Mum said to
Tme, "It's up to you, David. You don't have
to go ahead with it."

It was October 1960, and I was about to sit my
matriculation exams. Dad passed away the
same week the Yarrawonga council passed his
plans to build a drive-in theatre. There was no
doubt in my mind: I couldn't wait to leave
college and dive into the corporate world Dad and cut into chips at the back shed and then friends at 'extended' lunches and attending
had acquainted me with. carted up in bins of water to the cold room. If premieres.
you took your eyes off the peeler, the potatoes
reduced to the size of marbles. Drive-in theatre programming was more
intensive than for indoor cinemas, in that three
Light bulbs set around the edge of the screen double feature programmes were needed
looked great, but the drawback proved to be weekly - one of them being a ranch night
sulphur-crested cockatoos who chewed where westerns were screened. In addition, on
through the conduit, leaving exposed bare holiday weekends, midnight horror films
electrical wire. It was my job to scale up the featured. The Queen's Birthday weekend in
back of the screen with replacement bulbs June was notorious for thick fogs, with the trip
shoved down my shirt but, after almost from Yarrawonga to home at Cobram at times
touching an exposed electrical wire, the task taking a tortuous two hours instead of the
became too hazardous and the lights were normal 25 minutes.
removed.
Asking patrons to drive to the centre of the
It was before interchangeable letter-boards ramps and run their cars for five minutes
were around, so two-square metre posters usually shifted the fog but, being by Lake
were pasted onto the front board - a messy job Mulwala, fog often drifted back. Sometimes,
at windy times, when the advertising wrapped repeating the process was successful. If not,
around me. refunds were made.

For me it was a magical time visiting film The incursion of TV transmissions into
exchanges, socializing with new-found country areas, tough new DUI laws, film

So, on 21 March 1961, the Lakeside Drive-in
at Yarrawonga opened - 2 months before my
18th birthday. April Love, a light-hearted
musical starring Shirley Jones and Pat Boone,
was the opening feature and all the film
distribution managers from Melbourne
attended, many staying at the new Cypress
Gardens Motel at Mulwala, where the after
show supper celebrations took place. Bob
Gunn from Twentieth Century Fox, Harold
Dilger from Warner Brothers, Brian Casey
(an American) from Universal Pictures, Wes
Loney Paramount's salesman were among the
visitors.

Frozen vegetables weren't around then, so up
to 60 pounds of potatoes were machine peeled

20 CINEMARECORD # 91