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curtain effects. Of the original equipment in
the projection room, only the Kliegl follow
spotlight remained. All other switchgear and
sound equipment had been removed and the
projection room cleaned and repainted. At that
time, the projectionist was Bill Bartlett,
assisted by Brian Luscombe who is also a
CATHS member now living in Healesville
and, until recently, was the operator of the
Healesville Cinema.

At some point prior to 1971, Village had taken
over the theatre and immediately set about
converting it into a twin cinema. In
1971/1972, the architectural firm of Sorfanos,
Monsborough and Associates Pty. Ltd. was
engaged to carry out the design. The original
proscenium was bricked up, the floor level of
the stalls was lowered by a few metres to form
what would become the new Cinema 2, and
the line of the original dress circle was
extended through to the bricked-up
proscenium to form the new Cinema 1.
Village Twin Cinema c. 1985. The white cladding covered the original Geelong Theatre facade.

Alex Bernard, with the remainder of the cast The projection equipment until about the mid-
and crew all appearing to be Italian. Given 1950s consisted of two Super Simplex
that the film was silent, language would machines, but whether these were the original
presumably not be a problem if English titles plant is thought to be unlikely, as the Geelong
were provided. Ticket prices ranged from Theatre did not install sound until
sixpence to one shilling and sixpence. 23 November 1929, the first sound movie
being Bulldog Drummond. There was also a
By the 1940s, minimal stage lighting had been slide/effects projector similar to a Brenograph
installed in the Geelong Theatre, consisting and, as noted earlier, a single carbon arc
of suspended battens with coloured lamps on follow spotlight. The arcs on all of these
three circuits, and footlights used primarily to machines were powered by a 300 amp
light the stage curtain. In addition, there were mercury arc rectifier located in the room
a number of 1000 watt floodlights mounted on beneath the projection room. In addition, there
2 metre high steel poles set in concrete blocks. was a motor generator set in a shed outside the
These could be positioned in the wing area on west side of the stalls. This could also be used
each side of the stage, connected via sockets to supply the arcs in the event of a breakdown
in floor traps. All stage lighting was controlled of the rectifier.
from a rather lethal arrangement of openly
exposed dimmers and knife switches on a In the mid-1950s, the Super Simplex
switchboard four metres above floor level at machines were replaced by a pair of Kalee 19
the north-west corner of the stage. There was projectors with President arc lamps. The
no front-of-house stage lighting other than a slide/effects projector was also replaced with
single Kliegl carbon arc follow spotlight in the a tri-unal projector, which used two apertures
projection room. for projection of slides and a third aperture for Village Twin Cinema 1 Toshiba projectors with
Strong xenon arcs and 6000 ft. spool capacity
The original dress circle was extended to become Village Twin, Cinema 1, later changed to Cinema 4 of the Village 11.
The former Geelong Theatre projection room
became that for Cinema 1, and a new
projection room was created off the ground
floor foyer for Cinema 2. The Kalee 19
projectors were relocated to Cinema 2, still
using carbon arcs, and Cinema 1 was re-
equipped with a new pair of Toshiba
projectors with 4.5kW xenon lamps.
Later still, the Kalee 19s in Cinema 2 were
also replaced with Toshiba projectors. A new
upstairs foyer was created as well as new
toilets and candy bar. The entire façade above
the verandah was covered over with white
aluminium strips, and the columns at street
level were clad with artificial brick.

The pleasing overall effect of rich colours and
timber panelling internally was typical of
work by Ron Monsborough at the time, and
appeared in other cinema refurbishments,
such as the Tower Cinema in Newcastle.

30 CINEMARECORD # 91