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In the usual Front Stalls area, the Winter was provided on a lift, which would rise to
Garden Restaurant had been built to stage level to play for the performers.
accommodate 1500 people, in an area
measuring about 90 feet by 40 feet which had The mighty Wurlitzer Organ rose up from the
been reserved as a dance floor and cabaret theatre’s basement to a giddy height of 38 feet
when film screenings were not in progress, above the stalls floor level and was played
although films could also be viewed from this before the show by American organist, Fred
space. Scholl, from Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in
Hollywood. The Wurlitzer was the last such
Even the staff carried the exotic livery of the organ to be imported into New Zealand from
theatre, the female ushers being dressed in the Wurlitzer Organ Company in Tonawanda,
voluminous pantaloons (which kept catching New York, and was the largest theatre organ
the theatre seats) and turned up slippers; the installed in any New Zealand theatre. A little
male doorkeepers wearing dinner suits, with known fact is that the Wurlitzer was not the
black fez (complete with red tassel) perched original organ ordered by Thomas O’Brien for
incongruously on their heads. the Civic. It was a Christie organ that O’Brien
had ordered. The English organ builders Hill,
The Civic opened with great fanfare on Norman and Beard named their organs
20 December 1929. O'Brien's first film at the “Christie” after the then owner of the
newly opened Civic was the ill-chosen British Company, John Christie. Why O’Brien
film Three Live Ghosts, which had been a cancelled the order in favour of a Wurlitzer is
stage play. "The Management has taken not known, but the Christie bound for the
infinite pains in the selection of this picture to Civic was shipped to a Sydney suburban
obtain a play which is essentially English, as theatre instead.
opposed to American. They hold the view that
The Civic was to be constructed on the
premise that “the more splendour and glitter
that can be brought together to inspire, the
better they will respond.” Apart from the
“clouds and stars” ceiling, there were many
other features of the Civic design which
fascinated the first audiences. All around the
theatre walls were recesses containing
buddhas, minarets, towers and little balconies
"all carried out in Indian style with palm trees
waving behind them." The Indian motif is
followed throughout the building, with bronze
and gold tints of red and blue as the
predominating notes in the colour scheme.
The auditorium's Islamic architecture reached
its culminating point in the proscenium,
“which is flanked by two stately minarets,
each guarded by two panthers” (The panthers
are usually erroneously referred to as lions).
The Dress Circle was curved “almost like a
saucer in order to give perfect line of vision
from every seat".

in New Zealand, being British to the The pipework for the Civic Wurlitzer was
backbone, a film with a British atmosphere installed in two chambers under the stage, and
will not only be more appreciated, but should “spoke” through grilles on the front edge of
be shown in this great British theatre". Also the stage. This was not an ideal installation, as
screening was Gloria Swanson’s first all- when the orchestra gondola rose to its full
talking picture, The Trespasser. height, it blocked the grilles, greatly reducing
the sound of the organ.
These films ran for only 10 days. According
to the "trade", O'Brien had passed over the Unfortunately, the Civic was built at the onset
much more invigorating American production of the Depression and was not a financial
of The Gold Diggers of Broadway, which success. O'Brien's determination to screen
opened at the St James in January 1930, British rather than American films also
proving to be an immense success by contributed to poor attendances. Falling
screening for a record breaking 25 weeks. receipts led to the collapse of O'Brien's
company and his hasty departure for Sydney
At its opening in 1929, the Civic employed a in 1932.
thirty piece show band under the direction of
Ted Henkel from the Forum Theatre in Los (In Australia, O'Brien was involved in theatre
Angeles, a corps de ballet and solo dancers. In management, but his fortunes never again
addition, there was an array of cinema ushers reached the heights of the 1920s. He died in
(the Civic attache corps), male doorkeepers, a St Kilda, Melbourne on 21 May 1948,
commissionaire, cashiers, two projectionists, survived by his wife Mary, two sons and two
stage management and even attendants to park daughters. A testament to O'Brien's
patrons’ cars. A gondola laden with musicians personality and showmanship, the Civic

18 CINEMARECORD # 95