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The Surrey Theatre c. 1940
outside the house, but was too frightened to home and on holidays. With the advent of Myth:
sound a warning. He never lived it down! Standard 8 mm film, he switched to that format
due to the increasingly high cost of the 16 mm It has sometimes been reported that after
There were also some shenanigans concerning colour film stock and processing, but he was declaring the theatre open, Prime Minister
the spies sent out by the film distributors who never satisfied with the image quality. Super 8 Menzies announced that “Australia was now
stood at the doors counting the number of brought some improvement with the added at war with Germany …” and that he had to
patrons attending a screening to make sure that advantage of recording sound on a magnetic leave suddenly to go to radio station 3LO to
the appropriate fee was paid. This checking stripe that ran down one side of the film. make the announcement to the Nation. This is
rankled Laurie and various means were incorrect. The theatre was opened on Saturday
devised to “minimise” the count. We had a lot of fun editing the movies and 26 August, 1939 - Menzies’ announcement
adding our own sound tracks, with varying took place on Sunday 3 September at 9.15 pm.
The Surrey Theatre operated successfully for degrees of success. However, always the
a number of years but, with the pending arrival showman, he regularly hired 16 mm sound
of television in Australia, Laurie heard warning features that we ran for family and friends in
bells since he knew that it had impacted quite an improvised home cinema (i.e. lounge Footnote:
badly on business in other countries where it room!) complete with light dimmers,
had already been introduced. So, very motorised curtains and twin Bell and Howell The 16 mm film referred to was donated to the
reluctantly, he sold the theatre in October 1950 projectors. Shirley provided the snacks at CATHS Archive by the author.
and went back to building dwellings. interval and after the show.
Credits:
Since then the building has gone through Laurie died in 1985, not long before video
various reincarnations as a squash court, replaced film. I am sure that he would have Picture of Mr. Rossiter supplied by the author.
furniture store and office accommodation. In embraced the new medium completely,
2014 the building was converted into especially given the ready access it provided Construction images are frame grabs from the
apartments, with retail shops on the street to feature movies, the convenience of doing 16 mm film.
frontage. away with developing the exposed film and
simpler editing. I'm not so sure that he would Newspaper clip - Trove.
Laurie continued with his interest in film, have got much satisfaction from the quality
making many silent home movies in 16 mm available from television sets at the time Images this page: State Library of Victoria.
colour, capturing a lot of family memories at though. ✶

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