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The Life of a Jackaroo* and an orchestra
conducted by Mr. A. Gregory from Wests'
Pictures, Princes Bridge.

The theatre opened under the management of
Mr. G.W. Brown at popular prices: Dress
Circle 1/6 (15c), Back Stalls 1/- (10c) and front
Stalls 6d (5c), and children half price .

Aerial view of Newmarket - Newmarket Theatre centre of image
On Thursday 30 July 1914, the Essendon presence of an audience that filled every part
Gazette reported that on the following night of the building. The new lessee has within the
the theatre management will introduce “a last few weeks effected a complete
wonderful invention, the Helios Orchestrion. transformation both inside and out of this very
It reproduces music of every description commodious picture-house, so that it may
perfectly, embracing the effects of piano, easily be classed as among the best of the
violin, cello, mandolin, orchestral bells, bass suburban theatres that have lately come into
and side drums, and triangles. It is the same existence. A prominent feature of the
as used in London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. improvements is the decorative scheme. The
Picture theatre patrons should not miss this”. effect produced is of a light and bright
Little is recorded of the success or otherwise appearance throughout, with a total absence
of the Newmarket under the managership of of anything of a garish character likely to mar
George Brown. However, between the years the simple and pleasing nature of the design.
1913 and 1917, his title changed from manager The main hall is carried out in white and
to lessee. brown, the front of the dress circle is cream
relieved with gold, and the approaches in blue
Judging by the quality of the twice weekly and fawn, embellished with an arrangement of
program changes, any downturn in patronage artistically appointed decorated panels.”
would not have been due to lack of quality
films. Such classics as The Birth of a Nation, The above report states McLeish is the lessee,
Intolerance and Cabiria were screened, as well however, by 1922, the company share register
a regular sprinkling of Douglas Fairbanks and shows Mr. McLeish to be buying large
Mary Pickford films, and of course Charlie numbers of shares. Other records show he was
Chaplin shorts. offering between 11/- and 12/6 per share
($1.10 and $1.25) as late as 1938.
The Flemington Spectator of 3 May 1917
announced that the Newmarket Theatre will The next time the theatre made news was when
be re-opening under the new management of the manageress, Georgina Hore, was fined £7
Mr. Robert McLeish. The report goes on to say with £3/3/0 costs ($14.00 and $6.30) for “not
that Mr. McLeish is also the successful having kept the exits of the theatre clear during
operator of the Northcote Theatre. (McLeish a performance and not having two pieces of
went on to operate eight theatres in Melbourne,
some in conjunction with Hoyts.)
The theatre was repainted and a new Simplex
biograph was installed, it reopened on
Saturday 5 May, with Mary Pickford in Hulda
from Holland and Olga Petrova in The Black
Butterfly. The orchestra conducted by
Mr.George H. Brentnall provided the musical
accompaniment as McLeish proclaimed "The
best only is only good enough for my
Newmarket patrons".
The three major Melbourne newspapers all
reported on the re-opening and refurbishment
of the Newmarket Theatre in their
Monday 7 May editions. The Argus report
gives some idea of the auditorium colour
scheme: “The Newmarket Theatre, under the
direction of Mr. Robert McLeish, was
successfully re-opened on Saturday in the Robert McLeish

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