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INDUSTRY PEOPLE Hotel and two apartment towers, with plans
to be resubmitted due to height concerns. The
Members (AM) in the General Division of cinemas, Woolworths, Fun Lab, fresh food,
the Order of Australia dining, new hotels and apartments going up
nearby will transform the area, which is dead
One of CATHS Patrons, Frank Van Straten at night.
(OAM) has been awarded the AM for Source: Financial review, 23/5/2017, page 37.
significant service to performing arts heritage,
conservation as a theatre historian and author, Essendon
and to the broadcast media. ▼ Palace Cinemas is embarking on their eighth
Melbourne cinema complex in the new Puckle
Street retail complex. The 12-screen cinema
led to Ward becoming the Australian agent for will feature three platinum screens, a total of
Christie projection equipment. In 1970 he and 620 seats and an outdoor cinema space.
the late Mark Josem co-founded distributor Construction by the developer, Giancorp, is
Filmways, which invested in The True Story due to commence later this year and be
of Eskimo Nell, Fantasm and Fantasm Comes completed in 2019. Palace Cinemas’ CEO
Again, and distributed films including Tim Benjamin Zeccola, said that they had been
Burstall’s Kangaroo and Bob Ellis’ Warm longing for a home in Melbourne’s west for
Nights on a Slow Moving Train. some time, claiming that there was no better
Source: if.com.au location than the birth place of Australia’s
culture queen, Dame Edna Everage. Together
★ with their existing stable of cinemas, recently
NATIONAL confirmed new cinemas for Melbourne’s
Pentridge Prison site in Coburg, Double Bay
Palace Cinemas founder Antonio Zeccola has and Chippendale in Sydney, and Raine Square
also been awarded the AM for services to the Cinema Attendance and Ticket Prices in Perth, Palace Cinemas has become a
visual arts, particularly to the Australian According to Screen Australia, Australia has formidable provider of entertainment for the
motion picture industry, through a range of masses.
roles, and to multiculturalism. ▼ the world’s ninth biggest box office takings, Source: Moonee Valley Leader newspaper.
but also had the second highest ticket price
rises last year. With local box office increasing
Melbourne City
to $A1.25 billion, the number of cinema visits The Kino Arthouse Cinema turned 30 on
rose to 91.3 million after three years in decline. 23 June. Located beneath skyscrapers at the
Average ticket prices in Australia rose 20 cents.
Paris end of Collins Street, Kino has survived
Source: The Age, 8 June 2017.
all the pressures of a flagging industry since
the recession of the 1990s. Kino’s co-owners,
★ founder Frank Cox and Palace Cinemas, have
VICTORIA plans to expand the cinema from its current
seven screens to nine.
Melbourne Docklands
Vale Robert Ward Armadale
Ward, whose career spanned exhibition, The 105-year old former Armadale Theatre has
distribution, production and theatre equipment, sold for a speculated $10 million. The building
died recently after a long illness, aged 80. He which has a 20 metre frontage to High Street,
earned several accolades including Medal of with additional land at the rear for car parking
the Order of Australia, a lifetime achievement or future development, has been the home of
award from Independent Cinemas Australia one of Australia's leading fine art auctioneers,
and national cinema pioneer of the year. Mossgreen Auctions for some years. Source:
Robert Ward started in the industry working www.afr.com/real-estate/
for his father at the family-owned Brighton
Prince George and Dendy theatres. His An eight screen Hoyts Cinema complex and a
programming made the Dendy a landmark for full line Woolworths supermarket is planned
independent and foreign films as well as as part of a $150 million revamp of one of
forgotten or overlooked films such as Zorba Melbourne’s retail white elephants, the
the Greek. He later expanded the Dendy circuit Harbour Town Mall in Docklands. Hoyts will
to locations in Collins and Lonsdale Streets in anchor a new entertainment precinct, due to
Melbourne, suburban Malvern and Forest Hill, open in mid-2018 with construction due to
and Crows Nest in Sydney. Dendy Collins commence in May 2017. Nearby hotels and
Street was the first cinema to run on a platter apartment towers are transforming the area,
system with Xenon lamp and automation. That with many still to be built, including a Marriot
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