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The rear of the auditorium - CATHS Tasmanian Tour 2012

cinema attendances and, in 1964, Tasmanian same time. The last film screened there was Footnote by the Author:
Amusements sold the Plaza in Launceston fittingly the MGM classic Gone With the When I was in Hobart in September, I noticed the
(and it was demolished a short time later) but Wind. The theatre was taken over by electrical “For Sale” sign outside the Avalon theatre had a
retained the Avalon and Tatler theatres. retailer, Danny Burke, and became known as “sold” sticker on it. I rang the estate agent and
Burke’s Avalon. (The DP70 projectors went asked what the new owner was planning to do with
March 1966 saw the Avalon become to the Capri theatre in Shepparton and then, it. He said the purchaser (who paid $1.2 million)
Tasmania’s only theatre capable of showing in June 1999, they went to the Lunar Drive- hadn't made up his mind yet but as the building is
70 mm films, with the installation of Phillips in in Dandenong). After Danny Burke moved heritage listed, it certainly will not be pulled down.
DP70 projectors (replacing Bauer B11 out, the Avalon was used as a weekend
projectors) for the screening of My Fair Lady market for several years, but nowadays it is Images:
in Super Panavision. A new, larger screen was the Futurium recording studio. � The Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO).
Mike Trickett
also installed. The Avalon then became
Tasmania’s first release house for all Warner
Bros. and MGM films in 70 mm.
Tasmanian Amusements sold out to
Tasmanian Drive-in Theatres, a Village
owned company, in 1971. Village had taken
over operations from July 1969. The Avalon
continued under its own name, while both the
Tatler theatres were called Cinema One (not
that there was a “Cinema 2 or 3”!).

For the film Earthquake, the Avalon was
fitted with huge “horn” speakers at the front
for showing the movie in “Sensurround”, a
process that let the audience “feel” the low
frequency sound, so much so that the theatre
shook when the earthquake scenes came on
the screen.

Village opened the West End twin cinema
(now a seven screen multiplex) in Hobart in
November 1976 and closed the Avalon at the

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