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mentioned earlier, there was also
one very special place hidden from
view in a long, narrow, quiet
residential side street walled
Reynards Road in West Coburg.

The Progress was one of these
small, community-based cinemas
that rarely exist in the suburbs any
more. The building is still there,
largely unchanged, and the sign
“Progress Theatre” is still
prominent on the upper façade. I’ve
often wondered about the origin of
its name. Perhaps the local Progress
Association had some part in it.
Whatever the case, it was a real
community cinema. The bigger
theatres were somehow removed
from a sense of local ownership and
run by faceless men. The Progress
was hometown stuff: a small white
hall next to a milk bar. You could
hear the projectionist in his room
upstairs and the whirr of the
projector while the film screened.
The Progress was within walking
distance and, for me, it provided
some of my most fantastic,
imaginative escapades. It may not
have been first to screen the latest
The Grand, 324 Sydney Rd. Coburg c. 1950. Opened 1921; closed 1959
releases but its admission fees were
cheap, and it re-ran all the great science fiction Shrinking Man, War of the Worlds, Lost was Gort – the most powerful thing in the
titles. As a kid, I used the generic label Continent, The Monolith Monsters, The Night universe. And there was Michael Rennie’s
“Martian movies” for them, and would pull at the World Exploded, The Blob, The Fly, The dignified humanoid alien character, Klaatu,
the bit when my dad told me one was coming Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Invaders from who is resurrected by Gort after being killed by
up. A Martian movie at the Progress was the Mars, It Came from Outer Space, When the folly of mere mortals. We could have
highlight of my weekend and the long stroll to Worlds Collide, Destination Moon, Creature learned so much, if only we’d welcomed the
the cinema a time of acute and enthusiastic from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, stranger in our midst, but …
observation of life around me. When you’re Earth Versus the Flying Saucers, and the
enthused by something, everything else magnificent The Day the Earth Stood Still. Perhaps I loved that movie so much because I
somehow seems clearer and more detailed. Later came more sophisticated efforts such as subconsciously identified with the tribulations
Your senses are at a peak and you are alive in On the Beach, Dr. Strangelove, Planet of the of the stranger in a hostile environment – after
maximum. Apes and 2001: a Space Odyssey. The Day the all, I was, in a sense, one myself. To this day, I
Earth Stood Still remains one of my favourites. vividly remember the scene where Patricia
The Progress was not as plush as the Sydney I was too young to grasp the Biblical allegory Neal utters the immortal line, “Klaatu barada
Road five – indeed, for a time it was but got the message that actions based on fear nikto!” At one level sheer nonsense; at another
nicknamed “the flea pit” – but it outlasted all and ignorance stand in the way of human profound, mysterious syllables that save the
of them and it brought to Coburg such classics progress. The film was also a cinematographic planet from destruction at the hands of Gort.
as Forbidden Planet, The Think, Them, treat; great special effects for the time and a “Klaatu barada nikto” became my childhood
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Incredible UFO that I wished really existed. And there motto and is testimony to the pervasive
influence of cinema. Use those meaningless
Below: The Plaza, 368 Sydney Rd. Coburg c 1934. Opened 1934; closed 1961
words at any dinner party and, depending on
the age group, you’re bound to get an
affirmative reaction. The Day the Earth Stood
Still was made in 1951 and remains prominent
in the cultural landscape of many members of
the baby boom generation. “Klaatu barada
nikto” is, for many of us, akin to the Masonic
handshake; a secret code for not only
identifying our age cohorts, but for singling out
those who were avid movie-goers. �
(Barry York resided in Shamrock Street, West
Brunswick, between 1955 and 1982. He is a
Research Fellow in the Europe-Australia Institute at
the Victoria University of Technology, St. Albans,
Victoria.)

Credits:
“Frame by Frame; A History of Brunswick’s Picture
Theatres” by Laurie Cunningham (1995).

Images from CATHS Archive

18 CINEMARECORD # 96