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THE ASTRA, ASCOT PARK, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

by Dylan Walker
he Astra was a small cinema which
Toperated from 1948 to 1961 out of the
Rechabite Hall on the corner of Wallala Street
and Marion Road, Park Holme. Projectionist
Harold Carlson ran the cinema for the entire
thirteen years of its screening life. This
research paper is based on sources available
from the Flinder’s University AusCinemas
and CAARP databases, documents in the
State and National Archives, records held by
the University of South Australia’s
Architecture Museum and digitised
newspapers on the National Library of
Australia’s TROVE site. The most important
source is interviews and conversations with
Harold Carlson. Originally intended solely The former Rechabites’ Hall in 2013
as a history of the Astra Cinema, this
research paper has been expanded to include Harold Carlson’s journey Converting a hall to a cinema was an expensive business, particularly if
from a child fascinated with the moving image to a projectionist and then there was no intention to use the hall as a cinema at the time of its
an exhibitor. construction. The Rechabite Hall did not include a bio box, a legal
requirement if pictures were to be screened. The bio box was constructed
The Rechabites’ building was erected in 1929 at a cost of £1,500 and in 1948 and paid for by the Rechabites, but as they considered it to be
consisted of a lodge room, two other rooms and a hall measuring 55 feet
by 32 feet. It was designed by the Adelaide architect, Frederick Hocart,
who was the architect for many Independent Order of Rechabites’ halls
including those at Moonta and Tailem Bend. The building was opened
on 13 September 1929 and licensed as a place of public entertainment
with a maximum seating capacity of 300. The Astra, which occupied
the hall from 1948, was initially fitted with 230 seats. The Film Weekly
Motion Picture Directory shows the initial capacity of the cinema as 250,
changing in 1953 to 234, 270 in 1956 and 246 in 1958. There are no
official records to confirm these changes as there was no requirement to
notify the Inspector of Places of Public Entertainments unless seating
numbers exceeded 300. However, Harold Carlson recalls increasing the
seating capacity slightly when he replaced the two side aisles with one
down the centre of the hall.

Above and Below (left): Plans for the addition of the bio box to the Hall
expensive, Harold offered them eighteen months’ rent in advance, which
amounted to £192 (equivalent to $11,474 at 2016 prices). The architect
for the bio box was once again Frederick Hocart. The structural engineers
engaged to undertake the calculations for the bio box were Hurren,
Langman and James, a firm which had provided calculations for bio
boxes for at least fifteen halls in South Australia from 1945 to 1948.
One of those halls was the Plympton Soldiers’ Memorial Hall located
less than two kilometres from the Astra. In 1948, talk of a cinema at the
Plympton Hall was to cause concern for Harold Carlson, as he was
investing £1,712 ($102,300) excluding advertising, wages and film hire,
and he did not want competition that close. So who is this man who in
1948 decided to take a gamble on running a cinema?
Harold was a lover of the cinema as a child and was destined to run his
own cinema. He recalls his mother taking him in to the city once a week
after school. They would have dinner together (a three course meal for
one shilling and sixpence) and then go to a picture house, either the Pav,
Grand or Wondergraph. He lived in Kensington North and also
remembers going to the opening of the Princess Theatre, in nearby
Marryatville, at the age of eight:

“The first day on the Saturday it was free. I remember a stampede of
kids from the school at the matinee. I remember the chap getting up at
interval time and saying there’d be a matinee next week for thrupence
ha’penny.”
He bought his first projector, a toy, at the age of eleven for two and
sixpence from a ‘Cash and Carry’ store (which later became Woolworths)
in Rundle Street. When he left school he went to work for Kalamazoo,
a stationery firm in Adelaide, and during his lunch hour would often walk

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