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presence helped by a high ceiling with
emphasised cornices. Guests who wanted a
night at the pictures could walk in from the
dining room, while the public entrance was at
the end of an alleyway leading from Hobson
Street.
By 1925 a Mr. Charles Silbereisen was the
lessee of what was now the Grand Picture
Theatre. When a fire tore through the hotel in
1927, the theatre escaped with very little
damage. Mr. Silbereisen then bought the
property and began a rebuild, but without the
money necessary to restore the main building
to its original glory.

The hotel re-opened as the Vue Grande, the
Silbereisens in charge of both hotel and cinema.
By 1940, they had changed the family name to
Silvester, because of anti-German sentiment.
The Grand did not operate as a cinema during
the war years, but dances were held to support
the war effort.
Partially completed Grand Hotel in 1882. The “Hall by the Sea” can be seen at the extreme right

How the Hall by the Sea became the Grand
Picture Theatre

On 6 March 1880, the Hall By The Sea opened
with a grand concert. Set well back from Hesse
Street and near the corner with Hobson Street,
this building was part of an ambitious plan. Its
owner was also proprietor of a two-storey hotel
on Hesse Street, which he was preparing to
replace with a luxury three-storey version. On
17 July 1881, at the corner of Hesse and
Hobson Streets, the first brick was laid for what
was to become Adman’s Grand Hotel. Opened
on 22 December 1881, with the west wing still
to be built, it was one of the finest hotels in the
State, offering magnificent views of Port Philip
Bay and the surrounding countryside. Guests
would arrive from Melbourne after a two-hour
journey across the bay on the steamships The Grand Theatre, looking towards the stage
Ozone, Hygeia, or later the Weeroona.
Practice film screenings are said to have begun When Charles died in 1944, his son Phillip ran
To add even more scale to the new hotel, its in 1921, but the ballroom’s debut as Mansions the theatre for the next seven years. In an
frontage was aligned with the entrance to the Picture Theatre came in January 1922. The interview in 2000, his wife and daughter
Hall By The Sea. By this means the hotel musician’s alcove became the curtained stage, remembered how Phillip was good at sign-
entrance, main foyer, dining room and Hall the floor was flat, it had no balcony and it writing and used the cellar as a studio to paint
were harmonised. Guests entered what was seated 583 people in a space 25 metres x promotional posters. “The clag for the posters
now the ballroom through two doorways at the 12 metres. Windows along the side walls were was mixed on the kitchen stove and when all
far end of the dining room. A huge cellar was hidden behind heavy curtains. Not as ornate as was ready we would set off around Queenscliff
excavated below the ballroom. the dining room, it nevertheless had a formal and Point Lonsdale with posters, clag buckets
and a large brush which Dad wielded expertly.”

Phillip raised the bio-room in 1947 and stepped
the last eight rows of seats. This served two
purposes. It permanently separated theatre from
hotel, which had been sold, and improved the
sight-lines for some patrons. The photo of the

Entry to the Grand Theatre (c. 1956)

26 CINEMARECORD # 98