Page 26 - CINEMARECORD-98
P. 26

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
   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31