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Kevin and Pat drove buses to Seymour High By the late 1940s, the basement drainage went
School, which was the district secondary awry and it was regularly flooded. So when
school. One of the boys who travelled on the balls were held, the Fire Brigade's pump was
bus from Wandong was Barry Love. When his used to pump the water out of the basement
family moved into Kilmore in 1952, he prior to the ball being held. The flooding level
became an apprentice projectionist. was indicated by the watermark on the
whitewashed bluestone basement walls. Supper
Film screenings took place on Monday, was served in the basement, with perhaps three
Wednesday and Friday nights, with two or four sittings to pink, yellow, white or blue
screenings on Saturday - an afternoon matinee ticket holders.
and an evening show. The prices were: children
1/6 (15 cents), front stalls 2/6 (25 cents), middle During the 1940s, there was a steady stream of
stalls 5/- (50 cents), upstairs and dress circle 6/- Australian movies Forty Thousand Horsemen
(60 cents). (1940), Rats of Tobruk (1944), Smithy (1946),
The Overlanders (1946) and Sons of Matthew
A feature of the theatre was a row of fourteen (1949). Other popular films were Charlie
steel framed leather chairs on a raised platform Chaplin in re-releases of The Gold Rush and
in the centre at the back. These were reserved Modern Times, and Walt Disney’s Snow White
for local business people. and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi.

Admission was not always through the front The early fifties saw Grace Kelly and Bing
door. Frequently, one person would pay to Crosby in High Society draw large crowds.
enter, get the lie of the land and then go to the Westerns starring Alan Ladd, John Wayne and
toilet which was out the back. His party would Gary Cooper were also popular.
then climb the fence and trickle into the theatre
through the back door when the lights were In 1955, Albert and Ida Muller took over the
dimmed. theatre which was to be met by the double
whammy of the introduction of television in
The hall was not only used as a picture theatre 1956 and reduced attendance numbers in the
but doubled as a hall for balls and other subsequent years.
entertainments. Most Debutante Balls were
held there. During the Mullers' time, seating capacity was Advertisement - Kilmore Free Press 12-10-1950.
250-300. Ida Muller was on ticket sales and Business may have been slow - note the last two
lines.
Community singing on Wednesday nights was Albert was general floorwalker and projection
a popular use of the hall in the 1930s and early assistant to Barry Love. The theatre gave the Other films of the time to pack in good crowds
1940s, with words being flashed on to the appearance of a proverbial “bomb-site” after it were The Sundowners with Deborah Kerr and
screen from slides. Somebody would play the had been vacated. The wide proliferation of Robert Mitchum. The last film to be screened
piano accompaniment and another person chewing gum was a cleaner's nightmare. was Operation Bullshine.
would act as Master of Ceremonies. Admission
to these popular nights was sixpence for Unfortunately,
children and one shilling for adults. even such popular
films as The
Amateur nights were also popular fundraisers Dambusters, The
where district talent, singers, musicians and Greatest Show on
dancers would perform to the audience. Earth, the
Travelling show people, such as Rick and Thel Australian film
Carey, used it for their concerts. Enrico the Jedda and even
Hypnotist challenged audiences annually for a Cecil B De Mille’s
number of years with a local person always The Ten
volunteering to be the guinea pig. Another Commandments
regular visitor was a ventriloquist and there was with its six night
the annual blind concert. run in Kilmore
didn’t bring the
audiences back.

Two memorable
pictures during the The theatre was used as a furniture store for many years.
Muller era were the
The Blob which starred a youthful Steve The technicalities of bringing a film to Kilmore
McQueen and The Creature from the Black were quite complex. The promotional posters
Lagoon. During one screening of the latter, the would arrive by the mail and they were affixed
power went off at a particularly scary part and, to the “Coming Attractions” board to the south
after sitting in darkness for a time, patrons were of the entrance door. Stills would be shown on
offered the return of their money and they went panels in the foyer and in the window to the
home. north of the entrance door. An advert also
appeared in the Kilmore Free Press.
In the late 1950s, film screenings were taken
over by the Kilmore Swimming Club. They On Tuesday, the large hexagonal steel cans,
added the new dimension of CinemaScope, and each containing three reels of 35 mm film,
even an occasional Sunday evening screening. arrived by train at the Kilmore Railway Station.
The early 1960s saw Pollyanna draw the largest The various distributors - Universal, MGM,
crowd ever seen at a Kilmore picture show Paramount, Warner Bros, Columbia,
when chairs had to be borrowed from around J Arthur Rank, and 20th Century Fox - all
the town to seat the audience. supplied product. The film canisters were
Left: The original MUIOOF Hall. picked up and taken to the Astor where the

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