BONZA - Australia & New Zealand Database

Reference Type

book

Title

The Picture Palaces of Melbourne

Author(s)

Trevor Walters

Town

Melbourne

State

VIC

Country

Australia

Publication Date

00-00-2009

Citation Date

Comments

This book focuses on the establishment of three iconic theatres- the Capitol, the Regent and the State theatres of Melbourne.

Aside from the stories of their inceptions, films screened, awards and screenings, this book has a fantastic introduction which discusses cinema culture, its uprising and its demise.

It is fascinating to read about the effects that television had on the closure of so many cinema centres, the events such as the Olympics that drew together such audiences, and the importance of this non literarily discriminative medium to such an isolated country.

The content of screenings, with a full and comprehensive list of detailed timetables of films, to news, and propaganda is also widely discussed in details, showing that cinemas, although now dedicated to entertaining an audience were a unique source of information, and to many the only way, and such a revolutionary way of staying in touch with the world.

The struggle of wartime constrictions on the industry is discussed in detail as well. The book also has some fantastic images from the 1940s and 1950s, of venues, patrons, staff, and more as well as interviews with cinema goers, patrons and staff of previous events.

The book also discusses timetable and screening structures, competition within industry amongst distributors, and the functionality and emergence of foreign film.

The development from silent film to audible narration coupled with technical advancements in cinema, cinematography and venue adaptability synergises with the cinemagoer experience, which is also discussed not only in the introduction, but also in the details about the iconic 3 focus theatres in this book.

(Elia Lom)

This book was one of the few that I found, which actually mentioned the Burnley Theatre. It has a great story by Ron Landon reminiscing about the theatres he has worked in over the years. On page 267 he mentions that the Burnley was one of the first theatres to host an annual viewing of the Melbourne Cup.

I found that this reference was a really unique rendition when researching the Burnley Theatre. Unfortunately there is not a whole heap of information, however on page 268 is where I took in the most. Landon mentions that old suburban theatres became run down when the technology to produce sound was developed. Television effectively killed off old cinemas such as the Burnley.

This is a topic I would like to research more, as the death of silent films and orchestral music to accompany the screen, began to create the cinema experience we have today. (Casey)

This book provides wealth of original materials for the people who interested in the film/cinema industries in Melbourne Australia. It mainly introduces three magnificent theatres, the Regent,Capitol and State Theatres in Melbourne, and also other cinemas from 40s, for example those screen silent films, 70mm films. In this book, it also contains many images of cinemas, ads, which are very rare. This is a really great book for people who want to research the cinema history of Melbourne.

The reason I chose this book as one of my six references, not only because this is the only book that I could found in last couples of weeks (other books either could not find in the library or not relevant to the topic) It provides very elaborate details, which other references do not refer, such as the exact date of cinema operating, closed. It also involves many facts of the related cinemas and ads. For my topic, Chinatown Cinema, which is quite less-known nowadays, and had been leased out, it hard to find the original information, for example, the exact date of this cinema opened. But in this book, it gives very detailed introduction about Chinatown Cinema, which also called Mid City Complex (p. 235) It also mentions why Hoyts opened this cinema and how did they advertised it, how did it work back then. (Yixiao Li, 2011/12/16)

Synopsis

A comprehensive collection of images, screenings, interviews and features of popular cinema houses in Melbourne in the prime era of Cinema. (Elia Lom)

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