BONZA - Australia & New Zealand Database

Reference Type

The Examiner (Launceston) 'Magazine' newspaper

Title

Youth's Suicide Attempt

Town

Launceston

State

TAS

Country

Australia

Publication Date

03-10-1949

Citation Date

Page Number

Comments

This newspaper article is a distressed story about an unfortunate event that occurred at the Plaza Theatre Essendon in 1949. The cinema was a popular venue during its time, however events such as a suicide attempt and violence certainly alarmed patrons who frequently visited the theatre.

This event was produced in newspapers all over Australia during the time, including the Examiner and The Mercury. Having this story produced nationally indicates the severity of the issue and how many people found it necessary to read about. The article in each of the newspapers however is small, and does not feature on the front page, but as a minor column a few pages in.

The article in The Mercury is the same as the one in the Examiner, however has used a different title; "Put Head in Police Gas Oven". Similarly to the Examiner, The Mercury's title has focused on the teenager attempting suicide in the cinema, due to suicide being fairly uncommon in the early 1900's.

The article makes people question why teenagers would rebel to that extreme, and why they chose that particular venue in the suburb of Essendon. The Plaza Theatre was cetainly a favoured outing place to many during the early 1900's, therefore it can be assumed the teenagers chose this venue as they knew it would attract a large amount of attention.

This was the most severe event that occurred at the Plaza Theatre Essendon, along with a robbery in 1950. These events were captured by newspapers around Australia as they were important to the public's interest and featured a well known cinema.

Synopsis

Four teenagers have been charged with offensive behaviour after being suspected of throwing chloroform in the Plaza Theatre Essendon and within posession of a knife, and one other found with his head in a gas oven.

Cinemas Mentioned ( click to view )

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