Town Hall Cinema Monger Street and Rupe Street, Bencubbin, WA

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Town Hall Cinema Monger Street and Rupe Street, Bencubbin, WA - PHOTO By Bahnfrend - Own work.

The first Bencubbin Hall was built in 1921, of weatherboard and iron, before the Mount Marshall Roads Board was officially constituted in 1923. The first pictures shown there were by Delavale and Nelson, touring through regularly from 14 March 1922. Soon after, Paddy Baker’s silent film circuit included Bencubbin, screening fortnightly on a Monday. Baker remembered it like this: I first started showing pictures in the Mount Marshall district about the time the first hall was built in Bencubbin on a block behind the pub. I remember this hall particularly – it had a room at each corner of the building. The projector would be between the two rooms at one end of the hall, while the car would be positioned outside. I had a 1914 Dodge at first, then a T-model Ford, ran the projector off the rear wheel – jacked up one wheel. Another time I had a Silver Anniversary Buick and used to drive the projector off its gear box. (quoted in Broomhall, p.244)- Acknowledgment : Max Bell, Perth – a cinema history - Contributed by Greg Lynch -