Bijou Theatre

It was getting pretty poor crowds (at the kid’s Saturday Matinee at least) by 1964. Understandable when they were still dishing up 50’s B grade schlock such as “The Purple Mask”, though the old girl got some full houses and rocked just before it closed when The Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night” screened. Before an auction house, it re-opened in 1965 as a live music venue called Havana Village. It was along the lines of Surf City at Kings Cross, and featured acts such as The Easybeats, Aztecs etc. My late father said in his day, a challenge for kids was to “Climb the Giant’s Bum”, which entailed climbing a vertical steel maintenance ladder located on the side of the building reaching from the ground to the roof.