Victory Theatre

Gus Bowe was my grandmothers brother. He had 2 sisters Mrs Stocqueler and Anne Myrea Bowe (later McGovern). Mrs Stocqueler inherited all Gus Bowe’s properties in some very suspicious and it is alleged very dodgy circumstances. He had close to 100 properties including the movie theatres.

The original screen was still in place until the 1980s takeover by Freedon Furniture.The last movie at the Victory was “Farmer Takes a Wife” (1935)and I think was mainly used as an overflow house for the nearby Palace in Jordan St Gladesville. The Victory saw many uses after closure.The auditorium was a box factory (30s-50s), a car repair shop 50s-early 60s, a bathroom furniture factory 60s -early 70s,Nock and Kirbys building centre 70s-80s and then Freedom Furniture. There were separate shops on either side of the front doors were two, one a lolly shop (on teh corner) and the other unknown except that in the late 30s one of my aunts ran it as a dress shop.In the mid 50s or so the two shops were removed and the foyer space opened right up as a showroom and offices for ‘Atom Motors’.Atom Motors had a used car lot immediately next door. The foyer space was added to about 1961/2 when the stairs to the dress circle were demolished completely cutting off this area and its hidden treasures. Atom Motors folded about 1963 and ‘Tom the Cheap Grocer’ took over operating until the 1970s. Sad we have lost the Victory and all its history for a daggy grog shop – as if Gladesville really needed another one