Plaza Theatre
600 George Street,
Sydney,
NSW
2000
600 George Street,
Sydney,
NSW
2000
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Hoyts Plaza Theatre in Sydney was the original quintessential “Spanish” styled theatre. It was famous in the old days as a picture palace complete with an English built Christie theatre organ and a full orchestra on an elevated platform. Many big films opened here, the first being Cecil B. DeMille’s production of “Dynamite” which starred Conrad Nagel and opened the Plaza on 9th May 1930. The original plan was for a 4,000 seater, but the stock market crash of 1929 was to see those plans go out the window.
In September 1958, the Plaza Theatre was refurbished for Cinerama and the screen at that time was the largest in Australia for an indoor cinema.
All big 70mm blockbusters from Fox, MGM, United Artists, etc., were shown here from March 1965 onwards. The screen dimensions were 75ft x35ft.
The Plaza Theatre was closed in June 1977 and used for a time as both skating rink and restaurant. A Heritage order prevented its demolition until 1995, when Planet Hollywood removed the remainder of the auditorium’s decoration. The foyer is intact and is used as a McDonalds restaurant. Planet Hollywood only lasted a short while, and today the auditorium has been ‘twinned’ with the Plaza Restauraunt operating in the upper half.
Contributed by
Ian Hanson
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
Some recent photos of the Plaza, Sydney are here.
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The Mc Donalds retains some of the original features, in what is basically a rather dark and modern McDos, but in the Planet Hollywood, perhaps appropriately for faux Hollywood,the cinema is all gone. It is still impressive from the outside, but as the street is narrow and busy, an unobstructed photo is hard to get.
photos taken dec 2008
exterior
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3200354692/
lobby (McDonalds)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3200358168/
The northern end of the site ( planet hollywood ) was occupied by Orbit 600 video arcade from 1981 till 1994. the site were the rapallo stood, next to the paramount also became Westworld video arcade around 1980 and remained an arcade with acouple of name/owner changes until only this year did it shut down. got some great new (old)photos of the regent including two colour shots, upload when site is updated.
A terrific theatre. As a young boy I think my earliest visit was to see ICE STATION ZEBRA. The size of the screen blew me away. Other memorable movies included THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, TOWERING INFERNO and, I’m pretty sure Dario Argento’s DEEP RED and William Girdler’s GRIZZLY screened there, too.
It didn’t matter how good or bad the film, being in the Plaza always made me feel special. Apart from the screen size and grandeur of the interior design, what I remember especially is that everything sounded awesome in there.
It had poles inside the cinema holding up the ceiling luckily I never had to sit behind one.
Hi Cinemamad — it had poles, but I don’t recall any obstructed views.
This was not one of my favourite Cinemas but when I visit Sydney often eat there it makes a much better McDonalds Restaurant.
Loved this theatre when it was a showcase of Cinerama, have very faint memories of “How the West was Won” in 3 strip format which for a very young boy was awesome!! I’m glad at least some of the interior is still there and the exterior is just great, the younger generation have no idea what going “to the pictures” was like in the 50’s and 60’s in those fantastic movie palaces – most of todays movie houses are unbelievably depressing, cheap and nasty!
Early photo of Plaza neon sign being erected:
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1962 exterior photo of the crowds attending Cinerama presentation:
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1966 exterior photo with Cinerama signage:
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mcdonalds plaza lobby…best looking mcdonalds i’ve ever been in