One of the most successful Australian films of the era, the critic from the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that “there have been some good Australian films before this one, but Forty Thousand Horsemen has every right to be regarded as the first really great Australian picture.”
It was a massive success at the box office, and it was seen by 287,000 in Sydney alone during a ten-week run on first release. Its Perth season at the Plaza also attracted huge crowds.
The hurricane sequence in THE HURRICANE (1937) drew this fabulous response from Frank S. Nugent in the New York Times: “It is a hurricane to blast you from the orchestra pit to the first mezzanine. It is a hurricane to fill your eyes with spin-drift, to beat at your ears with its thunder, to clutch at your heart and send your diaphragm vaulting over your floating rib into the region just south of your tonsils.”
Not remembered today as much as it should be, IN WHICH WE SERVE was cited by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures as the Best English Language Film of the Year. It was also nominated in the 1943 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (losing out to Casablanca and Princess O'Rourke respectively). However Coward was presented with an Academy Honorary Award for “his outstanding production achievement.”
In Which We Serve also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film (beating Casablanca) and the Argentine Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Film in 1943.
The Royal was indeed a great place to see films in 70mm, screening the likes of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. This photo is exactly how I remember it in the 1960s and early 70s. Films I saw there include FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and PAINT YOUR WAGON.
This 1939 ad placed by the Regal Theatre management implores film-goers to SHOP FOR YOUR PICTURES! This meant choosing the Regal because clearly it offered better PICTURES, LIGHT, SOUND, SEATING, VENTILATION and SERVICE … So, there you have it!
Of CAPTAIN FURY, Brian Aherne wrote that “[it] seemed like such a farrago of nonsense to me that I was very happy to know that Juarez would rescue me by coming out at about the same time. Well, Juarez turned out to be a highly respected box-office flop while Captain Fury cleaned up and went on playing all over the world for many years with countless television runs.”
Perth audiences – indeed audiences across Australia – flocked to the three rival films dealing with the Queen’s 1954 Australian tour. The Ambassadors had THE ROYAL TOUR OF OUR QUEEN, while the officially-sanctioned film was THE QUEEN IN AUSTRALIA which was screening at Perth’s Piccadilly Theatre. At the same time, the Metro was screening WELCOME THE QUEEN! Meanwhile, the newsreel house, the Mayfair Theatrette was also featuring a lot of tour content. These ‘Royal Tour’ films were some of the highest grossing films in Australia in 1954.
A former newsreel theatrette located in a basement, when the Mayfair become the Capri, a coffee shop was created in the lobby and, like the Liberty been in the 1950s, it was initially a continental/art house cinema before moving to more mainstream programming due to limited audiences.
The neo-classical building with the Corinthian columns to the left is the Theatre Royal. The red brick Medieval Gothic Revival style tower belongs to the Perth Town Hall.
View from the stage of His Majesty’s auditorium in the 1960s. The theatre at this time was owned and operated by the Edgley family, one of Australia’s great theatrical dynasties. It was during the 1950s through to the early 1970s that all the great JC Williamson’s touring musicals came to town, including Funny Girl, My Fair Lady, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Mame, Man of La Mancha, and Hair. The auditorium had been painted out in neutral pastels, with none of the original Edwardian decorative detail highlighted. It was not until the theatre’s full restoration that the original glory of the interior returned to life.
According to CinemaWeb, the Cottesloe Theatre was originally Wells Hall (on the corner of Leake Street and Stirling Highway)and “alterations costing more than £3,000 were undertaken in 1928, and in 1937 the hall was completely remodelled and became purely a cinema. At this stage the hall and gardens each held 900. In the sixties, the company bought up surrounding properties until they had enough to interest a development company, which demolished everything on the site and constructed the Grove Shopping Centre.”
One of the most successful Australian films of the era, the critic from the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that “there have been some good Australian films before this one, but Forty Thousand Horsemen has every right to be regarded as the first really great Australian picture.”
It was a massive success at the box office, and it was seen by 287,000 in Sydney alone during a ten-week run on first release. Its Perth season at the Plaza also attracted huge crowds.
The hurricane sequence in THE HURRICANE (1937) drew this fabulous response from Frank S. Nugent in the New York Times: “It is a hurricane to blast you from the orchestra pit to the first mezzanine. It is a hurricane to fill your eyes with spin-drift, to beat at your ears with its thunder, to clutch at your heart and send your diaphragm vaulting over your floating rib into the region just south of your tonsils.”
Not remembered today as much as it should be, IN WHICH WE SERVE was cited by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures as the Best English Language Film of the Year. It was also nominated in the 1943 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (losing out to Casablanca and Princess O'Rourke respectively). However Coward was presented with an Academy Honorary Award for “his outstanding production achievement.”
In Which We Serve also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film (beating Casablanca) and the Argentine Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Film in 1943.
The Royal was indeed a great place to see films in 70mm, screening the likes of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. This photo is exactly how I remember it in the 1960s and early 70s. Films I saw there include FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and PAINT YOUR WAGON.
This 1939 ad placed by the Regal Theatre management implores film-goers to SHOP FOR YOUR PICTURES! This meant choosing the Regal because clearly it offered better PICTURES, LIGHT, SOUND, SEATING, VENTILATION and SERVICE … So, there you have it!
This large display ad (bottom half)appeared in the Perth Sunday Times’s annual Movie Supplement published on 13th August 1939.
This large display ad (top half)appeared in the Perth Sunday Times’s annual Movie Supplement published on 13th August 1939.
Of CAPTAIN FURY, Brian Aherne wrote that “[it] seemed like such a farrago of nonsense to me that I was very happy to know that Juarez would rescue me by coming out at about the same time. Well, Juarez turned out to be a highly respected box-office flop while Captain Fury cleaned up and went on playing all over the world for many years with countless television runs.”
Love it!
Nice! Mega thanks for posting Tim.
Why are there no auditorium photographs posted? I’m keen to see what the interior was like.
Perth audiences – indeed audiences across Australia – flocked to the three rival films dealing with the Queen’s 1954 Australian tour. The Ambassadors had THE ROYAL TOUR OF OUR QUEEN, while the officially-sanctioned film was THE QUEEN IN AUSTRALIA which was screening at Perth’s Piccadilly Theatre. At the same time, the Metro was screening WELCOME THE QUEEN! Meanwhile, the newsreel house, the Mayfair Theatrette was also featuring a lot of tour content. These ‘Royal Tour’ films were some of the highest grossing films in Australia in 1954.
I saw THE SOUND OF MUSIC at the Royal in 1966.
A former newsreel theatrette located in a basement, when the Mayfair become the Capri, a coffee shop was created in the lobby and, like the Liberty been in the 1950s, it was initially a continental/art house cinema before moving to more mainstream programming due to limited audiences.
What a MAJOR CRIME this fabulous theatre’s destruction was!
The neo-classical building with the Corinthian columns to the left is the Theatre Royal. The red brick Medieval Gothic Revival style tower belongs to the Perth Town Hall.
Crazy!
Criminal that this was demolished …
So beautiful. Reminiscent of Gaudi’s Barcelona architecture …
What a crime this extraordinary theatre was demolished! Are there any interior shots available?
View from the stage of His Majesty’s auditorium in the 1960s. The theatre at this time was owned and operated by the Edgley family, one of Australia’s great theatrical dynasties. It was during the 1950s through to the early 1970s that all the great JC Williamson’s touring musicals came to town, including Funny Girl, My Fair Lady, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Mame, Man of La Mancha, and Hair. The auditorium had been painted out in neutral pastels, with none of the original Edwardian decorative detail highlighted. It was not until the theatre’s full restoration that the original glory of the interior returned to life.
Correction to the date. This is pre-1910. Probably around 1906 or thereabouts.
According to CinemaWeb, the Cottesloe Theatre was originally Wells Hall (on the corner of Leake Street and Stirling Highway)and “alterations costing more than £3,000 were undertaken in 1928, and in 1937 the hall was completely remodelled and became purely a cinema. At this stage the hall and gardens each held 900. In the sixties, the company bought up surrounding properties until they had enough to interest a development company, which demolished everything on the site and constructed the Grove Shopping Centre.”
A Star is Born was the second attraction at Hoyts Plaza in 1937, following the opening season of Lloyds of London.
Link to news clip on Regal Theatre refurbishment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJpsH37z4dg