Perhaps in 2004, we need to make the distinction with what was actually “possible”:………………..as WE all know, there was first run and sub run………..and in ‘those days’ , first run was supported by what was what the studio and purists understood the format really meant: THE REAL THING .
Sub runs and country got the 35mm run-off and sometines, as described above, interstate and overseas glamor first runs got the 35mm palm-off. Now we all know that, don’t we. Paul B.
here’s a new idea……………..BE GRATEFUL……a long way from the commonsense and good manners of another decade………perhaps all the moaners of this site might ask themselves:
‘how much in cold hard cash did they contribute to what they are complaining about…… eh?
ar you people all isane? USE YOUR BRAIN…..and stop asking questions HERE that can easily be answered by phoning or emailig the theatre…..cimmatreasures is not a holiday info site AS YOU ALL KNOW….for gods sake!………..and thankyou for your patience, Bryan………I am just aghast at the stupid questions above………
To: Rudy….you might find that the block was triangular and the theatre built within a diamond pattern in the triangle, the foyer being the left over angle. (Get a pen and paper and try it, it does work) It is the same size and shape and capapcity as cinemas built in Sydney at Bondi where the same block pattern had the same type of cinemas built. Going by the photo, the screen looks to be at the left where the flytower is. It might have aslo has a curved / horseshoe upstairs to cram in more seats.
With this cinemascope 55 business, I have always taken it to mean THE FILMING PROCESS not the exhibition process: like Camera 65 for Ben hur or Dimension 150 for Patton. In Sydney we also saw ads for CAROUSEL and THE KING AND I and even on the theatre front proclaiming ‘the wonder of ’ CINEMASCOPE 55 etc. but it never said the film was shown in it. As with vistavision, all the prints were just in 1.85:1 so any cinema could show the shape of Vistavision, so yes the picture was a Vistavision picture (as it said on the opening logo and the poster and the ad and the screen was a rectangle not as wide as cinemascope) ….so it was Vistavison. It is really only Cinerama that advertised “cannot be seen in any other theatre” otherwise all these processes would have said that. BEN HUR opened in Sydney in 1960 in 35mm but as the ad said: CAMERA 65 brings you….etc. CAROUSEL was a CINEMASCOPE 55 presentation YES, (on a 35mm print).
..just as it probably was all over the planet.
Thanks for that clarification…for a minute or two there I was very excited……I have also come to realise that THE STATE THEATRE SYDNEY has many ROXY features as well, particuarly the foyer rotunda (5 floors high, green pillars, dome and massive chandelier) and the 3 levels of seats and the rear aisle pillars, and interior designs etc. The State auditorium is not the cathedral look of the Roxy though, it is more like a huge beehive with French renaissance interior and gothic foyers. The art galleries and marlbe lights/statues all intact. It was thoroughly repainted and cleaned in 1982 and remains to this day much loved by everyone who set foot within and the premiere film location and concert venue in gorgeous Sydney. The State is in its 75the glorious year in 2004 and is still the absolute jewel inSydney’s luxury theatre crown. There is a website and I guess you can all find it via google on the internet.
Australia’s cinemas of the 20s really are as spectacular as those of the USA and we are lucky that TV did not arrive until 1957 which meant our luxury movie palaces lasted well into the 70s and 80s when alot were able to be retained. Sure we lost quite a few but just as many are still with us. Australia only has 19 million people in a land mass bigger than the USA so we have been blessed again. Look up REGENT MELBOURNE, ASTOR ST KILDA, CAPITOL SYDNEY as well.
Like many others, I am astonished to know that THE BEACON is a smaller version of THE ROXY.
I have never heard of that anywhere I have looked previously. Can someone please elaborate on the above comment and info…..how alike are they? etc for overseas reades of this site, that information would be a real zinger….thanks……PAUL BRENNAN Sydney Australia
The REGENT is NOT art deco – How could it be?. It was built in 1956 and is designed to look like an undersea kingdom with sea green and various underwater looking colours and features. The upper foyer recently described as art deco as well is equally mislabelled by persons who just don’t know what they are describing. The upper foyer is Japanese, for Gods sake! 1956 and Japanese.
It may continue as a performing arts centre if it is not sabotaged by the shopping centre next door.
It’s closure is a very worrying event. The sad passing of the beloved Rowena Millgrove is as stated above, Wollongong’s most recent major loss.
It would be; the mural was the original from the 20s and cleaned for the ‘revovation’. It wasn’t ever altered, just steam cleaned. Maybe this person was not happy about the changes, or had realised the key to helping was vandalism.
Jarrad might like to suggest that to GUO or Wallis instead himself..but really in this day and age it is individual entrepreneurial skills that will see the Regent have a new lease on life. The bigger cinema chains today are not interested in classic cinemas, they are only geared for multiplex operations. Perhaps the city council or an Adelaide arts organisation with a sponsor might step forward. Or a person like Jarrad who wants to marshal support.
A very similar theme and story to THE PARAMOUNT in Sydney Australia, built in 1965, Modern outside and Roman inside then demolished in 1983 with the cinema next door and all made into a horrorplex which mutated with another next door concrete plex and all now are one big monsterplex in George St Sydney, now containing 18 screens. I put the whole story and pre history on another PARAMOUNT THEATRE site, so if you can find that one it is here – and there. PAULB.
Dear Michael: you are NOT to put comments like that above on this site. I know I put KILL MICHAEL on one recently, that is different, you deserved it, and now I have promised not to put that on one when I see your idiot comments again. Instead I will put what I have in the first sentence.
Just so we all know, why are you tormenting the readers of this site with your truly stupid comments? Is it attention deficit syndrome? Are you mad/ lonely/ bored or have some opinion ego that must be serviced? Tell us all so we all know. Then go away. Thanks. PAUL B.
TO: Michael: you must stop commenting on these sites. Every comment you make is just not of any value. Screaming at us that some cinema MUST become an opera house or concert hall is just silly. The one you posted on Sydney’s Roxy Parramatta is a good example of you just carrying on. So these sites stay as some sort of interesting and informative knowledge bank please do everyone a favour and desist commenting about opera houses and symphony halls or even your lack of a job or plans to rebuild something. You are wasting space. (I think I said that right).
Dear Piggy…it IS “riciculus”. Everything is RIDICULUS. Commonsense is RIDICULUS and so is using the phone book, the phone information service, reading the ads in the press or even using the internet google directory. RIDICULUS. Imagine being a whining consumer and no one will tell you stuff.RIDICULUS.
Another Bryan Krefft masterpiece contribution. What a lovely snazzy cinema.
Late 40s moderne cinemas are always just so groovy.
How’s the management! Imagine seeing THUNDERBIRDDS ARE GO there and meeting any one of those 3 guys in the foyer! a complete experience!
What film? when? huh? Who is Stanley clements? When is this film screening on what Tv channel? is it on video? where did Tillmany see it? Who is Tillmany? Is this like a hallucination from KISS ME DEADLY or some Monogram noir, long forgotten except tanalisingly identified by the Tillmanys of the world? I like to think I know most crap films, but Destination Murder sounds very PRC to me….especally if ther World is showing CORREGIDOR. We had cinemas like these in Sydney Australia, except they were in every suburb.
Tillmany…….you have questions to answer……..
Imagine having a building where the word URINETOWN is scribbled in piddle across the front. It is like in ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE when we get to see the world gone wrong. Like listening to Britney rap. Or seeing the Hilton sisters run amok while schools struggle to teach qualities. The world HAS gone to hell in a shopping trolley, and ridiculous and astonishing derailments are the norm. There is a great joke in the Simpsons: a man wakes after being in a coma for 30 years. He asks what happened to Sonny and Cher, the doctor says:“well, Cher won an Oscar and Sonny became a politician” The man prefers a re-lapse. Life now is like that, isn’t it. Did YOU pay $80 to see a play called URINETOWN? or $10 for KILL BILL or even 8 MILE? We are all now in the wrong reels of ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE aren’t we. URINETOWN? Yeesh!
No Meredith. It’s me, the mysterious Paul brennan.
puke
Perhaps in 2004, we need to make the distinction with what was actually “possible”:………………..as WE all know, there was first run and sub run………..and in ‘those days’ , first run was supported by what was what the studio and purists understood the format really meant: THE REAL THING .
Sub runs and country got the 35mm run-off and sometines, as described above, interstate and overseas glamor first runs got the 35mm palm-off. Now we all know that, don’t we. Paul B.
here’s a new idea……………..BE GRATEFUL……a long way from the commonsense and good manners of another decade………perhaps all the moaners of this site might ask themselves:
‘how much in cold hard cash did they contribute to what they are complaining about…… eh?
ar you people all isane? USE YOUR BRAIN…..and stop asking questions HERE that can easily be answered by phoning or emailig the theatre…..cimmatreasures is not a holiday info site AS YOU ALL KNOW….for gods sake!………..and thankyou for your patience, Bryan………I am just aghast at the stupid questions above………
what a horrible comment, I hope Michael gets erased by the owners of this site.
The website does not have any photos….it is full of info, but really needs some pix for us all to see.
To: Rudy….you might find that the block was triangular and the theatre built within a diamond pattern in the triangle, the foyer being the left over angle. (Get a pen and paper and try it, it does work) It is the same size and shape and capapcity as cinemas built in Sydney at Bondi where the same block pattern had the same type of cinemas built. Going by the photo, the screen looks to be at the left where the flytower is. It might have aslo has a curved / horseshoe upstairs to cram in more seats.
Rhett Butler, and frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.
With this cinemascope 55 business, I have always taken it to mean THE FILMING PROCESS not the exhibition process: like Camera 65 for Ben hur or Dimension 150 for Patton. In Sydney we also saw ads for CAROUSEL and THE KING AND I and even on the theatre front proclaiming ‘the wonder of ’ CINEMASCOPE 55 etc. but it never said the film was shown in it. As with vistavision, all the prints were just in 1.85:1 so any cinema could show the shape of Vistavision, so yes the picture was a Vistavision picture (as it said on the opening logo and the poster and the ad and the screen was a rectangle not as wide as cinemascope) ….so it was Vistavison. It is really only Cinerama that advertised “cannot be seen in any other theatre” otherwise all these processes would have said that. BEN HUR opened in Sydney in 1960 in 35mm but as the ad said: CAMERA 65 brings you….etc. CAROUSEL was a CINEMASCOPE 55 presentation YES, (on a 35mm print).
..just as it probably was all over the planet.
Thanks for that clarification…for a minute or two there I was very excited……I have also come to realise that THE STATE THEATRE SYDNEY has many ROXY features as well, particuarly the foyer rotunda (5 floors high, green pillars, dome and massive chandelier) and the 3 levels of seats and the rear aisle pillars, and interior designs etc. The State auditorium is not the cathedral look of the Roxy though, it is more like a huge beehive with French renaissance interior and gothic foyers. The art galleries and marlbe lights/statues all intact. It was thoroughly repainted and cleaned in 1982 and remains to this day much loved by everyone who set foot within and the premiere film location and concert venue in gorgeous Sydney. The State is in its 75the glorious year in 2004 and is still the absolute jewel inSydney’s luxury theatre crown. There is a website and I guess you can all find it via google on the internet.
Australia’s cinemas of the 20s really are as spectacular as those of the USA and we are lucky that TV did not arrive until 1957 which meant our luxury movie palaces lasted well into the 70s and 80s when alot were able to be retained. Sure we lost quite a few but just as many are still with us. Australia only has 19 million people in a land mass bigger than the USA so we have been blessed again. Look up REGENT MELBOURNE, ASTOR ST KILDA, CAPITOL SYDNEY as well.
Like many others, I am astonished to know that THE BEACON is a smaller version of THE ROXY.
I have never heard of that anywhere I have looked previously. Can someone please elaborate on the above comment and info…..how alike are they? etc for overseas reades of this site, that information would be a real zinger….thanks……PAUL BRENNAN Sydney Australia
The REGENT is NOT art deco – How could it be?. It was built in 1956 and is designed to look like an undersea kingdom with sea green and various underwater looking colours and features. The upper foyer recently described as art deco as well is equally mislabelled by persons who just don’t know what they are describing. The upper foyer is Japanese, for Gods sake! 1956 and Japanese.
It may continue as a performing arts centre if it is not sabotaged by the shopping centre next door.
It’s closure is a very worrying event. The sad passing of the beloved Rowena Millgrove is as stated above, Wollongong’s most recent major loss.
It would be; the mural was the original from the 20s and cleaned for the ‘revovation’. It wasn’t ever altered, just steam cleaned. Maybe this person was not happy about the changes, or had realised the key to helping was vandalism.
Jarrad might like to suggest that to GUO or Wallis instead himself..but really in this day and age it is individual entrepreneurial skills that will see the Regent have a new lease on life. The bigger cinema chains today are not interested in classic cinemas, they are only geared for multiplex operations. Perhaps the city council or an Adelaide arts organisation with a sponsor might step forward. Or a person like Jarrad who wants to marshal support.
Michael………I want you to contact ME on .au
Paul Brennan in Sydney Australia, I want yur email address.
A very similar theme and story to THE PARAMOUNT in Sydney Australia, built in 1965, Modern outside and Roman inside then demolished in 1983 with the cinema next door and all made into a horrorplex which mutated with another next door concrete plex and all now are one big monsterplex in George St Sydney, now containing 18 screens. I put the whole story and pre history on another PARAMOUNT THEATRE site, so if you can find that one it is here – and there. PAULB.
Dear Michael: you are NOT to put comments like that above on this site. I know I put KILL MICHAEL on one recently, that is different, you deserved it, and now I have promised not to put that on one when I see your idiot comments again. Instead I will put what I have in the first sentence.
Just so we all know, why are you tormenting the readers of this site with your truly stupid comments? Is it attention deficit syndrome? Are you mad/ lonely/ bored or have some opinion ego that must be serviced? Tell us all so we all know. Then go away. Thanks. PAUL B.
TO: Michael: you must stop commenting on these sites. Every comment you make is just not of any value. Screaming at us that some cinema MUST become an opera house or concert hall is just silly. The one you posted on Sydney’s Roxy Parramatta is a good example of you just carrying on. So these sites stay as some sort of interesting and informative knowledge bank please do everyone a favour and desist commenting about opera houses and symphony halls or even your lack of a job or plans to rebuild something. You are wasting space. (I think I said that right).
Look it up via Google on the internet: capitol theatre sydney australia.
Dear Piggy…it IS “riciculus”. Everything is RIDICULUS. Commonsense is RIDICULUS and so is using the phone book, the phone information service, reading the ads in the press or even using the internet google directory. RIDICULUS. Imagine being a whining consumer and no one will tell you stuff.RIDICULUS.
You can’t see anything.
Another Bryan Krefft masterpiece contribution. What a lovely snazzy cinema.
Late 40s moderne cinemas are always just so groovy.
How’s the management! Imagine seeing THUNDERBIRDDS ARE GO there and meeting any one of those 3 guys in the foyer! a complete experience!
What film? when? huh? Who is Stanley clements? When is this film screening on what Tv channel? is it on video? where did Tillmany see it? Who is Tillmany? Is this like a hallucination from KISS ME DEADLY or some Monogram noir, long forgotten except tanalisingly identified by the Tillmanys of the world? I like to think I know most crap films, but Destination Murder sounds very PRC to me….especally if ther World is showing CORREGIDOR. We had cinemas like these in Sydney Australia, except they were in every suburb.
Tillmany…….you have questions to answer……..
Imagine having a building where the word URINETOWN is scribbled in piddle across the front. It is like in ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE when we get to see the world gone wrong. Like listening to Britney rap. Or seeing the Hilton sisters run amok while schools struggle to teach qualities. The world HAS gone to hell in a shopping trolley, and ridiculous and astonishing derailments are the norm. There is a great joke in the Simpsons: a man wakes after being in a coma for 30 years. He asks what happened to Sonny and Cher, the doctor says:“well, Cher won an Oscar and Sonny became a politician” The man prefers a re-lapse. Life now is like that, isn’t it. Did YOU pay $80 to see a play called URINETOWN? or $10 for KILL BILL or even 8 MILE? We are all now in the wrong reels of ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE aren’t we. URINETOWN? Yeesh!