A large picture of the Adelaide Regent will be found in the collection of my own Australian theatre photographs that I have posted on ‘Cinema Treasures’, by first clicking on my logo at upper right and then the thumbnail on page 13. It was a true ‘picture palace’ with gold leaf accents and glittering chandeliers, to say nothing of a 3/15 Wurlitzer, but with a restrained taste in decoration which I feel was often lacking in its American counterparts.
As one of the projectionists at the Dendy who had to climb the stairs carrying trunks of film, I can assure ‘Lost Memory’ that the original theatre had a large Lounge/Dress circle balcony with a spacious associated foyer and certainly was not a single floor theatre.
The Town Hall has not been used for cinema exhibition for very many years, but it is now in use for many entertainments which require a large audience and commodious stage, plus a flat floor for dancing. It has permanent theatre seating in the large balcony. There is also a sizeable hall on the ground floor. The Parade is a very sophisticated restaurant and shopping strip comparable with any that I have seen in the U.S.A., the U.K. or Europe.
The SAVOY had a most spectacular neon display on the facade, with the world rotating at the top and skyrockets shooting up and exploding into myriad coloured stars. The STURT was a modernisation of the former MAYFAIR, which opened as the GRAND with a silent era piano-console Wurlitzer played by Adelaide’s famous Horace Weber, a former St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral organist who was brilliant on the pedal clavier. His subsequent career was mostly in Melbourne, where he opened and closed the 3/15 Wurlitzer in the famous CAPITOL, re-opening it in the DENDY, Brighton.
A large picture of the Adelaide Regent will be found in the collection of my own Australian theatre photographs that I have posted on ‘Cinema Treasures’, by first clicking on my logo at upper right and then the thumbnail on page 13. It was a true ‘picture palace’ with gold leaf accents and glittering chandeliers, to say nothing of a 3/15 Wurlitzer, but with a restrained taste in decoration which I feel was often lacking in its American counterparts.
As one of the projectionists at the Dendy who had to climb the stairs carrying trunks of film, I can assure ‘Lost Memory’ that the original theatre had a large Lounge/Dress circle balcony with a spacious associated foyer and certainly was not a single floor theatre.
The Town Hall has not been used for cinema exhibition for very many years, but it is now in use for many entertainments which require a large audience and commodious stage, plus a flat floor for dancing. It has permanent theatre seating in the large balcony. There is also a sizeable hall on the ground floor. The Parade is a very sophisticated restaurant and shopping strip comparable with any that I have seen in the U.S.A., the U.K. or Europe.
The SAVOY had a most spectacular neon display on the facade, with the world rotating at the top and skyrockets shooting up and exploding into myriad coloured stars. The STURT was a modernisation of the former MAYFAIR, which opened as the GRAND with a silent era piano-console Wurlitzer played by Adelaide’s famous Horace Weber, a former St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral organist who was brilliant on the pedal clavier. His subsequent career was mostly in Melbourne, where he opened and closed the 3/15 Wurlitzer in the famous CAPITOL, re-opening it in the DENDY, Brighton.