“Opening Petersham Odeon, 15 February 1947, by Sam Hood”. New Canterbury Road.
Photo courtesy of The SLNSW.
Found on: https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/6752039005
The Sombrero Playhouse, founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1949, was for many years a popular venue for touring productions featuring prominent performers, including a number of Hollywood luminaries.
Founded by artistic director Richard Charlton and actress Ann Lee Harris, the Sombrero became during its heyday perhaps the major performing arts center between Dallas and Los Angeles, attracting celebrity players such as Groucho Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Bob Cummings, Celeste Holm, Shelley Winters, Margaret O’Brien, ZaSu Pitts, Pat O’Brien, Walter Pidgeon, John Raitt and others.
These actors usually toured in established works, but new plays were occasionally tried out at the Sombrero, such as William Inge’s Natural Affection, which premiered in Phoenix in 1962, a year prior to its Broadway run.
The cinema opened as the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1923. In 1937 the cinema was renamed the Sun, after the Prince of Wales it had been named for, who on 20 January 1936 had inherited the throne as King Edward VIII, become involved with an American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and abdicated the Crown to marry her. (Source: Rachel Fallowfield, ‘Artarmon’ (2008), in The Dictionary of Sydney [online].)
A December 1953 photo with the theatre running “Mogambo.” It’s on the Open SF History Project website from the Emiliano Echeverria collection. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for doing some work on the image. It’s a new addition to the Nob Hill page on the San Francisco Theatres site:
https://sanfranciscotheatres.blogspot.com/2018/07/nob-hill-theatre-1.html
The photo on the Open SF History Project site: http://opensfhistory.org/Display/wnp32.2249.jpg
Saw Fantasia there as well as the 1961 version of Disney’s 101 Dalmations. In 1975 I saw Eve Arden, her husband Brooks West and Judi Connelli in the stage musical Applause.
The Odeon Eastwood, at 160 Rowe Street, Eastwood screened its last film on January 11, 1973 and was demolished to make way for the Eastwood Shopping Centre.
I remember seeing the John Wayne film Hatari at Gordon in 1963. The cinema closed on Saturday, 12 October 1963 with the films Nine Hours to Rama and The Lion. One of the photos shown on the ‘Photos’ page for this cinema shows those two films being advertised on the large rooftop advertising sign that was erected around the time CinemaScope was installed. That means the photo was taken in October 1963.
The Gordon Theatre was built on the site of a former timber and fibro structure, Empire Pictures, that operated from 1919 until 1923. Alfred Blackmore was a director of Gordon Theatres Limited and his wife cut a ribbon joining the stage curtains at the opening ceremony on 24 April, 1924. The building provided seating for 1,362 and was used for various forms of live entertainment as well as films. By 1928 poor patronage forced a sale to Percival Garling (a later founder of Butler Air Transport) and the theatre was managed by his son Rus Garling. The management acquired a Christie theatre organ at a cost of £7,800. The organ had originally been ordered for the Lyceum theatre, Sydney, but there had been a delay in its installation. The rear wall of the theatre was removed and two chambers, 2m deep, were added at about 2m above stage level. The console was located directly in front of the stage, on a platform at floor level in the centre of the sunken orchestra pit. In 1934 the theatre was leased to the Kings chain of suburban cinemas, and new Art Deco adornment of the auditorium was undertaken. It was a condition of the lease that there be a weekly organ performance of at least 25 minutes. In February 1944 the theatre’s lease was transferred to Austral American Productions although the Kings name remained. By 1948 ownership passed from the Garlings to Oscar Shaft and in 1956 to M R A Pacey. By 1956 the organ had remained silent for some years. A new wide screen in front of the original proscenium, covering the former orchestra pit and Christie console, was installed in 1956 to cater for CinemaScope. The film, The Swan, was the first to be shown in CinemaScope at the Gordon Kings on 6 and 7 July 1956. The organ, which had been brought out and revived for about six months from July 1955, had badly deteriorated and in 1958 was sold to St Columbs Anglican Church, West Ryde. (Source: Rod Blackmore’s Australasian Theatre Organs, New South Wales section [online].)
In 1938 there was an extensive remodelling of the theatre. The ceiling and walls were relined with decorative, moulded fibrous plaster and the mezzanine was extended forward to enlarge seating capacity. The grilles over the side walls' ventilation openings were said to be like spinning catherine wheels with illuminated centres. Three vertical troughs of coloured light were set in the side walls and continued across the ceiling in front of the proscenium. The indirectly lit ceiling centre stretched from the rear of the top gallery and finished in a semi-circle in which there was a smaller circle of plaster finished with a glass and chrome surface light. Over 2000 feet of neon tubing was reported to have been used in the auditorium. The ceiling was lowered and the vestibules and foyers were redesigned, enlarged and extensively remodelled in the latest ‘modernistic’ style (including horizontal ‘speed’ lines spaced along the textured walls. The facade was also modernised. Although largely Art Deco in design post-remodelling, there were also strong Expressionist motifs (eg the indirectly lit central section of the ceiling, the horizontal banding leading the eye to the stage, and the semi-circular corner facade and curved parapet enhanced by the use of vertical lines). (Source: R Thorne & K Cork, For All the Kings Men: The Kings Theatres of Sydney, NSW (Campbelltown NSW: Australian Theatre Historical Society Inc, 1994), p75.)
In 2003 the skating rink closed after part of the ceiling plasterwork fell down. Between 2011-2012 the former cinema was converted into 27 apartments. In July 2015 Tim and Cheryl Reen opened the Majestic Harvest restaurant and market place in the downstairs section of the old theatre. In 2016 the Harvest Bar opened upstairs above the restaurant and market.
In the early 1940s the congregation of the Drummoyne Baptist Church began to grow under the pastorate of the Rev Harold G Hercus. Hercus and the deacons decided to move over to the Astra Theatre for the evening services in an endeavour to reach more people. The theatre manager helped with the screening of the words of the hymns and all the musical part of the service was supervised and run by Hercus’s son John, while another son, Victor, played the theatre organ which had an illuminated console surround.
The Lindfield Theatre was built by Harold Hosking of Newcastle Steel Works. Ownership of the theatre changed hands many times over the years and passed to the Kings Theatre Circuit in 1938. At that time the theatre became known as Kings Theatre. The theatre was purchased by A. Beszant in 1947 and was renovated in 1953. When I was a kid, growing up on Sydney’s Upper North Shore in the 1960s, I saw many films at the Lindfield Kings including the Australian film They Found a Cave, McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force, and Ride the Wide Surf (with Fabian, Tab Hunter and Australia’s Murray Rose).
The Odeon opened in 1914 as Hornsby Cinema with the foyer on street level. The cinema was rebuilt in 1921 and again in the 1930s when art deco was at the forefront of building design. The cinema retains its facade on Hornsby’s ‘old side’ and was named The Odeon in the mid-90s.
Photo credit: John Ward Collection. 1962.
Photo taken in 1977.
“Opening Petersham Odeon, 15 February 1947, by Sam Hood”. New Canterbury Road. Photo courtesy of The SLNSW. Found on: https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/6752039005
Date of photo: 1924.
Circa 1957.
Photo of building with the large globe on top circa 1922.
This photo shows the Hub Theatre being used temporarily for the purpose of an old wares market.
The Astra Theatre was originally the Prince of Wales Theatre and owned by the Akhurst family.
The Sombrero Playhouse, founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1949, was for many years a popular venue for touring productions featuring prominent performers, including a number of Hollywood luminaries.
Founded by artistic director Richard Charlton and actress Ann Lee Harris, the Sombrero became during its heyday perhaps the major performing arts center between Dallas and Los Angeles, attracting celebrity players such as Groucho Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Bob Cummings, Celeste Holm, Shelley Winters, Margaret O’Brien, ZaSu Pitts, Pat O’Brien, Walter Pidgeon, John Raitt and others.
These actors usually toured in established works, but new plays were occasionally tried out at the Sombrero, such as William Inge’s Natural Affection, which premiered in Phoenix in 1962, a year prior to its Broadway run.
The cinema opened as the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1923. In 1937 the cinema was renamed the Sun, after the Prince of Wales it had been named for, who on 20 January 1936 had inherited the throne as King Edward VIII, become involved with an American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and abdicated the Crown to marry her. (Source: Rachel Fallowfield, ‘Artarmon’ (2008), in The Dictionary of Sydney [online].)
A December 1953 photo with the theatre running “Mogambo.” It’s on the Open SF History Project website from the Emiliano Echeverria collection. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for doing some work on the image. It’s a new addition to the Nob Hill page on the San Francisco Theatres site: https://sanfranciscotheatres.blogspot.com/2018/07/nob-hill-theatre-1.html
The photo on the Open SF History Project site: http://opensfhistory.org/Display/wnp32.2249.jpg
Saw Fantasia there as well as the 1961 version of Disney’s 101 Dalmations. In 1975 I saw Eve Arden, her husband Brooks West and Judi Connelli in the stage musical Applause.
The Odeon Eastwood, at 160 Rowe Street, Eastwood screened its last film on January 11, 1973 and was demolished to make way for the Eastwood Shopping Centre.
This was after the period in which the building was used as a dinner theatre. So, the photo was more likely taken in the 1980s.
I remember seeing the John Wayne film Hatari at Gordon in 1963. The cinema closed on Saturday, 12 October 1963 with the films Nine Hours to Rama and The Lion. One of the photos shown on the ‘Photos’ page for this cinema shows those two films being advertised on the large rooftop advertising sign that was erected around the time CinemaScope was installed. That means the photo was taken in October 1963.
The Gordon Theatre was built on the site of a former timber and fibro structure, Empire Pictures, that operated from 1919 until 1923. Alfred Blackmore was a director of Gordon Theatres Limited and his wife cut a ribbon joining the stage curtains at the opening ceremony on 24 April, 1924. The building provided seating for 1,362 and was used for various forms of live entertainment as well as films. By 1928 poor patronage forced a sale to Percival Garling (a later founder of Butler Air Transport) and the theatre was managed by his son Rus Garling. The management acquired a Christie theatre organ at a cost of £7,800. The organ had originally been ordered for the Lyceum theatre, Sydney, but there had been a delay in its installation. The rear wall of the theatre was removed and two chambers, 2m deep, were added at about 2m above stage level. The console was located directly in front of the stage, on a platform at floor level in the centre of the sunken orchestra pit. In 1934 the theatre was leased to the Kings chain of suburban cinemas, and new Art Deco adornment of the auditorium was undertaken. It was a condition of the lease that there be a weekly organ performance of at least 25 minutes. In February 1944 the theatre’s lease was transferred to Austral American Productions although the Kings name remained. By 1948 ownership passed from the Garlings to Oscar Shaft and in 1956 to M R A Pacey. By 1956 the organ had remained silent for some years. A new wide screen in front of the original proscenium, covering the former orchestra pit and Christie console, was installed in 1956 to cater for CinemaScope. The film, The Swan, was the first to be shown in CinemaScope at the Gordon Kings on 6 and 7 July 1956. The organ, which had been brought out and revived for about six months from July 1955, had badly deteriorated and in 1958 was sold to St Columbs Anglican Church, West Ryde. (Source: Rod Blackmore’s Australasian Theatre Organs, New South Wales section [online].)
In 1938 there was an extensive remodelling of the theatre. The ceiling and walls were relined with decorative, moulded fibrous plaster and the mezzanine was extended forward to enlarge seating capacity. The grilles over the side walls' ventilation openings were said to be like spinning catherine wheels with illuminated centres. Three vertical troughs of coloured light were set in the side walls and continued across the ceiling in front of the proscenium. The indirectly lit ceiling centre stretched from the rear of the top gallery and finished in a semi-circle in which there was a smaller circle of plaster finished with a glass and chrome surface light. Over 2000 feet of neon tubing was reported to have been used in the auditorium. The ceiling was lowered and the vestibules and foyers were redesigned, enlarged and extensively remodelled in the latest ‘modernistic’ style (including horizontal ‘speed’ lines spaced along the textured walls. The facade was also modernised. Although largely Art Deco in design post-remodelling, there were also strong Expressionist motifs (eg the indirectly lit central section of the ceiling, the horizontal banding leading the eye to the stage, and the semi-circular corner facade and curved parapet enhanced by the use of vertical lines). (Source: R Thorne & K Cork, For All the Kings Men: The Kings Theatres of Sydney, NSW (Campbelltown NSW: Australian Theatre Historical Society Inc, 1994), p75.)
In 2003 the skating rink closed after part of the ceiling plasterwork fell down. Between 2011-2012 the former cinema was converted into 27 apartments. In July 2015 Tim and Cheryl Reen opened the Majestic Harvest restaurant and market place in the downstairs section of the old theatre. In 2016 the Harvest Bar opened upstairs above the restaurant and market.
In the early 1940s the congregation of the Drummoyne Baptist Church began to grow under the pastorate of the Rev Harold G Hercus. Hercus and the deacons decided to move over to the Astra Theatre for the evening services in an endeavour to reach more people. The theatre manager helped with the screening of the words of the hymns and all the musical part of the service was supervised and run by Hercus’s son John, while another son, Victor, played the theatre organ which had an illuminated console surround.
The Lindfield Theatre was built by Harold Hosking of Newcastle Steel Works. Ownership of the theatre changed hands many times over the years and passed to the Kings Theatre Circuit in 1938. At that time the theatre became known as Kings Theatre. The theatre was purchased by A. Beszant in 1947 and was renovated in 1953. When I was a kid, growing up on Sydney’s Upper North Shore in the 1960s, I saw many films at the Lindfield Kings including the Australian film They Found a Cave, McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force, and Ride the Wide Surf (with Fabian, Tab Hunter and Australia’s Murray Rose).
The Odeon claims to be the only single-screen cinema left in Sydney.
The Odeon opened in 1914 as Hornsby Cinema with the foyer on street level. The cinema was rebuilt in 1921 and again in the 1930s when art deco was at the forefront of building design. The cinema retains its facade on Hornsby’s ‘old side’ and was named The Odeon in the mid-90s.