Comments from Ross Simpson

The last single screen cinema built in Melbourne. pioneer of the Late Shows sessions in Melbourne. 1970s best remembered for the 2001:A space odyssey. 1980s moved from circuit to independent ownership. World record-breaking box office seasons of operas such as La Traviata, Carmen, The Pirates of Penzance. 1990s moved to continental/european and Eastern interest film mix in competition with several Melbourne cinemas offering similar genre saw seasons of Cyrano de Bergerac, Romuald et Juliette, My Father’s Glory/My Mother’s Castle, the Music Teacher, Raise the Red Lantern, The Last Emperor. Thrown in mix were popular new releases Crocodile Dundee, Indiana Jones series, Batman and Jurassic Park. Pioneer of the Ladies' Luncheon raising funds for charities monthly for 20 years. Helped many thousands of Melbournians experience the magic of cinema on the big screen for over 30years before it shut down

Briefly called the Village Theatre Ararat in 1976-?.

Village Theatre Toorak was managed for many years by a Mr.Graham S. Slobom, and operated by Victoria Theatre Pty Ltd (who also operated the Broadway Theatre in Elwood and Victoria Theatre in Richmond) at the time it was acquired by the newly formed Consolidated Theatres in August 1950. Mr. Slobom, then became managing director of the Consolidated Theatres chain.

Melbourne’s Herald newspaper reported (6 March 1935) that the Village Theatre was expected would cost £25,000, and was being completed for an independent syndicate of Melbourne & Adelaide people.

source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244973607#

From the Hoyts advertising above, it would appear this theatre was still open in 1990.

Originally operating as a cinema, Snowden’s Picture Theatre was located at 5 Aikman Street (adjacent the Alexandra Mansions) and was designed by architect A. Phipps Coles (1873-1940). Plans of the ground and first floor bearing his name and dated 20 July 1912 are in the state archive (State Library of Victoria). Snowden’s was operated from opening in later 1912 until March 1913 by Walter Hoadley (son of Abel Hoadley, whose well known jams and preserves factory was nearby) and later operated by Charles Barrett until 1915. It apparently briefly was also renamed the Picadilly in late 1915 (on 6 September 1915, the Argus newspaper reports it still named as Snowden’s Picture Theatre however). After a renovation it reopened on 10 June 1916, but as a live theatre known as the Play-House/Playhouse Theatre- its initial season was George Bernard Shaw’s “Man and Superman”(as reported in The Triad in August 1916), then The Lone Hand. The resident company in the 1920s there were the Pioneer Players, and one of their junior actors was Roy Grounds, who later designed the National Gallery of Victoria and Arts Centre Melbourne, which also features a Playhouse Theatre, perhaps named as a nod to his old venue. The Playhouse name remained until 1932. In September 1928, architect Albion H Walkley (1882-1968) had drafted plans for the proposed alterations to the theatre, including a new “cantilevered awning/verandah attached to a terracotta facade” (source: Trove) and after the redesign was completed it reopened as the Garrick Theatre in 1932. The Garrick continue on the site until it was sold for £17,500 in 1937 (source:The Argus, 28 May 1937). State records incorrectly indicate that the theatre was then demolished in 1937, however archived photos of the site feature automobiles that weren’t built at that time, and therefore does not support the date. The building is believed to have become the corporate office of the Australian Glass Manufacturers and actually demolished in the late 1960s to make way for office buildings.

The Garrick Theatre (final name) building as it looked in 1958 as Australian Glass Manufacturers Head Office is available now to view at https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab89682

Located at the triangle where Peel & Albert Streets met, The Hoyts Windsor was adjacent to Windsor train station and Chapel Street shopping precinct. In the 1990s it was operating as a video store in the enormous stalls of the auditorium with racks fanned out from the doors to the stage, the cashier was located in the lobby/foyer. Demolished to make way for a boring apartment block, despite many objections.

A clearer shot of this view taken in 2010, can be found at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q37176112#/media/File:Regent_Theatre,Christchurch,2010.jpg

It was operated by Village Cinemas for only a few short years until the early 1980s, then independently owned and operated until the mid 1990s when it joined the Palace Cinemas chain. In the late 1980s, a feasibility study was conducted to ascertain whether Trak could expand to a second screen in the adjacent Silvers Nightclub site which was located in sublevel 1 behind the existing bio box and would have allowed for the sharing of same, but this didn’t proceed due to cost and engineering concerns. As nearby multiplex theatres Como cinemas & Village Jam Factory opened, competition became incredibly tough for Trak. However, Trak’s unique mix of art house genre film, Hitchcock festivals, Rogers & Hammerstein, opera on screen, ladies' day curated movie lunches and possibly the world’s longest run of the Kevin Kline/Linda Ronstadt “Pirates of Penzance” movie, interspersed with the occasional commercial runs, such as “Jurassic Park”, gave it an edge for some years. Its enormous screen allowed for impressive presentation of large format product, notably re-runs of “2001:A Space Odyssey” in 70mm and latterly Warren Miller’s ski films that were presented there annually. Trak’s small stage atop a ramp, ahead of the screen allowed the cinema to repurpose from time to time as a conference venue, and clients such as Nicholas and Sandoz would present regular pharmaceutical launches there.

The interior design of the theatre was modern, in line with the era in which it was built. Orange plastic vertical wall sconces were interspersed on the soft beech-coloured wooden walls and lit the auditorium between sessions. Low backed, black vinyl seats featured in two sections (seating was stepped, however a low wall divided the back section from the rest of the theatre, adjacent to where the entry tunnels emerged into the auditorium). When the screen was not in use, it was covered by a shimmering silver-coloured sequin curtain. The foyer’s colour scheme was initially vibrant Village Cinemas' red and black with thick timber panels used on the stairway as a handrail. When the shopping arcade above modernised, a circular stairway was erected on a steel pole in the Trak’s foyer atrium (which only extended from Silver’s level -1 to level 1, not down to the cinema). At this time all of the handrails in the centre including the cinema’s were replaced with glass facias and aluminium tubing railing, re-modernising the foyer’s appearance. New carpets were laid on the stairs at that time and the foyer was repainted soft pink throughout.

The foyer had two enormous glass display cases which formed the southern wall of the foyer with the auditorium entry doors in the middle. The cases were used to display posters of upcoming movies and also housed a historic projector and movie reels with a spool of film spilling from them as a display piece.

The foyer in the early 1980s sometimes featured live performance by a small string orchestra, but usually music was piped from the bio box instead. A small cafe operated at the eastern end of the foyer selling cheesecake and brewed coffee (iced coffee in summer) before sessions. This was in addition to the candy bar located at the western end of the foyer offering the standard cinema fair of popcorn, choctops (ice cream) and confectionery.

The cinema screen sat immediately under Toorak Road, and at quiet moments of a movie often a tram could be heard trundling overhead on their steel rails. Being under Toorak Road had a further hazard: Whenever there was a severe downpour and storm water drains and pipes filled to capacity, water would come tumbling from the ceiling and flood the auditorium (mostly after hours), leading to the carpets being replaced many times over the years.

another shot can be seen in the distance at https://wellington.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/2636?fbclid=IwAR1rkwIpfZUsaRAjztyL2fNL7zCO316UnIj8GcegrePAzFT9M5AbRS9wBd0