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Mecca Theatre 14-16 Ormonde Parade, Sydney, NSW - Previously known as The Savoy

I Grew Up in Mortdale 2223, WRITES - On This Day 4 August 1937, on a cold winters night the red carpet was rolled out for grand opening of Sydney’s most ‘glitzy and glamorous’ Savoy Theatre. The large spacious Art Deco designed Savoy opened at 14-16 Ormonde Pde, Hurstville with a capacity to seat an audience of 1,854 people.

The Savoy was the most popular movie house in the area with its silver-screen Hollywood elegance and a massive artistic improvement over the theatres that had entertained Sydney’s south in the years prior… It featured a 2Manual/10Ranks Wurlitzer pipe organ which raised up from the pit to stage level and then the organ would slowly rotate.

The organ had previously been installed in the Kings Cross Theatre, Sydney. Knight Barnett was the organist who played on the opening night, other organists who played this organ were Paul Cullen, Barrie Brettoner. The Savoy Theatre had a fully fitted stage and flytower. Although only small, the stage was big enough for the few novelty acts that played there during the war years.

Savoy was taken over by the Hoyts Theatres chain in March 1944. The Wurlitzer pipe organ was removed in 1958 and restored in the Burwood Congregational Church. .

Savoy Theatre was closed by Hoyts on 4th November 1972 and left derelict for number of years until Mecca Theatres purchased and refurbished the tired looking 37 year-old Savoy building, giving it a second chance of life!!

The old Savoy was re-opened on the 23rd March 1975. The name was changed to Mecca-Savoy Theatre, but it eventually became known as just Mecca Theatre (most of the old regulars still relating to it as the Savoy). A theatre organ was re-instated - a large top of the range Allen organ was used from the 1980’s onwards.

The theatre was closed for a second time in 1990, but unfortunately all hope Hurstville’s iconic movie house having a third chance of life was lost when the property was sold to developers. The complex was subsequently gutted and, stripped of its fittings before being demolished in 1994.

Nothing remains of the old theatre today, other then found memories. Replaced by a eight storey Meriton complex comprising of 80 apartments and 5 commercial shops along Ormonde Pde.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -