St. James Theatre

Photo Info

Uploaded on: October 31, 2026

Size: 342.4 KB

Views: 11

License:

The St James was closed from Saturday 30 April 1960 for renovations, including the installation of new floor to ceiling lemon colored drapes which covered the entire proscenium area and side boxes. It appears that three Simplex E7 projectors were replaced by Century machines with four track magnetic sound capability at this time. On Thursday 5 May Charlton Heston (1923-2008) himself attended the charity Australian Premiere of “Ben-Hur”. The film had been photographed in the extremely wide MGM Camera 65 (Ultra Panavision 70) system with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio. It was presented here using an odd format 35mm CinemaScope mag print involving thick frame lines which gave an aspect ratio of 2.55:1 instead of the then normal 2.35:1 Scope shape. I believe a special screen was dropped in front of the conventional one for this and later ‘roadshow’ presentations. “Ben-Hur” ran exclusively at the St James for a record 61 weeks.