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The Star Newsreel Theatre opened on 6th February 1951 with 234 seats. It was the fifth newsreel theatre to operate in Melbourne city centre.

Located in the basement of Carlow House, which was designed by architect Harry Norris in 1939, and considered one of Melbourne’s finest Art Deco style buildings. The cinema space was originally used as a coffee house. The newsreel and short subjects/cartoons policy lasted until it was killed off by the introduction of television. The cinema was served by a rear projection system.

It was re-named Star Theatrette from September 1963 when it went over to screening feature films, the first being Betty Page in “Varietease”. For the next 20 years, the staple programme at the Star Theatrette would be exploitation and sexploitation feature films of the “Mondo Cane” genre. By 1974 it had been re-named Star Adult Theatre.

In 1985, it was re-named Crazy horse XXX Adult Cinema Theatre, playing hardcore adult movies, with live performances as an added feature.

The seating capacity has now been reduced to 100, as private booths have taken some space in the original auditorium. It was closed for a while in around 2008, following fire damage, but it has since re-opened. It was closed in November 2022 - Notes by Ken Roe

Contributed by Greg Lynch -