Hoyts Star Theatre
Bronte Road and Brisbane Street,
Sydney,
NSW
2022
Bronte Road and Brisbane Street,
Sydney,
NSW
2022
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Went there for a few Saturday afternoon kids' matinees a couple of times. Saw ‘Sandokan’, though there were a lot of popcorn fights, etc going on, keeping the poor ushers busy trying to keep order. Saw Sound of Music (under protest), Let it Be and Yellow Submarine there. It was a lovely old place and I was sad even as a kid to see it in decline. Remember going past and seeing posters for shows like The Band’s ‘The Last Waltz’ and you could tell the place was struggling.
Ross Thorne’s book on theatre designer Henry Eli White states the 1927 rebuilt was one of his. Not much left after the next rebuild !
I think the site is now a Super Cheap Auto store, hair salon(Funch Hair), and an apartment complex?
I too worked at the Star as assistant operator,the projectors had been up dated with the usual Kalee 21&B T H lamphouses still on westrex bases,Ithink the slide machine was the one you described,there ws no vent pipe for carbon dust to exit the box,manual feed & jigging knife switches as usual to use second generator.In 1967 when Iwas there it was a 2 session a day house so the operators worked only a 5DAY WEEK.the curtiams fell to bits never repaired so lots of carbons were used on the colour wheel fitted to the slide machine starting 10 mins before slide time. Iwas one night carrying a 5 spool trunk to the box [as the only way into bio was thru the circle and steep at that]as I opened the first door into the box Ilost my grip on the trunk and it rolled end on end to the bottom of the circle,most imbaresing.
A superb and beautiful art moderne gem that ended its days as the “Hoyts Horror House” – screening exclusively films of the horror genre – specifically second run Hammer Studio fare. Surprisingly well maintained right up to closure, but the policy was a dismal failure. However, for the few of us that tried to support this lovely building despite the pathetic policy, the eeriness of being only 10 patrons in a 2,000 plus capacity cinema did add to the horror!
I worked as assistant projectionist at the Star around 1952/53. The Chief was the late Bill Rokes, and the Manager was Alan Antney. Films screened during that period just prior to the introduction of CinemaScope included LIMELIGHT & GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES The projectors were pretty old Simplex rear shutter projectors on Western Electric soundheads. The Western Electric Amplifier used huge valves (as big as incandescent projection lamps)and we totally lost sound one night due to a soldered connection failing. The ad vertising slides were projected by a fully manually operated Biunual dissolving projector, hand feeding the AC carbons at the same time I used to wave to my fiancée from the projection room when she would sit in the Circle! What fun!! Michael Franklin