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Castle Hill Theatre Windsor Road and Old Northern Road, Sydney, NSW

Photo - Susan Kentwell

The Castle Hill theatre is playing the Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter and shot in VistaVision, while production, direction, and narration is by Cecil B. DeMille. The year must be approx 1957.

Castle Hill is a sprawling residential suburb about 20 miles northwest of Sydney. Its the governmental center for the Hill Shire in a area known as the Greater Western Sydney region.

Before the sprawl it was mostly farms and orchards. Socially it was conservative - no pubs allowed and nowhere to dance until Anzac Hall opened in 1935. Films were shown on Saturdays until a theatre was built in 1938.

The Castle Hill Theatre sported a trim Art Moderne style and was situated right at the centre of town. Old timers recall the owners being members of the Pegler family who were active in local government.

This little independent theatre operated until 1967 when central Castle Hill was turning into a group of strip malls.

Just to the north is the enormous Castle Towers Mall, currently being expanded with two Event Cinemas multiplexes, one of which incorporates a bar - Notes by John Gleeson

Contributed by Greg Lynch -