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Skyline Drive-In Oceanic Drive and Bold Park Drive, Perth, WA - 1955

OPENING NIGHT – The Skyline Drive-In Theatre, Floreat Park opened November 17 1955, less than one month after The Highway Drive-in, Bentley. The Skyline was built in a beautiful setting, nestling amongst the native bush land of Bold Park. The photo shows the opening night, and is supplied courtesy of “The Roy Mudge Collection”.

The inaugural movie was the CinemaScope production “The Broken Lance” and it’s a bit sobering to note that most of the cast has gone to God, except for Robert Wagner, who continues to grace our TV screens – Here is the back ground information leading up to the opening night, as published in The West Australian Newspaper ( Fri 24 Dec 1954 ) – Quote – Plans for an £85,000 drive-in theatre to serve the Floreat Park-City Beach area are being prepared by Messrs. A. C. Leith, Bartlet and Partners, of Melbourne, to be built on 15 acres west of subdivided land between, The Boulevard and Oceanic-drive. The theatre will take 200 cars and will have areas set aside for a children’s playground, barbecues and other garden features. It is expected that plans will be completed early in January, and that work will begin by the end of the month.

The theatre will be controlled by Skyline Theatres (W.A.) Pty. Ltd. and operated by Hoyts (Fremantle) Ltd. The Leith group has built, and is operating one drive-in theatre in Victoria (The Burwood Drive In) and has two others under construction … Comment : It’s interesting that the initial proposal was for a Drive-In theatre with a modest capacity of 200 cars. Yet the finished theatre was initially able to accommodate 753 cars …

Contributed by Greg Lynch, with special thanks to Roy Mudge for the use of his opening night photo –