Quarterly Journal Summer 1994 – Page 4-8
by
Kevin Cork
“Despite a fierce storm, 125 people turned up twenty of them with complimentary tickets.” That was Wednesday, 5 June 1946 at the opening of the new Vogue Theatre in Mount Druitt. ‘National Velvet’ was the main feature and it starred Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney.
Twenty one years earlier, the ‘theatre’ opened its doors as the newly built Mount Druitt Advancement Club’s Hall. The foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1925 and the hall was officially opened at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, 8 August 1925 by Mrs E. Ralph, wife of the club’s honorary secretary.
The hall is a substantial brick building with a pitched galvanised iron roof, and set off by a Classical Revival facade. Decorations include Corinthian pillars and balus-traded parapet. The hall is entered from either set of front doors. Behind the stage was a large supper room accessed by doors on either side of the proscenium.
Today the facade of the building remains intact while the addition of a foyer block on the northern side came in the early 1950s. Mount Druitt Hall is situated on the western side of Mount Druitt Road, midway between the Railway and Highway. (Curiously, the hall at Mount Druitt has a virtual twin in Fairfield’s School of Arts in Harris Street.)
When Mr G.H. (Dick) Simpson saw the hall in 1946 he decided that the hall would make an excellent cinema, thus giving him the opportunity that he had dreamed about since boyhood.
As a boy, Dick had letterboxed day-bills for the owners of the Majestic (later Odeon) Theatre in Petersham. From this he joined the ranks of the cleaners at the Majestic, saved up his money and purchased a small electric hand turned projector not much better than a toy.
It was some time before cinema entered his life again. This time it was while he was serving with the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II, when he occasionally operated projectors at various RAAF centres. In 1946, Dick approached the Mount Druitt Advancement Club as a potential tenant for the hall and his application for the showing of motion pictures was accepted.
Back in those days, Dick recalls how there were no street lights and he could see, as he looked from the theatre, lanterns being carried by the potential patrons as they walked along the dark streets towards the Vogue. Riders left their horses hitched to the fence outside, and the sulkies were left in a nearby churchyard. The lanterns, stage during the screening. saddles and many other items were left in front of the stage during the screening.
The new Vogue Theatre was to be a single level venue and Dick installed new theatre seats and new projectors, as well as building a projection box at the rear of the auditorium. The projection box was an innovation at the time; Cameo Theatre, later the Hoyts Town in Pitt Street, Sydney, having one of similar construction. Interested in acoustics, Dick Simpson built the box using perforated three-ply with insulwool behind it. In a rather austere hall, this tended to help the sound.
The original projectionist was Mr Bill Parry, who remained at the Vogue for many years. In its heyday, when children stood in long queues on a Saturday afternoon, the theatre could boast five front-of-house staff and two operators in the projection box. For a small cinema, that was something!
For many years, when a film night fell on New Year’s Eve, a supper dance was held after the films. Sections of the stalls were moved aside to make room for dancing.
Life in those days was not without its dangers. Dick can recall the time when, during the screening of ‘Lassie’, the film broke in the gate of the projector. On opening the projector to free the build-up of film, the nitrate film burst into flames and burnt him on the face and arms.
During the late 1940s, many people came to the Vogue from the Wallgrove ex-army camp nearby which, by then, had been turned into a migrant hostel. Faced with having to turn away many people from already ‘full houses’, Dick sought and received permission from the Department of Labour and National Service in 1950 to establish a theatre in a large YMCA hut at the hostel. The new theatre was called the Tasma, and was licensed to seat 800 people.
Four hundred and fifty seats, a new projection box and new equipment were installed, and the Tasma commenced screenings by late 1950. The films were interchanged during each session with the Vogue. The Tasma lasted only a few years; the seats went to a cinema at Moruya on the south coast and the projectors replaced those at the Vogue.
After twenty two years of running the Vogue, Dick decided to retire. The Vogue was sold in 1968.
In 1977, whilst under the management of Mr Curran, the theatre received a federal government subsidy and it became the Family Cinema which had the unique policy of screening only G rated films.
The policy was not a great success and the cinema was finally taken over by Mr Stuart Ford in 1982, who was to be its last operator. At the end of the May school holidays in 1984 the cinema closed. The Mount Druitt Advancement Club’s Hall has since become a Community Centre under the stewardship of Blacktown City Council.
And what of Dick Simpson? Although he sold the Vogue in 1968, he continued there as a projectionist and was on the
Hall Committee until the late 1970s. Dick was a member of the Bicentennial Committee of Blacktown Council and is currently on council’s Historical Committee. He is a foundation member of the Mount Druitt Historical Society (established 1976) and is a trustee of the Bicentennial Museum at Riverstone.
To complete the story of the cinema at Mount Druitt, mention must be made of the Astro Cinema, another independently operated venture, which is four – theatre complex located at the corner of North Parade and Mount Street. The Astro opened for business on Friday, 15 March 1991, and the first week’s shows included ‘Ghost’, ‘Look Who’s Talking Too’,
‘Edward Scissorhands’, ‘Home Alone’, ‘The Godfather III’, ‘Awakenings’ and ‘Kindergarten Cop’.
Acknowledgments
The editor would like to thank Mr Dick Simpson for the loan of memorabilia and photographs of the Vogue Theatre; also Mr John Lim of the Astro Cinema for kindly answering obscure questions, and Mr Kevin Cork for his enthusiastic approval to print this article.