Mel Williams, Visitor Services
In Melbourne there is a cinema called the Sun Theatre. A small facility in the quaint inner-western suburb of Yarraville, it is nothing like the mega movie complexes that most of us associate with cinemas today. Walking into the Sun Theatre is like stepping back in time. It has eight cinemas ranging from “La Scala” which seats just 23 people on cosy leather lounge chairs up to the “Barkly”, an old-fashioned cinema which seats nearly 200. Every detail on every wall, every ceiling and every floor makes it feel like it is 1938 when the theatre first opened. I loved that ability to experience the past and the juxtaposition of being surrounded by history while watching the latest blockbuster. I wonder if having this recent memory is what made me connect so emotionally to a photograph I found here at the Whangārei Museum.
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The photo was donated to the museum as part of the Arthur Almond Collection by Mr L Wilkinson and is of West’s Lyceum Pictures in Cameron Street, Whangārei. This was the city’s first dedicated cinema, built in 1911 and open to the public in January 1912. Handwritten on the back of the photo is “Now the Odeon. Mr Thomas Sly, father of Mrs Mason, also collected tickets there under ownership of a Mrs Martha Mason”.
The Lyceum was one of our earliest cinemas, built just one year after New Zealand’s first facility, “The Kings”, which was built in Wellington in 1910. Prior to this, moving images were presented on screens in theatres but these dedicated facilities meant more movies could be shown more often and they quickly became a popular destination for a night out.
Outside the doors of West’s Lyceum Pictures in the photo are two movie signs. The larger one advertises “The Power of Love” which was a short film released in November 1911. The other is for “The Handicap”, a short film about horseracing. Inside the cinema was a lower floor which seated 600 people and a second-floor dress circle with seating for an additional 160.
Some people may remember that for the first 18 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, New Zealand movie-goers would stand at the beginning of each movie while “God Save the Queen” played through the sound system. This accompanied colour video of the Queen on screen, on horseback at the annual trooping of the colours. One screening during this time made history by not playing the national anthem, although it was not intentional. A projectionist in the South Island merely mixed up his soundtracks, which resulted in the video of Her Majesty reviewing the troops to the music of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”.
I decided to look around the museum for more entertainmant memorabilia and I was not disappointed. The first thing I found was a film reel from The Queen’s Theatre, later named the Britannia Theatre, where films were shown in 1914.
Also on display is a ticket reservation box. This was used at the Regent Theatre as a way of selling tickets. The wooden box has grooves in it and tickets can be seen poking out. If patrons wanted to attend a show they would simply take a ticket from the box. It was a “first in - first served” system that was so simple yet brutal at the same time. There was no arguing the point... if the box was empty, then the seats were full.
There is one thing that has long been synonymous with the movie-going experience however, something that has triggered memories of darkened cinemas for generations. Buttery, salty popcorn in a cardboard box. The smell alone takes my mind back to the Sun Theatre every time.
