Picture Palace Architecture in Australia

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Book Description:

Australasian cinemas of the 1920s and 1930s provide some of the richest examples of ornate popular architecture in the western world. In the U.S., Roxy Rothapfel and others converted vaudeville houses to luxurious flamboyant cinemas where the masses escaped from the humdrum workaday world. Australian movie entrepreneurs such as Hoyts and J. C. Williamsons, who wished to attract people by the thousands to their theatres, were captivated by the elaborate cinemas of the U.S. Soon people in Australia's capital cities were flocking to see amazing movie spectacles with all their visual paraphernalia in unbelievably luxurious surroundings. The Sydney State, the great escapist cinema, became the symbol of the era of the picture palace. Its coffered-ceilinged auditorium was lavish with coarse plaster, period ornamentation, drapes and chandeliers. There was a gallery of original Australian paintings and an elaborate butterfly room for the ladies. This was the era of heel clicking. Saluting pageboys, doormen, ushers, and usherettes gave expensive service without apparent payment. This book by Ross Thorne, Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney, looks at the development of architectural design and interior decoration of Australasian picture palaces.