Athenaeum Theatre

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Athenaeum Theatre 188 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC

Notes by - Harold Aspinall, projectionist at the Hoyts Athenaeum Theatre, 1957 - On 2 February 1929 the Athenaeum introduced Melbourne to the ‘talkies’ with the first screenings of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. For the next forty years the Athenaeum Theatre was a cinema. In 1932 Frank Talbot announced that it would be ‘the first all-British theatre in the Empire’. The policy was maintained, with an occasional exception, until the mid-1960s.

Among the theatre’s more notable British films were Pygmalion (which notched up a 25-week run), The Way Ahead, This Happy Breed, Henry V, Blithe Spirit, The Way to the Stars, Brief Encounter and Odd Man Out. To add to the elegant ambiance, patrons enjoyed musical interludes from Cecil Parkes and his Strad Trio, and afternoon teas were served in the stalls. On 11 June 1948 Olivier’s Hamlet had its Australian premiere with Sir Laurence and his wife, Vivien Leigh, in the audience.

During the 1960s long runs became common: The Nun’s Story (17 weeks), The Sundowners (29 weeks), The Longest Day (38 weeks), Hawaii (41 weeks), In the Heat of the Night (28 weeks) and Bedazzled (23 weeks). The Athenaeum Theatre also screened the first of the Pink Panther movies, the Beatles' films A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, and made a hit with Zorba the Greek, which had failed to attract audiences during its first city run.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -