Hoyts Esquire Theatre

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Hoyts Esquire Theatre 238 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC – (Milling to purchase tickets 1953) Previously known as Hoyts De Luxe Theatre

Photo: State Library of Victoria

Description : Crowd consisting of women and small children waiting in a queue on the footpath to enter the Esquire Theatre, Bourke Street, Melbourne ca. 1953

Hoyts De Luxe Theatre was built on the site of the St. George’s Hall which had become Hoyts Picture Theatre in 1912. The Hoyts De Luxe Theatre opened on 27th March 1915 and only showed films, and like many other Melbourne Cinemas had a Wurlitzer organ.

The theatre was re-named Hoyts Esquire Theatre from 1946. The cinema’s policy was changed in 1957 with the movie, “Around the World in 80 Days”, and among the other classic films screened were “South Pacific”, “Can Can”, “West Side Story”, “Tom Jones”, “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” and “The Graduate”. It closed on 31st March 1976 and the interior was gutted with the façade covered over – Contributed by Greg Lynch –